**Quiche Lorraine**

 

Quiche is a speciality from the French cuisine; the word quiche is taken from Kichel, which means cake. Originally it is made with bread dough and a filling with the rests of the previous day

It is made with a very crispy short crust pastry, baked with a filling of eggs cream and milk.

 

It was said that this was the main dish on Mondays in many families, either as a starter or as the main meal, they used the rests in this creative way making it a special treat for the family, later on cheese became the main ingredient of Quiche and today we see that there are many many varieties of Quiche, we can make it with any vegetable, meat fish or chicken, solely your own choice

 

I made mines with Spinach/Minced meat/Sheep’s Cheese/Gouda cheese/Parmesan Cheese

This I can tell you that it is a calorie shock, but well we don’t make it daily and once in a while it is totally recommended :)

If all the preps are made before hand, it is really fast to make, It is ideal to make it a day before too and just warm it the other day, or if kept in room temperature, it tastes great.

 

I have no accurate ingredients for it, I just play around adding this and that, a little here a little there but I can surely write a slight outline so it is easy for you all : )

 

And yes Nutmeg is an important part of the Quiche, so do use that as mentioned.

 

The pastry crust is the same I make for my cheese cake, of course without sugar : )

I prepared the filling in advance to save myself some time.

Okay so you take the following to make the short crust pastry, I made it in a large baking tray so I had doubled my ingredients of the 28cm round baking form; you can always take the half ingredients and try for the start.

These ingredients are for a universal oven baking tray we all have.

 

For the short crust pastry:

500 grams flour

250+1 tbs cold but soft butter

½ tsp salt

3-4 tbs sour cream

Cold if needed

50 gram parmesan cheese for the base

 

-cut the butter in cubes in the bowl,, sprinkle the flour and salt and mix all with both hands

-the dough will seem very crumbly, so instead of adding tons of water, I mix in sour cream or cream Fraiche to smoothen the dough.

-just knead till it takes a really smooth structure.

-I did not give it a rest time and I immediately spread it in the tray, first with a rolling pin then with my palms, all set and fixed in the tray : )

-prick the whole spread pastry crust with a fork, this keeps the dough even and it will not fluff up at different points

-spread the parmesan cheese all over

 

Now we come to the filling of it. You can use anything you like

 I made spinach and minced meat, I cooked both separately and then mixed both together

Ingredients we need are as following, I am dividing the stages so you can follow all through the pics too.

For the liquid filling you need:

2 Eggs

200 gram cup of cream Fraiche

¼ tsp grated nutmeg powder

¼ tsp black pepper powder

Salt to taste (not too much as cheese is also salted)

For the topping:

250 gram Cherry tomatoes in halves

100 gram sheep’s goat (crumbled

100 gram Gouda cheese fresh grated

 

600gram frozen spinach leaves

2 big onions

2-3 tbs of olive oil

Salt, red chili to taste

¼ grated nutmeg powder

This should not be like our normal curry, so be careful with the spices, it is more of a cold snack and won’t taste if too spicy!

-thaw the spinach
( just ignore the different script Color as it is not ready to Change, no matter what i do :) )

-heat the oil and fry the onion just transparent and add the spinach

-stir stir well, add the nutmeg powder, salt and chili powder, the spinach will shoot till the water is evaporated.

-stir well till it is really dry

 

 Prepare the minced meat:

400 gram minced meat, I always use half half (beef/lamb)

2 big onions

2-4 tbs oil

1tsp GG paste (ginger/garlic)

Spices to taste

Salt

Red chili flakes

Cumin powder

Garam masala

 

-heat oil, fry in the sliced onions light pinkish

-add the minced meat and fry it for a while till it turns a bit light in color

-add the GG paste and stir

-add the spices and keep cooking, I never add water to the minced meat, it actually cooks so fast with an open lid and only stirring.

 

You will feel that there are not many spices in it, no tomatoes, and no tomato paste neither

turmeric

We skip this all to stick to the light taste

Now turn over the minced meat into the spinach and mix all gently

 

So it’s time to prepare our Quiche :)

-We have the pastry crust ready in the tray spread with parmesan cheese

-now spread the spinach/minced meat mixture on it

-crumble the sheep’s goat all over

-in a bowl, beat the eggs, cream Fraiche with sprinkling nutmeg, salt black pepper on  it

-beat well into a smooth liquid bulk

 

Now pour this mixture slowly all over the baking tray.

 -place the halves of the tomatoes, (it’s optional, you can omit if you don’t like them)

-grate the Gouda directly onto the tray evenly

 

 

 It’s ready to go in the oven, bake in a preheated oven on 180°C for around 35 minutes

Keep a check, as if it is baked too long the egg mixture might turn dark brown and spoil the lovely look

You’ll see it’s ready when the color is slightly gold brown

Take out the tray and let it rest, at least 20 minutes!

If you try to cut it while it is still hot, the pieces may break due to the hot creamy mixture  in it

So it is important to give it a resting time, the cream settles down and you can cut out really smooth pieces

It tastes really very very crispy and very delish.

The short crust pastry is so melt in mouth yet crispy, and it was the still very yummy the second day .

Do try, you’ll love it : )