Egg Pie - a.k.a Quiche Lorraine

With all the previous posts focussing on sweet, it is time to take a jaunt down savory lane. I received this fab new pie plate from my friends for Christmas. The brand name is Emile Henry. It is a beautiful ceramic green and even came with a matching towel. Very chic - but its French; I wondered, could it work?

So, I took it on trial run with it a quiche. I had made bacon for breakfast; the yummiest ever. It was from the farmers market. Thick and smoky. So, with seven slices left and some Emmenthaler in the fridge (and not much else) quiche ended up on the menu.

First I looked up recipes. Mark Bittman had one, in How to Cook Everything. But I have YET choose a recipe from him that works. You may know how to cook everything, Mark, but none of it tastes good. My trusty 1970's James Beard's American Cookery had nothing. No surprise, it is quiche afterall; a french dish that didn't hit its zenith until the late eighties. I also looked it up in the Farm Journals pie book. Amazing resource, also an Xmas present, but no quiches. It is from the sixties. More on that book later.

So I called mom. Here is the recipe I used. Her recipe called for four eggs. Bitman's called for six. So I split the difference at five.

1 T flour
1/2 a red onion (this is all I had - the recipe called for 2 medium onions)
1 1/2 c grated Emmenthaler (I also added a smidge of Comte)
5 eggs
1 c milk
1 c cream (recipe called for 2 cups half-and-half)
7 pieces cooked bacon
1 t salt

Cook the onion in bacon fat. Yum. Crumble up the bacon and mix it with the onion. Put it on top of the pie shell. Mix the flour with the cheese. Sprinkle it over the bacon and onion.

Lightly beat the eggs. Mix in the milk and cream. add the salt. Pour it over the the cheese and bacon. Bake for an hour at 350. You want the knife inserted to come out relatively clean. And just a little jiggle in the middle.

The new pie plate was AWESOME. First of all the built in flutes make it much easier to just plop in the crust. And, it cooked the crust perfectly. Bacon, cheesy, oniony EGG PIE loveliness.