When I first learned how to cook, I had a severe fear of making something that would taste like soap. Not that it would taste bad, or that I would overcook or undercook it… it was a very specific fear that every food I made, from lasagna to tiramisu to salad dressing, would taste like soap.
I got over it eventually, but I still get this creeping feeling when I’m cooking for a large group of people that whatever it is I’m making will end up being inedible.
(This is why I don’t have a problem when tasty things end up looking a little odd… like this quiche that was removed from its tin a bit too soon and subsequently collapsed all over the serving dish.)
My fear of making inedible food is made even worse considering the fact that I don’t really have any fall-back dishes. I have one salmon dish that I do pretty well, a decent chili recipe and the Marlboro Man Sandwich, but really, half the fun of cooking for someone is finding out what their individual tastes are and then working a new recipe around them. I know, I know… huge mistake. You’re never supposed to make a new recipe for a crowd, but I somehow always manage to do so.
This means that when I recently became responsible for dinner here in Paziols, I was at a bit of a loss. I knew that I would be making quiche, to get rid of some lardons we had hanging around the house, but other than that, I had no idea what to do.
I found a simple recipe for quiche Lorraine online to get some basics down, and from there, I improvised… slightly scary when the end result was meant to feed more than twenty people, but I’m starting to get used to it.
I began by cooking the lardons with some diced rosette (similar to salami) and saucisson sec (a cured pork sausage). The mix was more because we had run out of lardons than anything else, but in the end, the different flavors went over well.
Traditional quiche Lorraine does not have onions or veggies in it, but I decided to throw some leeks into the mix, which I cooked in some of the reserved fat from the pork. I placed the mixture in prepared pâte brisée shells (gotta love France), and added a mixture of milk, crème fraîche, eggs, pepper and nutmeg. I baked them, and then when they were almost cooked, I topped them with shredded Emmental cheese and allowed it to melt.
This step is not traditional either, but I like a quiche with a crispy cheese topping, and no one seemed to mind my de-traditionalizing of the French classic. (People also don’t seem to mind my purposeful butchering of the English language when I can’t find a vocabulary word that suits what I want to say. And if you do mind… well… I don’t care. I was a linguistics major, so what I say goes.)
We also have two special orders in the house: three people who don’t eat pork, and one lactose intolerant. For Miss Doesn’t-Eat-Dairy, there was a personal-sized quiche with soy milk in place of regular milk and no crème fraîche. The final result had a bit of a strange texture… almost gelatinous, but the flavor was fine. I would suggest trying soy yogurt in place of the crème fraîche to get closer to the original texture.
I was at a bit of a loss for the vegetarians at first, but in the end, I decided to do a quiche in the style of a Spanish tortilla, and so I cooked some potatoes and leeks in oil with salt and pepper, and then added this and the egg mixture to another pâte brisée shell.
The result was unbelievable… don’t ask me: ask everyone else in the house. I was immediately surprised when one of the girls came up to me and actually hugged me halfway through the meal to thank me for the (vegetarian) quiche. Afterwards, even the pickiest eaters of the group let me know that my quiche had hit a home run… much of it disappeared even before the American staple of macaroni and cheese.
Even after the stress induced by a minor head injury on an outing earlier that day, my (French!) boss let me know that the quiche was excellent, and Alex let me know that I am free to make it for him in Paris. I’d put that as one point in the victory column in my personal vendetta against old standby dishes.
Non-Traditional Quiche Lorraine
Note: I’m posting my original amounts, which makes six quiches, because I’ve never made it in smaller quantities. I’m assuming it would work well scaled-down also, however think about making extra, because it’s quite tasty cold with a green salad for lunch the next day.
5 leeks
600 g lardons
300 g rosette
300 g saucisson sec
6 pâtes brisées
150 cl crème fraîche
18 eggs
1.5 liters of semi-skimmed milk
1.5 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tbsp. black pepper
300 g grated emmental cheese
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
Cook the meat in a skillet over medium high heat until brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain off all but a few tablespoons of the fat. Slice the white and light green parts of the leeks thinly, and cook in the pork fat until tender. Add the meat back to the skillet and set aside.
Combine the crème fraîche, eggs, milk, nutmeg and pepper in a large bowl. Mix until well combined.
Roll out the pie shells and place in pie pans. Using a fork, pierce all over to prevent rising. Evenly distribute the meat and onion mixture in all of the shells, and then pour the egg mixture over the meat and onions. Bake until slightly firm on top, about 25 minutes, and then scatter the cheese over the top. Bake until the cheese is melted and golden and the filling is set but not hard, about another 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before slicing and serving.
Vegetarian Quiche
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 leek
2 tsp. salt
4 Yukon gold potatoes
3 eggs
1/4 liter milk
20 cl crème fraîche
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 tsp. black pepper
1 prepared pâte brisée
100 g emmental cheese
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
Thinly slice the white and light green parts of the leek and the potatoes. Heat the oil over medium heat, and add the potatoes, leeks and salt. Cook until the potatoes are cooked through and the leeks are soft, about ten minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, crème fraîche, nutmeg and pepper.
Roll out the pie crust and spread the potato and onion mixture over the bottom. Add the egg mixture. Bake until slightly set, about 25 minutes. Scatter the cheese on top and bake until the mixture is set and the cheese is melted and golden, another 10 minutes. Allow the quiche to cool slightly before slicing and serving.
