>From the Recipe Trove website...
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Quiche - The All Purpose Pie
The quiche- that delicious, cheesy, open-faced custard pie invented by some
clever Alsatian cook - is a wonderfully easy first course or main course that
is fast to prepare and makes great eating.
It's quick to assemble because all you need on hand is the base - eggs and milk
- plus anything else: cheese, bacon, onions, canned pimiento, leftover cooked
vegetables, tomato sauce and so forth.
You can build from the bottom up with your own pie crust dough or a homemade
frozen shell formed earlier. Or use a frozen store-bough shell - and offer no
apologies. Or the other hand, you can bake any of the quiche fillings in a
plain dish and call it a custard. That's what a quiche is, anyway - a custard
in a pie shell.
NOTE:
Pre-Baking Shells.
So often you see people eat all the filling of an apple pie - or quiche - but
leave the bottom crust untouched. They don't even taste it, knowing from sad
experience that it's soggy. The solution: Pre-bake the empty shell- well worth
the time and really the only way to achieve a perfect crust with tender crunch
throughout.
Weight down store-bought shells before pre-baking with buttered foil and dried
beans. This keeps sides and bottom in place by bracing them.
QUICHE FILLINGS:
A quiche filling is a flavoring that is held together with a custard - that is,
eggs and a liquid of some sort. The eggs slowly coagulate in the oven,
maintaining the rest of the ingredients in creamy suspension. You don't want
too much custard - just the right balance between it and the garnish, whatever
it may be. You can't be exact about measures, because shells vary in depth. but
you can calculate by the egg, adding more or using less. FOR EACH "LARGE" EGG.
Break the egg into a cup; add liquid
to reach the 1/2 cup level.
QUICHE LORRAINE - This is the original Alsatian model. It's bacon only (no
cheese) plus the custard, which is made of real cream that blends deliciously
with the smoky taste of the bacon. Try it - on one of those
days when you're slim as a scallion
~~~~~~~~~~
Rhonda G in Missouri
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