I love quiche. I also love shrimp. So yesterday, as I was planning what to cook for dinner, remembering that I had a tiny bit of Swiss chard that needed to be used, and some Swiss cheese that kept yelling at me from the deli drawer of our refrigerator, I put my thinking cap squarely on the top of my head! (But before I go on, don’t you just hate it when ingredients yell at you? And if you respond in kind, your spouse looks at you as if your mind has slipped yet another cog. That of course may be true in my case, but no one likes to be reminded of their incipient mental infirmity.) Anyway, the Swiss cheese won. So what to do with the lovely combination of Swiss chard and Swiss cheese. Of course the solution was evident. Make a French dish. Duh!
Actually there’s a bit more to it than quiche being a French invention. This bit of quiche history from the finedininglovers.com site, is most interesting and enlightening. I’ve edited the original article a bit, but not in any significant way.
“At its most basic, quiche is dough. There are numerable variations, but the most famous is quiche Lorraine. This was the first quiche that Americans learned of, thanks to Julia Child, and so it is the one most likely to come to mind. This specialty comes from the Lorraine region of France.
Alsace and Lorraine hug the border between France and Germany, so that Alsace and Lorraine are both French and German and are also their own unique place. The most ubiquitous dish from Lorraine is quiche. And the specialty quiche from Lorraine features Gruyère cheese, onion, fatty bacon (French lardons), and nutmeg as its primary flavors.
The history of quiche, a dish we think of as quintessentially French, is actually a liminal one, in that the dish is of German origin. The word ‘quiche’ comes from the German word kuchen, meaning cake. Thus quiche is a savory cake, and Lorraine is a rather new name for a region that, under Germanic rule, was called the Kingdom of Lothringen. There are 13th century recipes for egg and cream baked in a dough crust in Italy, so it is difficult to say exactly where such a simple and ubiquitous approach to baking first began. In the 14th century English recipe collection, The Forme of Cury, there is a recipe like this with the unappetizing name – Crustardes of flesh.” But back to this recipe, which I must say is appetizing!
But why a shrimp quiche you might ask?
Well, if you are following my posts, you know that our beloved upright, non-frost-free freezer is coming to the end of its very long and useful life. And because everyone and their cousin are apparently just discovering the joys of storing more than one day’s supply of food in their home since the pandemic, there isn’t an upright freezer to be begged, borrowed, or even stolen in our area. So using up our frozen food ASAP (especially seafood) has been the driving force behind many of the main dishes I have been currently preparing. (I really can make a short story long. Sorry about that!)
Anyway, I glommed this recipe together yesterday, and we were both very pleased with the result. The quiche was very tasty, and it hadn’t been that difficult to prepare. And I had used up some of the ingredients that were either quietly going bad or noisily reminding me of their presence.
So next time you get hungry for quiche, give this recipe a try. But remember, the nice thing about quiche is that it allows you to use almost any ingredient you have on hand. Love mushrooms, add them. Don’t care for shrimp, replace them with small chunks of Black Forrest ham. Matters not. As long as your egg batter is properly proportioned, and your choice of additives are not terribly wet, you’re good to go.
As always, have fun in your kitchen, don’t let your ingredients give you any guff, and keep an open mind. People with open minds (and ears) let new ideas in. They aren’t afraid that their long cherished beliefs just might be misguided. Open minded people welcome facts over feelings, science over skepticism, and experience over egotism.
Peace and love to all.
No-Roll Pie Crust
2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
heaping ½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
scant ¼ tsp. baking powder
7 T. vegetable or canola oil
5 T. cold water
Whisk the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together. Whisk the oil and water together. Pour over the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened. Pat the dough across the bottom of a fairly deep pie pan, then up and over the rim. Crimp or mold the pie crust around the edge to make it pretty.
Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside until you are ready to assemble the quiche. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
Shrimp, Sautéed Onion, and Spinach Filling
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
½ med. yellow onion, diced
2 c. finely chopped Swiss chard or spinach, not packed
1 lb. raw shrimp, cut into small pieces
5 lg. eggs
¾ c. whole milk
¼ c. sour cream
¼ tsp. kosher salt, plus more for shrimp
freshly ground black pepper, plus more for shrimp
pinch ground nutmeg, plus a bit more for sprinkling
tiny pinch cayenne pepper
¾ c. grated mozzarella cheese
¾ c. grated Swiss, Gruyère, or Emmental cheese
Heat oil in a fry pan over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions start to become a light golden brown, about 20 minutes. (Don’t fry at too high a heat or the onions will start to burn. You do not want that to happen! Onions are bitter when they are burnt.)
Add the Swiss chard and sauté for a couple of minutes, just enough to wilt the chard a bit. Add the shrimp, season with a tiny bit of salt and pepper, and cook just until shrimp are barely done.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whisk the eggs, milk, sour cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper together. Set aside.
Spread the onion, chard, and shrimp mixture on the crust. Sprinkle the cheeses evenly over the shrimp mixture. Pour the egg mixture on top. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Bake the quiche until puffed and firm when touched in the center, 40-45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving. To serve, cut into 6-8 pieces.