"Gastronomy is the art of using food to create happiness” - Theodore Zeldin
French food is popular all over the world and in addition to beef bourguignon, roast chicken, snails, and crepes, the quiche is one of the most popular dishes.
Technically, a quiche is a frittata or omelette in a pie, but if you've tasted one, you'll know that the humble quiche is so much greater than the sum of its parts.
If you're new to cooking or new to cooking quiches, we've put together quiche Lorraine recipes for everyone!
How Do You Make the Pastry for a Quiche Lorraine?
The quiche Lorraine is arguably the most popular type of quiche and one that everyone should try cooking at least once.
This is a bacon and cheese quiche, but any good quiche, including the quiche Lorraine, starts with getting the pastry right.
That isn't to say that there's only one type of pastry, but it's an essential part of the quiche and one that's non-negotiable. After all, a quiche without any pastry is just an omelette or a frittata.
The quiche Lorraine uses shortcut pastry, but some recipes use a puff pastry. Ideally, you'll want to make the pastry, but you can still make a fairly delicious pastry with premade pastry.
So how do you make shortcut pastry?
250g of flour
125g of butter
A pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
Water
Next, take a mixing bowl or large salad bowl and add the flour. Soften the butter before adding it to the flour and then add a pinch of salt.
Mix it all and once it's mixed, you can add the egg yolk to the middle of the mix. Do this by creating an indentation in the middle of the dough for the yolk to sit in.
Knead the dough as you slowly add water to it. Once everything's mixed, roll the dough into a ball and leave it to sit in your fridge for thirty minutes.
You can also freeze your dough if you want to make quiches much more quickly the next time.
How Do You Make Quiche Lorraine?
Once your shortcut pastry is ready, your next step is to start working on the filling for your quiche. Here, we have the recipe for a quiche Lorraine, but your shortcut pastry could be used for any quiche recipe.
Shortcrust pastry
250ml of creme fraiche
200ml of whole milk
5 eggs or 4 entire eggs and 2 egg yolks
250g of lardons
Ground pepper and nutmeg
Get a pie dish. You can add butter and flour to the dish to stop your dough sticking. Spread the dough and make some holes in the base with a fork.
Preheat your oven to 200°C.
Bake the base for 10 minutes. Since the dough will soften in the oven, it's recommended that you use baking beads on top of some baking paper to help it keep its shape.
Break 5 eggs into a salad or mixing bowl. Alternatively, you can use 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks. The egg yolks are important as they help the pastry to rise.
Beat the eggs in the mixing bowl and add the creme fraiche. Mix until you have a smooth consistent mixture.
You can now season your mix with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. In some instances, you mightn't even need to add salt since the lardons, bacon, or ham you use can be quite salty.
The pepper should also be used sparingly. It's recommended that you add too little to the mix because you won't be able to remove it afterwards.
Your lardons, bacon, or ham can be cooked before you put them in the quiche (which allows you to taste them) or placed into the quiche and cooked with the filling.
Either way, place your cooked or uncooked meat onto the base. Then, add your mixture over the top of them, ensuring that the whole thing is even.
You can then cook your quiche at 180°C for 30 minutes.
We recommend that you enjoy your quiche with some salad and a vinaigrette.
Bon appétit!
Can You Make a Quiche Lorraine without Eggs?
If you don't eat eggs or have none, there are ways to make a quiche Lorraine without them. Naturally, purists will say that this isn't a quiche Lorraine, but it's still a tasty dish that you might want to try.
This egg-free quiche Lorraine will serve 4 people.
Shortcrust pastry
300g of cream cheese
250ml of thick creme fraiche
100g of lardons
80g of cooked ham
1 tablespoon of flour
100g of grated cheese
Cook your lardons and place them on one side.
Separately, mix the cream cheese, creme fraiche, grated cheese, and flour into a large mixing bowl or salad bowl.
Pre-cook the shortcrust pastry like with the previous recipe.
You can now add the lardons and ham to your mixture and pour it over the quiche.
Like the quiche Lorraine recipe, this takes 30 minutes to bake.
Can You Make a Quiche Lorraine without Pastry?
If you love a quiche Lorraine and enjoy the filling most of all, this is a recipe without the crust. Admittedly, you could simply call this an omelette or frittata, but since you have all the ingredients to hand, you could make a "pastry-free" quiche Lorraine.
This recipe is also for 4 people.
100g of cooked ham
200g of lardons
4 eggs
250ml of milk
1 small tub of creme fraiche
100g of flour
Salt and pepper
Note that this recipe still calls for flour, which means that it will still contain gluten.
To make this, mix everything in a mixing bowl or large salad bowl, adding the flour last of all.
Butter your pie dish and slowly pour the mixture.
Again, this will take 30 minutes to cook at 180°C.
If 30 minutes is too long, then maybe you could quickly make yourself croque monsieur, another French classic!
Can You Make Vegan Quiche Lorraine?
If all of this sounds good, but you're vegan, don't worry! We've thought of you, too.
Here's a vegan alternative to the quiche Lorraine.
Vegan shortcrust pastry
200g of smoked tofu
400ml of soy cream
Cornstarch
2 tablespoons of malted yeast
Salt and pepper
Place your vegan shortcrust pastry into the bottom of a pie dish just like you would for the other recipes. Remember to pierce the base with a fork.
Cut your smoked tofu into small cubes as if they were lardons and place them onto the base of your quiche.
Next, mix the cornstarch, years, salt, and pepper into a mixing bowl or large salad bowl. Slowly add the soy cream to the mixture. Once you've created a smooth mixture, you can pour it into the pastry over the tofu.
This will cook for 45 minutes at 180°C.
Don't have a pie dish? A lot of these techniques could also be used to make your own pizzas.
Other Types of Quiche
We've been quite liberal with the term quiche Lorraine here, but if it's good, it's good!
With a good quiche, there are lots of ingredients that work including onion, grated Emmental cheese, goat's cheese, chicken, etc.
The quiche Lorraine is one of many easy recipes that anyone can make. Every chef will add their take to recipes or refine them to make them even better.
Good cooking is about experimentation so don't be afraid to add something you like. Everything's down to taste.
If you're still struggling with cooking or making these recipes, you might want to get help from a private cooking tutor.
On the Superprof website, there are cooking tutors all over New Zealand and around the world who can help you. You could even learn more about French cuisine from a chef in France!
There are different types of tutoring available and just like with cooking, it depends on what you like and how much you're willing to spend.
Face-to-face tutoring is usually the most effective way to learn, but it's often more costly than other types of tutoring. You can have a tutor come to your house to help you cook or you may even travel to them or a kitchen.
Online tutoring is usually cheaper and is great for anyone wanting to learn how to cook from people all over the world. If you can't find any suitable local tutors to help you learn how to cook a quiche, broaden your search to include online tutoring!
Last but not least, you could look for group tutoring. If you and some friends or family members want to save money, you could hire a private tutor and learn how to cook together, splitting the cost of the tutor's time and expertise. Otherwise, you could join a class of strangers, make new friends, and learn how to cook together.
Most tutors offer the first lesson for free so why not try a few out before choosing the right one for you?
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
