A Quiche recipe
For the pastry (I have never seen shortcrust pastry in a german shop)
2oz butter or baking margarine
pinch of salt
4oz plain flour (german type 405)
For the filling
4 rashers bacon chopped
1 medium onion peeled and sliced
2 large or 3 small eggs
1/4 pint full cream milk
2oz grated cheddar
1 tomato sliced (optional)
You also need a flan tin or quiche dish. These can be found in kitchenware shops but are also in IKEA where they cost a lot less. This recipe is enough for an 8 inch diameter dish but can easily be scaled up or down.
Begin by greasing the flan tin or dish. Then using butter or marg straight from the fridge cut it into small bits and rub the flour and salt in. It should resemble a crumble mixture. Add a few drops of cold water so it forms a soft but not sticky dough. Knead the dough lightly, avoid getting it too warm (difficult in this weather I know) and then put it in the fridge for 1/2 hour before rolling it out and lining the flan tin or dish.
Gently fry bacon and onions. Allow to cool a bit and spread evenly over base of flan. Beat together eggs and milk and season with salt and pepper. Pour egg and milk mixture over bacon and onion. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the top. Arrange tomato slices on top.
Bake at 220C in the centre of the oven for 10 mins then reduce heat to 190C for a further 25 mins or until filling is set.
Once cool the quiche can be frozen.
That's the basic recipe. I have tried a number of variations using german ingredients. These are the most sucessful so far.
1. Leek and cheese quiche
Leave out bacon, onion and tomatoes. Replace milk with equivalent quantity of creamed leeks (Rahmporree - found frozen in german supermarkets) Replace cheddar with emmental or gouda if you have too.
2. Spinach and cheese quiche
Same as leek and cheese but use Rahmspinat and a milder cheese. If you use a cheese that cant be grated then blend it into the egg and milk mixture.
3. Pepper quiche
Leave out bacon, onion, cheese and tomatoes. Replace milk with 200g flavoured quark (paprika flavour) and thinly slice a red or yellow pepper to go on top.
4. Mushroom quiche.
Leave out bacon, cheese, onions and tomatoes. Replace at least some of the milk with sour cream. (Saure sahne 10%fett is OK). Fry about 2 cupfulls of mushrooms, drain off excess liquid and stir into the cream and egg mixture before pouring into the flan.
And if in the end you don't have time... I have seen Quiche Lorraine hiding in the frozen food departments in HIT and Globus but I have never sampled it so can't tell you if its any good.
Whenever I cook quiche for Germans I get asked "Was für ein Teig ist das?"
To which I answer "Es ist ein pie Teig" because as far as I can tell shortcrust pastry doesn't exist in german baking and there is no real translation.
