Season Foods: French Cuisine #3

Quiche Lorraine - The art of tart; Mastering tart takes practice, but with effort you can make the best tart.

Ingredients

1. Shortcrust Pastry - Flour Butter Salt Egg Water
2. Garnish- Smoked Bacon Ham Gruyere Cheese
3. Appareil - Eggs Cream Salt & Pepper Nutmeg

For the Short Crust Pastry your going to need to sift the flour in a sieve like so,

then whisk the eggs without the shells inside!

In a seperate pot melt the butter just enough so its liquidic, then add butter, salt, into the egg yolks and give it a light whisk. Afterwards, add to the sifted flour. to mix you can use a Kitchen Aid which is great for mixing dough.

After mixing, ball up the dough and place in the fridge for 6 hours. if your in a hurry, at least for 30 minutes- 1 hour in the fridge.
Then roll out the dough like so,

roll out the dough until you get about 4-5mm thick(then put back in the fridge, make sure its even and prepare for the next step.

Here your going to need, baking tray, parchment paper, and ring mold (22cm - for height, depending on if you want it to be higher u can use accordingly). Also ur going to need butter

place the parchment paper on top of the tray, then place the ring mold on the center of the tray. Rub some butter, or some non stick oil,

along the inners of the ring mold. Over the mold ring, place dough like so.

For this technique; your going to have to press in the dough with your fingers, to get the edges of the inner dough align with the mold ring. Make sure you press gently in the ring so the dough doesnt rip. Once thats done, remove the edges of the dough from the top part of the ring. You can use a rolling pin and just roll out the top of the mold ring to remove the excess dough. by placing the rolling pin on top of the ring will pinch the dough along the ring for easy removal of excess. the goal is to have the pie dough inside the ring, and removing the outside of it. Make sure that the top part of the dough is thick enough to hold in the fillings. the dough ring should be about 10mm thick. Or all your filling will fall out.

before you place the dough in the fridge 15-20 minutes, stab the bottom of the pie tart with a fork. This will keep the dough from rising. make sure u make plenty of holes, but also make sure the holes arent to big. just big enough so a grapefly won't be able to go through. (good or bad analogy for food?). >>

Its time for blind baking.
Blind baking is when you bake the pie tart without the fillings. however to prevent the dough from rising out of the pie mold, your going to need weights specific for baking.

create a foil tin to fit close to perfection in the pie tart. the foil is to keep the rocks weights from sticking to the dough.

Once thats done, your going to get your oven and put the dough in it for about 150degrees celcius for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, check the oven, and remove the foil, and tart ring. Then place back in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Once the pie tart is cooked, let it cool. Get ready for the next step.

Boil water for a blanch. Your going to cut the bacon in Lardon Strips.

Then put in the boiling water for at least 30seconds to a minute. Then strain.
After strain, in a pan with butter sautee the bacon. Until they become very crispy.
Set aside. For the gruyere cheese use a cheese grater and grate the cheese. Then cut the ham in small dices, slices, or strips; whichever you prefer (get creative). Set all these ingredients aside and get ready for the Appareil.

Appareil - means mixture in france, particularly thats liquidic. So this is the last of the "mis en place"

Whisk Eggs with the cream, and add nutmeg salt pepper in the Appareil. Your going to have a liquid texture, so have that ready in a bowl or a measuring cup.

Now get your pie tart and start putting in the bacon ham and gruyere cheese in pie tart, layering the cheese and ham bacon, evenly within the tart. This is going to go back in the oven for about 180 degrees celcius for 20 minutes.

Heres where it gets tricky. Remember the holes you stabbed with a fork in the pie, well if the holes are to big then the appareil will seep out. which is not good when your baking. Itll get messy and your pie will look like shit. So to prevent this is what youll do. Now make sure your pie is fixed on the baking sheet and tray. If your pie moves around to much then the appareil will escape the tart, through the holes you made. So just make sure to keep it fixed in one position. then add the appareil verry very very slowly in the tart. and make sure it does not over flow. pouring in slowly will ensure you get it within each and every crevices. Now add a good thick layer of grated gruyere cheese on top.

Finally in the oven it goes for 180degrees c.

bon appetit!

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