Friday, January 27, 2012

Quiche Lorraine Recipe

We have moved on to France in history and tried our hand at some French cuisine.  Quiche Lorraine comes from the northeastern part of the country.  It started out being from Germany, then France, then Germany and now back to France.  If they leave the boarders alone it should stay in France.  The word quiche however comes from the German word kuchen which means cake.  Some quiches date back as far as the 1500's but Quiche Lorraine is thought to be from about 19th century.  True French think that it should only be made with cream, even stiff cream that is not liquid, and certainly not milk.  When it was first made it would have had a bread base not a pie crust.  The dish would have been very economical considering that the ingredient would have been local, all of them probably even produced at their homes.  One thing we read said that if you put onions in it it is no longer Quiche Lorraine but Quiche Alsatian.  We put onions in ours but we are still calling it Quiche Lorraine.
I had never made or eaten a quiche before.  I grew up in the era when blender pies where all the rage.  All the ingredients, along with I think Bisquick, was put in the blender, poured in a pie pan and then baked.  Also I think the popular book in the 1980's, "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche," perhaps put a damper on the popularity of the dish for many years.  The kids loved this, Dancer even asked for the left overs for dinner instead of what we were having.  We have another pie crust so I wouldn't be surprised they want another one for lunch tomorrow.

Quiche Lorraine
9 inch single crust pie
12 slices bacon fried and cut in large pieces
1 cup shredded cheese
1/3 cup minced onion
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups cream - we used one cup cream, one cup milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion into pie shell.
Whisk together eggs, cream, salt, sugar and cayenne pepper.

When the kids put the cayenne pepper in the bowl it exploded over the surface of the liquid, pretty cool so they took a picture. 

Pour egg mixture into pie pan over bacon etc.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven.  Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes for until knife inserted one inch from edge comes out clean.  Let sit for 10 minutes before eating.  The kids wanted to eat this so bad they set the timer for 10 minutes to make sure we didn't let it sit ten minutes and one second. 


Here it is, beautiful and ready to eat.                

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