You must remember this, a quiche is still a quiche, a pie is still a pie . . .
It seemed to be everywhere - the odd-sounding, omnipresent quiche.A perfect fit for ladies luncheons, the bane of manly men.
Food historians now consider the quiche to have been a major culinary trend of this century.
Julia Child, whose '70s television show turned us on to French cooking, is credited with bringing Quiche Lorraine, the ever-so-chic baked custard pie to the attention of Americans hungry for fancier fare . . . something more cosmopolitan than creamed tuna on toast.
Soon, the simple concoction of eggs, cheese and you-name-it became the home cook's solution for what to serve for brunch.
Professional chefs quickly picked up on quiche's rising popularity, adding their own odd combinations of ingredients to the basic recipe. Restaurants featured quiche packed with everything from smoked salmon to sauerkraut.
Even thrifty homemakers discovered they could use quiche as a receptacle during fridge clean-out time.
But all was not well with the male population, who had patiently nibbled one-too-many soggy quiches. Encouraged by Bruce Feirstein's best seller, "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche," they rebelled - refusing to eat "sissy food."
The quiche phenomonen began to crumble.
Quiche Lorraine looked more like Keesh LaVern.
Washington Post reporter Candy Sagon observed, "Thanks to the American penchant for taking a perfectly good dish from another country and then bludgeoning it into mediocrity with mismatched ingredients and slipshod cooking techniques, quiche became a parody of the original French dish."
The death knell sounded with the mass hysteria over cholesterol.
Quiche was branded as "outre," a tired culinary cliche packed full of killer eggs.
But quelle surprise! Julia's once-pristine pie is making a comeback from its soggy adieu.
A new generation of cooks are discovering the ease of preparation and appealing flavor of quiche. This time around, however, reduced amounts of cheese and egg are restoring quiche's tainted reputation.
To be sure, pastry, cheese and eggs are on the high-fat hit parade, but there are lower fat alternatives. Cooking Light magazine's food editor, Mary Creel, has several recommendations for preparing a more healthful quiche.
- Use two egg whites in place of a whole egg.
"We've found that the traditional quiche (we tested) had a creamier texture if you leave an egg yolk or two in the recipe, but if a recipe calls for four eggs, it will turn out just fine with two whole eggs and four egg whites. When the quiche is cut into six slices, each diner will get only one-third of an egg yolk."
- Use evaporated skim milk or lowfat milk instead of cream.
Add a couple of tablespoons of nonfat dry milk powder to the milk and egg mixture to make it creamier.
- Using egg substitutes is fine, but try adding a couple of tablespoons of nonfat dry milk powder to the liquid for a creamier texture.
- For a lower fat quiche, use bread dough sticks for the crust.
Roll them out flat and fit them into the pan just as you would a pie crust.
- Try using phyllo dough or flour tortillas instead of traditional rich crusts, but spray the pan first with non-stick cooking spray.
- Another alternative to the classic butter crust is to buy a frozen crust made with all-vegetable shortening.
- Cut back on the amount of cheese. Load up on vegetables for bulk and herbs for flavor. Lowfat products such as Neufchatel (lowfat cream cheese) and fat-reduced cheeses can be substituted with great success.
"But you're destroying the true essence of the quiche," Francophiles may insist.
If you just can't bring yourself to skimp on any ingredients that add to the richness of the born-again savory pie, that's just fine.
Simply pare down the size of the slice and enjoy.
But this time around, do yourself a favor - don't assemble a quiche on the same day you defrost the fridge.
*****
RECIPES
BASIC QUICHE IN PUFF PASTRY
For Custard:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups half and half
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Frozen puff pastry (1 sheet, about 12-by-14 inches)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Thaw puff pastry; place in 9-inch pie dish and flute the pastry's edges. Combine eggs, half and half and spices. Beat thoroughly. Place filling variation into the unbaked, prepared 9-inch puff pastry crust and cover with egg mixture. Cover with heavy aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 375 degrees F. Remove aluminum foil and continue baking for 10-15 minutes. Serves 6.
- From New Helvetia restaurant
ASPARAGUS AND TOMATO QUICHE
Basic quiche recipe (above)
8 ounces asparagus, blanched and chopped
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Tomato slices for garnish (left baking quiche)
Combine and place into unbaked puff pastry crust; cover with egg mixture and proceed with Basic Quiche recipe.
- Each serving contains 524 calories, 35g fat, 27g carb, 752mg sodium, 60mg cholesterol, 60% calories from fat.
SANTA FE HAM QUICHE
Basic quiche recipe (above) 8 ounces ham, diced
3/4 cup canned green chiles, diced
1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Combine and place into unbaked puff pastry crust; cover with egg mixture and proceed with Basic Quiche recipe.
