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 : )
