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Food For Thought: Rediscovering Quiche

Nancy Leson
A quiche by any other name: Nancy's take on Dorie Greenspan's spinach and bacon tart. She made the teeny fruit tarts to the right with the dough scraps.

Julia Child introduced Americans to quiche Lorraine in her groundbreaking public TV show "The French Chef" in 1963.   Shortly after that, Bruce Feirstein mocked masculine stereotypes and created an enduring catch phrase with his book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche."

When Nance brought up the Q-word in this week's Food for Thought, I had to admit that I've never had one.   And not because I was worried about being called a "sensitive new age guy."  After all, what could be manlier than a bacon, egg and cheese pie? It's just that the quiche and I have never been in the same room at the same time. 

The one Nancy baked came from Dorie Greenspan's "My French Table," but since this week would have marked Julia Child's 104th birthday, let's celebrate with her quiche recipe.

Nancy swears by her all-butter crust for quiche. "I think everyone needs to make themselves an all-butter crust ... keeping half for the quiche and saving half in the freezer for the next time you want to make a quiche or a fruit pie."

Nancy’s All-butter Pie Crust Makes two 9-inch rounds Ingredients 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon sugar 8 ounces very cold unsalted butter, diced ½ cup ice water Note: My preference is Kerrygold Irish butter (unsalted), which is grass-fed, better tasting and softer than other commercial butters. It’s widely available and is sometimes in the dairy fridge, sometimes in the cheese department. Can’t find it? Ask. Directions Pulse flour, salt and sugar in a food processor to distribute. Add the diced butter and pulse, swiftly, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water through the feed tube, little by little, pulsing until the mixture is just beginning to form a ball — but has not yet entirely done so. You may not need all of the water, so pour judiciously. Note: If you don’t have a food processor, whisk the flour, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter or two dinner knives to “cut” the butter into the flour mixture, add the ice water bit by bit, use your hands — sparingly! — to form a loose ball, then follow directions below. Turn the dough out onto the center of a sheet of plastic wrap (I use two overlapping sheets to make a larger surface). Gather the wrap, twirling it into in a topknot. Using your hands, press the dough firmly to form a cylinder then flatten it into a fat (about 2-inch tall) disc. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or as long as 24 hours. When you’re ready to roll out the dough, slice the disc in half, horizontally. The dough may be frozen at this point and thawed as needed.

Use a pan with removable bottom to allow your quiche to stand fully exposed in all its baconized glory. 

"Real programmers don't eat quiche.  They eat Twinkies and Szechuan food."  –  Unknown coder
 

Dick Stein joined KNKX in January 1992. He retired in 2020 after three decades on air. During his storied radio career, he hosted the morning jazz show, co-hosted and produced "Food for Thought" with Nancy Leson and wrote and directed the Jimmy Jazzoid live radio musical comedies and 100 episodes of Jazz Kitchen.