Issue No. 34: It's All Quiche to Me
Hello from probably a pediatric urgent care or something equally abysmal
It wouldn’t be almost Thanksgiving without a string of toddler illnesses, now would it? I have been to the after hours kids clinic four times this week, (love you, ear infections!) but hey howdy hey, everyone went to school today, and let’s just hope nothing more pops up before the cross-country road trip next week.
First things first, one week from T-Day, are you guys ready?
What am I making, you may ask? Quick answer: a big fat nothing. We’re headed to my husband’s extended family gathering in Starkville, Mississippi, and they’ve got it all covered. It feels somewhat strange to be free from culinary responsibility on Thanksgiving, but I’ll store up all that energy and go absolutely nuts at Christmas.
Keep reading for some of my favorite recipes, but more importantly, my thoughts on all the quiche I made last week for a ladies luncheon. Naturally, as I write this, I’m finding myself at the entrance of a rabbit hole on the etymology of lunch and luncheon. I must consider if this is a rabbit hole worth entering. Stay tuned. But never mind me, mind the aforementioned quiche.
Xx
Allison
Good afternoon, and welcome to Editor & Chef, the mostly coherent epicurean ramblings of an occasionally mad woman. If you’re new here, I’m Allison East—aspiring literary agent, book designer by night, mom to two and one on the way, wife to
. I run a small bookish agency called North Parade Press. My work here on Substack often explores the intersection of food writing, my faith, and literature. In my wildest dreams I’d run a gourmet shoppy shoppe in the Cotswolds and write spiritual memoirs probably.Explore some of my past writing here:
The Journal: It’s All Quiche To Me
The first time I planned to host lunch for my bible study, I planned to make soup. But then we all got the stomach bug, so I had to cancel.
No one was upset—who would have thought!
So the second time I planned to host this lunch, set to begin at approximately 9:45 a.m., I thought, “No self respecting woman is eating soup before 11, but plenty of them are eating quiche.” So I simply changed my menu. Quiche! The food of late morning gatherings, the queen of the ladies’ brunch menu.
As I set upon preparing to make the quiche, I began to wonder how this came to be. Mostly because . . . do you know how much butter and cream goes into these things? And onions caramelized in bacon grease? And, dare we add it, gruyere? Oh deary me, things are getting quite interesting. But what can we say. Moreover, how can we not say it: We love quiche.
I also suspect our interest in this baked custard ensconced in buttery pastry has something to do with Julia Child’s lasting impact on American women and the introduction of French food for American people in the late 1950s and early 60s. I don’t have time to provide a history of quiche, not that I would be an expert on it anyways, but I do have time to tell you that Craig Claibourne’s 1957 Quiche Lorraine recipe is quite good.
Would someone from Eastern France balk at the addition of cheese? Probably. Would they make their crust with a food processor? Negativo. Do they know that I’ve never seen Crème fraîche in the state of Oklahoma? C’est tragique! But we must press on.
I settled on a menu of Quiche Lorraine, Smitten Kitchen’s spinach sheet pan quiche (why make one when you can make one regular one and one giant one!), and a really fantastic salad which I will, obviously, describe at length.
The day before the lunch, I made the pie crusts. All butter, thank you very much. After the crusts chilled for the afternoon, I rolled them out, broke a rolling pin in the process, and blind baked them before I went to bed. Who breaks a rolling pin? Snapped the handle clean off.
For the Lorraine, I used a 9-inch pie plate. For the spinach quiche, I used a larger dish, approximately 8 by 12 and 2 inches deep. (Sorry, I used a tape measurer because I’m a lunatic.) I was pleased with how my crust turned out, and didn’t have much shrinkage or any slipping crusts. I think I have been watching way to much GBBO re-runs with my daughter seeing as I was very concerned about shrinkage.
That night, I grated all my cheeses, wrung out every drop of water from the spinach for my spinach filling, and prepped, washed, and cut all my greens for the salad.
I’ll just add this here. Remember the formula for a ladies lunch: You can’t just have quiche; you must have quiche plus big green salad. Ina of course has our solution for this. Her recipe for winter slaw is fantastic, and holds up well to a vinaigrette. I used a mix of shaved Brussels sprouts, Lacinato kale, radicchio, and arugula. For the dressing, I riffed on Via Carota’s Insalate Verde dressing. Read the comments and I will concur, I do think it needs a titch more acid. I added lemon juice.
Currently, my favorite thing to do is use my food processor’s slicer attachment to shred Brussels sprouts. I don’t own a mandoline because I know myself well enough to know it’d send me straight to the ER, but the slicer blade of the food processor achieves the same result, and I keep all my fingers in tact. If you’ve never made a salad of raw Brussels sprouts, consider this is not the first time I’ve told you to do so.
The morning of the lunch, I woke up early to cook the bacon and onions, mix up the eggs and cream, make the salad dressing, and get the quiches into the oven. My prep work made these tasks rather enjoyable, and I did not feel like I was running around with my hair on fire. If you know me, you know this is progress. This is the path to enlightenment. Apron on, slicing an onion at 6 a.m., bacon slowly sizzling away, shallots marrying with the vinegar and olive oil, coffee brewing, Christmas tree twinkling. Everything came together quite nicely.
The quiches baked about 50 minutes at 375. There were no soggy bottoms. The pastry was not tough, and the fillings were fantastic, although I was partial to the bacon, onion, and gruyere. Do I need to explain myself? No, I do not.
Someone remember this for my tombstone: “She sometimes pulled it together.”
The Menu: Thanksgiving Favorites
Here are a few Thanksgiving recipes I’ve gone back to the last several years!
For Turkey: A few years ago, I made Deb Perelman’s Dry Brined Turkey with Roasted Onions. After salting and dry brining for a few days, this turkey gets rubbed down with a harissa and maple syrup combo. Extremely delicious, a little sweet and spicy, and a very short ingredient list.
For an Ambitious Mac and Cheese Lover: Most years for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I make this ridiculous mac and greens a la Marcus Samuelsson's Red Rooster in Harlem. The braised collard greens and bacon add another dimension to an already indulgent mac and cheese. I’ve written about this recipe before, and it is indeed laborious, but I argue the result is worth the effort.
For the Green Bean Fanatics among us: I adore Chris Morocco’s green bean casserole recipe: Bon Appetit’s Best Green Bean Casserole. Maybe it’s the sauteed mushrooms, maybe it’s the parmesan cream sauce, I dunno, it’s perfect.
For Pregnant Me Day Dreaming of What I Want to Eat Right Now: Can anyone drop off a coconut cream pie?
Chime in with anything fantastic you’re whipping up! Happy cooking to you and yours.
XOXO
Allison
Love this! Reminds me of the leek quiche recipe I adapted from Sqirl, a hit L.A. eatery and celebrity watering hole, for easy home cooking!
check it out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com/p/egg-prices-skyrocketed-the-real-culprit