The first time I ever made a quiche was sometime during middle school. The experience can be summed up as bad, or even chaotic. The other time being when I burnt my garlic bread into a blackened coal in the grill (because I didn't know you had to leave it open)! Or maybe the time when my white sauce turned into a grey sauce because I put in too much ground black pepper...!! Not "quiche" at all but everyone learns from their mistakes.
It was a warm day and our shortcrust pastry was made with room temperature margarine which hardly got to chill in the fridge as the door was repeatedly opened every five seconds. The horror when we tried to roll it out and line it in the tart ring. I don't remember about the others but I didn't do a very good job at all, so my egg filling was leaking out as soon as I poured it in. If anything, I wanted to give up and just dump the whole thing in the bin. But that's not cool. It came out as a badly made tart shell filled with sauteed onions and sliced tomatoes with a slimy slick of egg on top. I was surprised it even held together. Since then, I've only baked quiche twice, redeeming myself sometime last year. It didn't look too bad and actually tasted alright.
This time round, I wanted to use the tart ring again. I used a wholemeal shortcrust pastry adapted from here, which is very, very manageable. I didn't blind bake it this time, but I will for the next as the shell was a bit soft.
Filling wise: a layer of finely grated parmesan cheese, followed by sauteed diced bacon and onion, blanched baby spinach, peas and mini truss tomatoes cut into two. For the egg mixture, I use the ratio of 1 large egg to 50ml each of thickened cream and milk, seasoned with a bit of white pepper and salt. Before it goes in the oven, I put another layer of cheese on top. In regards to baking time, I just wing it and bake it at 180-200 degrees until it is slightly wobbly and let it finish cooking in the residual heat. My 16 x 3.5cm quiche took about 50-60 minutes altogether. Allow to cool slightly, cut and serve warm.
*If you don't get the quiche joke, maybe you should check this out. Or maybe you've already seen already on tumblr or something. I haven't seen the series yet, but I've watched the mockumentary, We Can Be Heroes at school.
