Quiche Lorraine

When I cooked this it was late spring. Now I’ve mentioned before that I have no problem myself with cooking and eating things “out of season”, by which I mean stews in summer and salads in winter sort of thing. But I appreciate that there may be some people that think my recipe posting rotation a little, well, odd. I’m very much trying to get back on track at the moment but sometimes life intervenes and, in all honesty, it will probably only get worse. We will have a new arrival in February and I’ll be concentrating more on cleaning up poo than anything else. I should imagine.

But anyway, I love a good quiche. Who doesn’t? Real men do, as we all know. I really should have made my own pastry for this, and one day I will but for now shop-bought pastry is perfectly OK. I did have a little leakage where I had rolled the pastry a little too thin and managed to split it when trimming off the pastry overhang but the taste wasn’t affected at all. This is really, really delicious and the photos (who knew it was so hard to get a good snap of quiche?!) really don’t do it justice.

Quiche Lorraine
serves 4

ready made shortcrust pastry, chilled
4 eggs: 2 whole + 2 yolk only, beaten
250ml double cream
200ml ½ fat crème fraîche
210g pancetta, cubed
1 tsp olive oil
100g gruyère, finely grated

Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a 20p piece and line a nine inch quiche or loose bottomed tart tin. Leave the pastry overhang and chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 190C.

Fry the pancetta in the oil in a non-stick pan until cooked and crispy and set aside on some kitchen paper to drain.

Beat together the eggs & yolks, cream and crème fraîche and season.

Take the pastry tin out of the fridge and line with baking paper. Fill with baking beans (if you don’t have any dried chickpeas or beans will work just as well) and “bake blind” for 15 minutes. 

Remove the beans and baking paper and brush lightly with a little beaten egg (or spray with commercial egg glaze) before returning to the oven for 5 minutes. The egg glaze will help form a moisture-proof seal.

Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 160C.

Carefully trim off the excess pastry from around the edge with a sharp knife.

Layer handfuls of pancetta and cheese into the pastry case, keeping back a small handful of cheese.

Pour over the egg mix. Scatter the remaining cheese over the top.

Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and the middle is just set. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to come down to room temperature.

If you have used a loose bottom tin, you can remove it from the tin by placing it in on an upturned jar, which will allow you to ease the sides away. Then, using a palette knife or a fish slice, slide it underneath and ease the tart carefully on to a plate or board, ready to serve.