- Each serving contains 610 calories, 43g fat, 27g carb, 1191mg sodium, 91mg cholesterol, 63% calories from fat.
SMOKED BACON AND RED POTATO QUICHE
Basic quiche recipe (above)
4 ounces smoked bacon, cooked and chopped
1 1/2 cups red potatoes, parboiled
1 1/2 cups sharp yellow or white Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup black olives, sliced
Combine and place into unbaked puff pastry crust; cover with egg mixture and proceed with Basic Quiche recipe.
- Each serving contains 718 calories, 49g fat, 48g carb, 1907mg sodium, 101mg cholesterol, 60% calories from fat.
CHEESE AND BACON QUICHE
6 strips cooked bacon
1 9-inch prebaked pie shell
1/2 cup coarsely grated Swiss cheese
3 large eggs blended with enough milk to equal 1 1/2 cups
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Break up the pieces of bacon and scatter them in the bottom of the pre-cooked and cooled pie shell. Sprinkle on all but a spoonful of the cheese. Season the custard, and pour it to within 1/8-inch of the rim; sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and browned. Serves 6.
- Each serving contains 254 calories, 17g fat, 16g carb, 613mg sodium, 115mg cholesterol, 60% calories from fat.
- From "The Way To Cook" by Julia Child
- NOTE: Quiche Lorraine, the most famous of all, is the "Mother Quiche." To prepare it, follow the Cheese and Bacon Quiche recipe but, rather than using plain milk as a base, substitute rich cream; use no cheese. Julia says, "It's marvelous indeed!."
- Each serving of Quiche Lorraine contains 400 calories, 35g fat, 15g carb, 600mg sodium, 87mg cholesterol, 78% calories from fat.
LOWER FAT QUICHE LORRAINE
1 7-ounce package refrigerated bread-stick dough
Vegetable cooking spray
1 1/2 cups slivered onion
6 slices turkey bacon, chopped
3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat, reduced-sodium Swiss cheese
1 cup evaporated skim milk
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash of ground red pepper
2 eggs
2 egg whites
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Unroll bread-stick dough, separating into strips. Working on a flat surface, coil one strip of dough around itself in a spiral pattern. Add second strip of dough to the end of the first strip, pinching ends together to seal; continue coiling dough in a spiral pattern. Repeat procedure with remaining dough strips to make an 8-inch flat circle.
Roll dough into a 13-inch circle and fit into a 9-inch quiche dish or pie plate coated with cooking spray. Fold edges under and flute; set prepared crust aside. Combine onion and bacon in medium nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray. Cook 10 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Spread onion mixture in prepared crust. Top onion mixture with cheese and set aside. Combine milk, cornstarch, nutmeg, red pepper, eggs and egg whites in container of an electric blender; cover and process until smooth. Pour milk mixture over cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until a knife inserted 1 inch from center comes out clean; let stand 10 minutes. Serves 6.
- Each serving contains 286 calories, 12g fat, 29g carb, 492mg sodium, 29mg cholesterol, 35% calories from fat.
- From Cooking Light magazine
ZUCCHINI QUICHE
4 cups thinly sliced unpeeled zucchini
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
8 ounces grated mozzarella, Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
2 teaspoons prepared Dijon mustard
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Saute zucchini and onion in butter or margarine until tender. Add parsley and seasonings. Blend eggs and cheese in bowl, add veggie mixture. Separate dough into its triangles, arrange in ungreased 10-inch pie plate, pressing over bottom and up sides to form crust.
Paint crust with mustard; pour veggie/-egg/-cheese mixture into crust. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Allow quiche to stand 10 minutes to set before serving. Serves 6.
Variations: Just before baking quiche, add mushrooms and slices of tomato on top on quiche.
- Each serving contains 395 calories, 26g fat, 29g carb, 937mg sodium, 42mg cholesterol, 56% calories from fat.
- From (recipes@soar.berkeley.edu).
SPINACH-FETA QUICHE
2 large eggs
1 cup 1% milk
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese, rinsed to remove excess salt
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon dillweed
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, cooked according to package instructions and drained
3 tablespoons minced onions, sauteed in a little butter until soft
1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the eggs, milk, feta and Parmesan in a bowl and stir until blended. Stir in the seasonings, spinach and onions. Pour everything into the crust and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until puffed and brown. Serves 6.
- Each serving contains 285 calories, 18g fat, 19g carb, 668mg sodium, 31mg cholesterol, 57% calories from fat.
- From "Fashionable Food" by Sylvia Lovegren