Getting Acquainted with Quiche

GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH QUICHE

I don’t remember ever having quiche at home when I was growing up.  We had omelets and scrambled eggs and dessert custards but never quiche.  I don’t know if my mother had never heard of quiche or it just didn’t appeal to her and she never tried to make it but we never had it that I can recall.

Quiche, pronounce “kee sh” is primarily considered to be a French dish, an egg custard type dish that has a bread dough like crust (or pie crust) on the bottom and commonly contains a vegetable, herbs and sometimes cheese or meat, more often bacon than other kinds of meat.  However it is also a dish that was popular among the English, Scottish, the Dutch and the Danes.  They each have their own unique way of preparing it but it is all the same basic recipe. 

My first experience with quiche was one day when I was in college.  I rented a room from a lady off campus.  She had a large house and rented to college students.  About once a week she would prepare a nice meal and invite the students of her household to her table.  She was a delightful lady and a great cook.  One day she prepared this fabulous fare for us.  It was what she called “Egg pie” but most of us recognize it today as quiche.

I talked about her marvelous “egg pie” for days.  It was so good.  I wanted to learn how to make it.  One Saturday when it was just my landlady and me at home she came to my room and asked if I had plans for lunch.  I said “No, nothing particular,” and then she asked if I really wanted to learn to make “egg pie.”  I smiled and said, “You bet.”  My landlady nodded and told me to finish what I was doing and then meet her in the kitchen; she would share her recipe with me and teach me to make her famous “egg pie.” 

I was delighted.  It was going to be something fun to do on this gray and rainy Saturday away from home and family.  I was already bored and a little frustrated with my homework but I still had all day Sunday to finish that.  Now I had something special to do and it didn’t take me long to finish up the page of accounting I was working on and head for the kitchen.  I’d do the balance sheets later.