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Julia Child taught me how to make great quiche.  Well, not personally.  I used her “The Way to Cook” book which is big, colorful, and radiates personality, just like the great French chef herself!  Chef Child explains that quiche is somewhat of a state of mind.  Once you have the basic concept down, the possibilities are endless.  That basic concept is to follow these simple steps:

1. Pre-bake your crust with weights
2. Fill your shell with flavorful ingredients
3. Pour in the custard to surround and fill the shell
4. Bake until brown and puffed

I use frozen, store-bought shells and prefer deep dish for quiche.  Today, I chose Mrs. Smith’s brand, but have used Pillsbury and a couple of other brands.  Right out of the freezer, let the shell stand on the counter for about 20 minutes.  Prick the bottom all over with a fork, then line the shell with aluminum foil and weight with dried beans or pie weights.  If you don’t do this, your shell will puff and bubble and you won’t see a clear separation of custard and crust.  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, discard the beans, and let the crust cool.

Meanwhile, you can prepare your custard and filling.  Because pie shells vary in depth and some fillings will take more space than others, it’s best to use a custard ratio rather than a set amount of eggs and cream.  It may seem strange to say, but quiche is not all about the eggs.  In fact, you want to be careful not to have too much custard.  The goal is to allow the custard to surround and embrace your filling ingredients and, as the eggs slowly cook, suspend them in a creamy cloud of goodness.  So, for each egg you break into your glass measuring cup, add enough liquid (you can use cream, low fat, or skim milk here, but I find whole milk is best) to reach the 1/2 cup mark.  It follows, then, that 2 eggs would need liquid to reach 1 cup and 4 eggs would reach 2 cups.  I used 4 eggs today, but I prepared custard with 5 eggs and had some leftover.  That’s better than having to mix up additional custard if you come up short, so I recommend preparing 4-5 eggs’ worth of custard.

Cheese is another must in quiche.  Finely grated cheese is best and any cheese will do.  If you buy a bag of pre-shredded cheese, you’re making your task much more pleasant and easy!  When you’re ready to fill your shell, start with a layer of shredded cheese covering the entire bottom.  Then, add your flavor ingredients (I’ll get to those in a minute), then the custard, and top with a few more tablespoons of cheese.  Fill the shell to the top, just below where the fluted edge begins.  The quiche will puff while baking, then settle on the counter.  Bake at 375 degrees, usually for about 40 minutes.  The top will get quite brown, which is a good thing.  You want to make sure the custard is fully set or you’ll have runny quiche.  So, don’t go for a gorgeous, pale yellow appearance.  I’ve used the toothpick test and also just slightly jiggled the quiche to see how much wiggle it has to help determine doneness.

Ready to go in the oven

Okay, now the filling!  Once you’ve got that whole feel for what a quiche ought to be, you can fill your shell with anything you like!  I have two favorites.  The one pictured here is broccoli, green onion, and mexican 4-cheese and it’s just delicious!  The other favorite is shrimp, green onion, and Parmesan cheese.  Here’s how I do those:

Broccoli Quiche

Cut florettes into small pieces to make about 2 cups
Slice 3 green onions thin, about 3/4 of the way up (discard the tops)
Prepare custard and add salt/pepper
Line the bottom of the pre-baked shell with shredded Mexican 4-cheese blend
Fill to top with broccoli and green onions
Pour in custard starting in the center and moving out to the edge in a spiral
Top with more cheese and bake

Shrimp Quiche

Chop 12-15 large cooked shrimp, cold (I buy shrimp cocktail)
Grate 1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese (don’t even think about the stuff in the green can!)
Slice 2-3 green onions thin, about 3/4 of the way up (discard the tops)
Line the bottom of the pre-baked shell with Parmesan cheese
Add the shrimp and green onions
Pour in custard starting in the center and moving out to the edge in a spiral
Top with more cheese and bake

Your Daily Bread

1 Peter 2:¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. ⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”