Like many travelers, I, too, have a bucket list of places I want to go. Naturally, mine is all about food, and it goes something like this:
Before I die, I want to:
* Eat a deep-dish pizza in Chicago.
* Devour a Hot Brown at The Brown Hotel in Louisville.
Anne Braly* Eat a Cuban in Cuba.
* Indulge in Boston Cream Pie in Boston.
* Have a Belgian waffle in Belgium.
You get the picture? I have a few dozen dishes and places on my list and have fulfilled several of them since beginning the list a couple of years ago. And a few months ago, I crossed another off the list - quiche in France.
My traveling companion and I found ourselves at the home of an American friend on the outskirts of Paris for dinner one evening. This friend had a neighbor and friend, Henri, a native of France, in the kitchen making dinner for us. On the menu: quiche. Aha. Another check on my bucket list, I thought.
So I sat in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of wine, watching as he made his cheesy pie. There was something about seeing him pour the fresh cream from a ceramic pitcher and using eggs he'd brought over from his henhouse next door. He used Gruyere rather than the traditional Swiss cheese usually employed when making quiche in the United States, but any Swiss-type cheese will work.
My command of the French language is laughable, and Henri's English was pretty basic. But we shared a common language expressed through a mutual love of food. And with that, I was able to get his recipe.
Since coming home, I've made it several times, using his crust recipe as well as one of my own made with cream cheese. They are interchangeable with the filling. Also, I usually add onions to the quiche, though Henri did not.
Serve the quiche with a salad, some crusty bread and good wine for a lovely spring dinner. It's even better the next day after all the delicious flavors have had a chance to marry, and leftovers freeze well.
Henri's Quiche Lorraine
4-6 pieces thick-cut bacon, cut into narrow strips and cooked till crisp (see note)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Pinch nutmeg
1 cup Gruyere or good-quality Swiss cheese
Butter crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 to 3 tablespoons ice water
Cream cheese crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chilled butter, softened
1 (3-ounce) package chilled cream cheese
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch fluted tart pan, quiche dish or pie pan. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Line the pastry with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Parbake until the crust is set, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove the paper and weights and bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
Arrange the bacon evenly over the bottom of the baked crust.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, yolks and cream. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk to combine. Pour into the prepared crust and bake until the custard is golden, puffed, and set yet still slightly wiggly in the center, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving.
For the butter crust, in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add ice water a little at a time through the feed tube and pulse 5 or 6 times, or until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides of the container. Gather the dough into a ball, shape into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling out on a lightly floured surface. Fit the pastry into the pan, fluting edges if needed.
For cream cheese crust, combine ingredients in food processor until blended. Press into bottom of pie pan and up the sides. Line crust with parchment paper and fill with dried beans to weigh the crust down and prevent it from slipping in the pan. Bake in 425-degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack and lift out the parchment with the beans.
Prick the crust all over with fork tines but only going halfway through the dough so, when filled, the filling doesn't seep through to the pie pan. Return pie pan to the oven and bake until light golden brown, about 5 to 10 minutes longer. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes, before filling.
Note: If you have any leftover ham in the freezer, you can chop a half cup or so and add it to the filling. Or substitute the ham (about 1 cup) for the bacon. Benton's country ham is delicious, but any ham will do.
Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.