Quiche Alsacienne

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Whenever I'm on call from home, I find myself in a strange sort of limbo. I have to be able to get to any of the four community hospitals I cover within 30 minutes, and sometimes this means I spend the entire thirteen hour shift driving all over the city. On other days however, I can be sat waiting hours for a call. Today seemed to one of those days, so rather than wasting the day watching TV, checking the phone or pager every five minutes, I decided to see whether I could manage to make a decent shortcrust pastry tart/quiche and use a few leftover ingredients knocking around the fridge at the same time. I managed to make the pastry and the filling before getting called for some advice, and managed to finish baking it before going out to see a patient in the afternoon.

A Quiche Alsacienne is similar to a Quiche Lorraine, but includes onion whilst the former does not.

Ingredients:


250g plain flour
60g white vegetable shortening, cut into cubes, straight from the fridge
60g unsalted butter, cut into cubes, straight from the fridge
60-70ml ice cold water
pinch salt
a few turns of the pepper mill

5 large eggs
200ml milk (I used semi skimmed)
125g grated gruyere cheese
1 onion, finely chopped
5 rashers (around 150g) smoked bacon, finely chopped
2 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 tsp dried sage
black pepper to taste

Method:


1. First make the pastry: Place the flour, salt, pepper and fats in a bowl. Rub the fat into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add most of the ice cold water and combine into a soft dough. If it is too dry add a little more water. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for around 30 minutes.
2. Fry the bacon in a pan (i didn't use any oil because of the high fat content of the bacon), and after a minute add the onion. Fry together for a couple of minutes until the onions and bacon are cooked through. Leave to cool.
3. Remove the pastry from fridge. Flour the work surface, rolling pin and both sides of the pastry disc.
4. Roll the pastry out to around 2mm thickness until it is a bit wider than the tart tin (I used a rectangular loose-bottomed tin size 12" x 8"). Drape the pastry over the rolling pin and use it to pick up the pastry to place over the tin. Push the pastry into the sides and corners of the tin, then roll the pin over the top of the tin to trim off the excess.
5. Place a large piece of greaseproof paper/baking parchment over the pastry, and on top of this, place ceramic baking beads, spread into an even layer. Place the tin in the fridge and rest for 20-30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Place a baking tray inside the oven.
7. Place the tin on the baking tray in the oven and blind bake for 15 minutes.
8. Make the egg mixture. Mix the eggs, milk, cream cheese, gruyere, a few turns of the pepper mill and the sage in a mixing jug. I didn't add any extra salt because the bacon is salty.
9. After 15 minutes, remove the ceramic beads and the greaseproof paper. Bake uncovered for 5-7 minutes.
10. After this time, place the bacon and onion mix in the tart case and pour over the egg mixture. I did this at the oven because I can't be trusted to carry a full tart case without spilling it!
11. Return to the oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and set.
12. Leave to cool on a cooling rack for a couple of minutes, then remove the tart tin. Both the sides and the base of the tin need to be removed otherwise the bottom of the tart will soak up the steam from the custard and become soggy. Leave to cool on the rack until ready to serve.

The photo was taken just after I had taken the tin off, but it was still too hot to remove the base! I did later, and leaving it on the cooling rack left the base lovely and crisp.

Not a bad way to spend an on call shift, all in all!