French Quiches From Scratch

I grew up in Lyon, France (The capital of gastronomy of the country) with a
mother who could make anything and everything from bread to yogurt.

She never made me learn or even taught me intentionally how to cook, but guess what? When you grow up with a "cordon bleu" even if you don't want to you will learn how to cook, you are bound to learn something. And I indeed I did. I don't think I'll ever be as good as a cook as my mother, but I would say that I enjoy to cook home meal with fresh products.

So, here you have it! This is why I can cook, and I thought I'd share some of my cooking secrets with you.

Note: The typical French quiche is made with ham, but I make quiches with just about everything. If you are a vegetarian, you can make excellent veggie quiches.

When it comes to quiche, if you really want to make a difference between "yours" and anyone else's you've got to make your own crust.

The pre-made curst that you buy, will NEVER taste as good.

Ingredients for the crust

2 cups of flour
1 stick of butter (4OZ)
1 egg
A pinch of salt
Half a glass of water

Important tip: leave the butter at room temperature for at least an hour.

First mix the flour, salt butter, and the egg (in a salad bowl)
Mix with your hands until the butter is completely mixed to the flour. When everything is well mixed together add the water and mix again with the tip of your fingers until obtaining a soft ball.

Important tip: Do not over work your dough as this would make your crust too hard.

As you are mixing, sprinkle your dough ball with floor as needed. When your dough ball is uniform and tender it is ready to be spread flat with a pastry roll.

Important tip: before you spread the dough spread a handful of flour on underneath so the dough won't stick. Also make sure your mold is buttered and floored before your spread you dough in it.

Spread your dough in a circle shape a little wider than your mold. Roll it around your pastry roll to lift it from your kitchen counter and spread it into your mold.

Cut off all the extra edge around the mold, and you're done!

Ingredients for the filling:

1 onion or a couple of leeks
4 or 5 carrots
1 small bunch of broccolis
2 table spoon of olive oil
2 cups of half and half
3 eggs
2 handful of shredded Swiss cheese
Salt and pepper

Peel the onion or leeks, and carrots, rinse them and shred them in a food processor.
Cut of the broccolis with a knife and rinse them as well.

Pour the olive oil into a large frying pan and when hot pour all the vegetables. Stir and let cook for about 10 minutes or until light golden. (Don't forget to add a little salt and pepper).

When done. In a salad bowl, poor the half and half, eggs, cheese salt and pepper and stir until everything is well blended. Then poor the veggies mix into the cream mix and blend everything together. When both mixture are well blended together, poor it into the curst.

Important tip: you can play around with your quiche and add ham to this mixture if you want. Just buy a thick slice of ham that you cut into small cubes and mix it in. It's delicious!

Bake the quiche at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the top becomes gold.

Ready to eat as soon as you got it out of the oven.

The Crust

Same as the quiche, I make my own home made crust for the tart. You can just follow the exact crust recipe of the quiche, and just add a table spoon of sugar.

Ingredients:

For eight serving mold size
1 pound of strawberries
1 lemon
4 table spoon of sugar

For the whipped cream:
Half a quarter of cream (for whipping)
4 table spoon of sugar

spread the crust onto a spread with butter and flour mold, make a few holes with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until gold light brown start showing.

Strawberry filling

After you have washed them, cut the strawberries in half and put them in a mixing bowl. Add the juice of lemon and 4 table spoons of sugar. Mixed well and put the bowl with the strawberry mixed in the fridge for 30 minutes.

The Whipped Cream

The secret of a great whipped cream is to put a glass mixing bowl and the metal metal whippers of the electric mixer in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Take the mixing bowl and the whippers out of the freezer and pour half a quarter of cream (cream for whipping cream, NOT half and half) in the bowl. Whip the cream with the electric mixer adding a table spoon of sugar at the time until the cream becomes a solid whipped cream.

Spread the strawberry mix onto the crust and spread the whipped cream on top of the strawberries.

Make any design you wish with the cream either with a fork or a pastry tool. Save a few strawberries for decoration on top of the whipped cream.

Try it! It's delicious!!!

Ingredients:
Serves 6
- 2.2lbs (1 kg) starchy potatoes
- 3.5oz (100g) butter
- 5.5 oz (150g) flour
- 4 eggs
- Salt and Pepper

Clean and boil the potatoes in slightly salted water until soft (about 20 minutes) Allow them to cool off a bit, and peel them, and mash them as if making mashed potatoe. Return them to a very low heat and dry the mashed potatoes stirring with a wooden spoon until they no longer stick to the sides of the pot.

While the potatoes are boiling, make the dough: boil 8 oz (25cl) of water with the butter and a pinch of salt, remove from heat and add the flour all at once mixing vigorously until absorbed, then put the mixture back on a low fire to dry slightly.

Remove the mixture from the fire and add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until you have a dough that is still wet and slightly sticky.

Mix the potatoes and the dough together, and add salt and pepper.

Heat several a nice layer of oil in a deep frying pan to 350F (180C) and carefully drop a ball of the potato mixture into the the oil - tip: I shape the balls with two coffee spoon, molding the mixture into a small ball and just drop it into the oil

fry until the pommes dauphines are golden in color before removing it to drain on paper towels.
Serve while still hot and crunchy.

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