Automn Quiche

Ingredients for 4 people: 1/2 medium sized onion, 300g Chards (only the white part of the stalk), 2 medium Carrots, 80g Bacon, 2 slices Emmenthal or Fontina cheese, 3 eggs, 1 cup of milk or cream, pastry crust Brisée (made from 250g of flour, 100g of butter and 1 egg), a little parsley, salt and pepper


Prepare the dough crust, This kind of crust differs from the usual Brisée because it contains whole eggs and a slighter quantity of butter. If necessary, add a little water or milk. Knead very little and set aside in a cool place.

Cut bacon into strips, not too thin, and cheese into small cubes.
Peel chards, separate white stalks from the green (that you'll use for another preparation), clean them carefully removing the transparent cuticle, Boil quickly in water for 3 minutes and then cut them into chunks of about 2 cm.
Peel carrots and cut them into thick julienne.Thinly slice onion.

Sauté onion over low heat, add carrots and finally chards. Salt, pepper and seasoned with a little finely chopped parsley. Remove from heat and let cool.
Besides, beat eggs with milk or cream and add them to the vegetable mixture mixed with bacon and cheese.

Roll out the pastry crust and arrange it in a baking pan, taping the bottom with a fork. Pre-cook for 10 minutes in the oven at 170°C (filled with the small porcelain or metal spheres to prevent the bottom from rising. After this time, fill it with the eggs and vegetables mixture  and put again in the oven for another 15 minutes.
Serve this quiche warm or cold with a green salad.

The history of QUICHE

We start to hear about Quiche from the 16th century, in Alsace-Lorraine.
The word Quiche comes from the high Franc and German Kuchen / Kuche which indicated generally salty or sweet foods wrapped in dough.
Currently the canonical recipe includes a filling of eggs, cream and bacon but it seems to be accepted by all experts  that in the original  recipes there was no bacon added only since 1800.
The original dough was simple bread dough of various thickness but now it is absolutely Pâte Brisée, arrived in France in the wake of the Ottoman influences. Anyway we know that already in the 19th century, as nowaday, puff pastry  was widespread.
In addition to disputes between the French and Germans for the authorship of this dish, are recorded diatribes and discussions between Alsatians and Loreni contending different kind of filling or thickness.