Quiche

Can you imagine when quiche was invented?  Someone somewhere cooked up something new for someone else (I'd like to think a friend), and they put it down on the table, and the person who was just eating must've been like, "Holy Cow!  It's an egg pie!!!!"  Although perhaps not everyone loves those things (eggs and pie) as much as I do...

There are several quiche recipes out there.  I know.  I have about seven myself.  The first one tried, and my go-to recipe, is from Better Homes and Gardens.  The recipe shared here is adapted from the Quiche Lorraine recipe in the 15th edition of New Cookbook.



Ingredients:
1 recipe for pie crust
2 C diced ham (we were using up leftovers)
2/3 C chopped onion
6 eggs
1 1/4 C cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 C mozzarella
1 Tbsp flour



The first step to making a quiche is to prep the crust.  In this particular recipe, you need a hot, fresh crust, not a pre-made one.  My favorite pie crust recipe is shared under the "Jabuticaba Pie" post, but you can use any recipe you like.  Preheat the oven to 450° Fahrenheit, and roll out the dough.  Do NOT prick it with fork (like you might for other pre-baked pie crusts), and cover the crust with a double thickness of foil.  Bake the crust for 8 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 6-8 minutes until the crust is golden.  Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325° Fahrenheit.

While the crust is baking, prepare the filling.  Stir together the eggs, cream, salt, and nutmeg.  Add the onion and ham.  In another bowl, combine all but 1/4 C of cheese with the flour.  Stir so the cheese is coated, and add to the egg mixture immediately prior to pouring the filling into the hot crust.  Top with remaining cheese and bake about 55minutes, until the quiche is set and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  You may wish to to cover the edges of the quiche with foil to prevent over-browning, but I find that I fill the pie dish full enough that this isn't a problem.  

A few notes: I use a deep pie dish.  It's a pyrex 9.5 inch-diameter dish, and is about 1 1/2 inches deep.  A shallower dish may require either scaling down the filling recipe (use less ham, only 5 eggs...adjust to taste), or just not using all of it.   If you want a milder onion flavor, go ahead and sweat the onions (cook them in a pan with a bit of oil until they're softened but not browned) prior to mixing them into the filling.  I skip this step because I like the slight crunch the onions give the quiche, and find that the baking is enough to take the bite out of the onion.