Quiche Lorraine

I’ve been yearning to try and make a quiche for a while. My mother-in-law makes the best quiche I’ve ever tasted. I chose Quiche Lorraine because of the bacon, egg, onion combination. After some deliberation over which recipe to go for, I reverted to one of my favourite cooks – Rachel Allen’s recipe from her book ‘Bake’. 

I cooked this in a massive hurry after work, so I wasn’t particularly bothered about getting the pastry perfect.  In fact, I quite like imperfect pastry. I like how the little misshapen bits take on a different texture and flavour to the rest of the pastry. I cooked the quiche in my 22cm deep Le Creuset pie dish rather than a flan dish, as I wanted a deep filling.  

I was really happy with how it turned out. It was well balanced, light and fluffy texture but with plenty of flavour from the bacon and onions coming through. The pastry was easy to make, and complemented the filling really well.  It probably isn’t an after work dish – it is better suited to a lazy weekend, but when I get a yearning to bake, I have to run with it.

Husband rating: 9/10

Quiche Lorraine
Serves 6

450g shortcrust pastry
1 tbsp olive oil
175g streaky bacon, cut in to 1cm lardons
1 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 eggs and 2 egg yolks
250ml double cream
1 small tbsp. chopped parsley
1 small tbsp. chopped chives
50g cheddar, grated
50g Gruyere, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

19cm high sided tart tin or 23cm shallow tin

 
Method

1. Make the pastry or use bought.
2. Preheat the oven to 180c/ Gas Mark 4. Line the tin and bake blind.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the bacon until crisp.  Remove and dry on kitchen paper. Sweat the onions gently in the same oil for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a medium-sized bowl, add the cream, herbs, cheese and cooled bacon and onions. Mix well and add seasoning.
5.  Pour the filling into the pastry base and return to the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the centre has set.

Serve warm, or just as nice cold out of the fridge.  Bon Appetit!