Alsatian Onion Quiche Recipes

TARTE FLAMBEE (ALSATIAN BACON & ONION TART)

Steps:

• Place bacon in a skillet and cook over medium-high heat until cooked but not crisp and fat has rendered out, about 8 minutes. Drain in a strainer; reserve the fat.
• Place skillet back over medium heat. Add sliced onions. Cook briefly just until they lose their raw edge and soften up slightly, 3 to 5 minutes. Add a teaspoon or 2 of bacon fat if pan seems too dry. Remove skillet from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Mix fromage blanc, creme fraiche, nutmeg, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper together in a mixing bowl.
• Place 1 ball of pizza dough on a well-floured surface. Flatten and roll out to a 10- or 12-inch thin circle. Transfer to a cold cast iron pan. Heat over medium-high heat to pre-cook the bottom of the crust. As dough heats and bubbles appear, deflate them with the tines of a fork so crust ends up thin and crisp (not chewy). When bottom is nicely browned and just about to start getting charred, 5 to 7 minutes, remove from heat. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Spread a generous amount of cheese mixture over the crust. Top evenly with some onions and then the bacon. Broil 5 or 6 minutes until edges are browned and starting to lift. Repeat for remaining tartes.

ALSACE ONION TART

Steps:

• Make pastry:
• Blend together flour, butter, shortening, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Drizzle evenly with 4 tablespoons ice water and gently stir with a fork (or pulse in processor) until incorporated.
• Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn't hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just incorporated, then test again. (Do not overwork mixture, or pastry will be tough.)
• Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 equal portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion. Gather dough together with pastry scraper and press into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Roll out dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 14-inch round and fit into tart pan. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang over pastry and press against side to reinforce edge. Lightly prick bottom with a fork and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
• Line chilled shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake until pastry is set and pale golden along rim, 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake shell until golden all over, 10 to 15 minutes more. Transfer shell to a rack. (Leave oven on.)
• Prepare filling while shell bakes:
• Cook bacon in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer bacon with a slotted spatula to paper towels to drain and pour off bacon fat. Add butter to skillet and cook onions with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper over moderate heat, stirring, until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Cover surface of onions with a round of parchment or wax paper (or cover skillet with a tight-fitting lid) and continue to cook, lifting parchment to stir frequently, until onions are very soft and pale golden, about 20 minutes. Stir in bacon, then remove from heat and cool 10 minutes.
• Whisk together crème fraîche, eggs, nutmeg, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl, then stir in onions.
• Fill and bake tart:
• Pour filling into tart shell, spreading onions evenly, and bake until filling is set and top is golden, 25 to 35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

ALSATIAN QUICHE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees for the quiche.
• In a bowl, beat eggs with a whisk; add the cream and beat again; add the grated onion and beat yet again.
• Sprinkle bacon in the bottom of the shell; sprinkle parmesan over the top of that.
• Pour cream mixture over all.
• Dot the top with small bits of butter.
• Place the pan on a cookie sheet or other drip pan and into a preheated oven.
• Bake at 350 degrees until domed and light brown.
• Cool 1/2 hour before cutting and serving.

ALSATIAN QUICHE WITH BACON AND CARAMELIZED ONIONS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Unroll the pie crust and place in a 9-inch pie dish. Flute the edges or press with a fork to crimp the edges.
• Prick the bottom of the pie crust with a fork. Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pie crust and fill with pie weights (dried beans work, too!). Bake the crust for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. This is called par-baking the crust.
• Meanwhile, place the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until crisp, flipping once, about 6-8 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain. When the bacon has cooled, crumble it gently with your fingers.
• Add the butter to the bacon fat. Add the onions, plus ½ teaspoon salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the onions start to soften. Lower heat to medium low and cover the pan. Continue to cook the onions, uncovering and stirring every 2-3 minutes until the onions are medium brown and very soft-about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place the eggs, half & half, remaining ½ teaspoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
• Place the cooled onions in the bottom of the par-baked pie crust. Top with the bacon. Pour the egg mixture over the top and top with the shredded Gruyere.
• Bake on the middle rack in the preheated oven until the quiche is beginning to turn light brown in spots, about 45-50 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving or cool completely and serve at room temperature.

ONION TART

Steps:

• Blend flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Scatter butter over flour, top with lid and pulse 12 pulses to cut butter into flour to a coarse meal consistency.
• Dump butter-flour mixture into a medium stainless bowl. Make a well in the center and pour ice-cold water into the well.
• Using a flexible plastic dough scraper instead of your warm hands, bring the dough together by folding and pressing. Be firm and brisk and get the dough past its shaggy stage into a neat disk, trying to avoid using your hands or too much kneading. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Meanwhile, cut the onions in half and peel them. Slice the halves with the ribs (root end to sprout end direction), not against, to create julienne slices rather than half moons.
• In a wide sauté pan over medium-low heat, melt the bacon fat and slowly sweat the onions until they are caramelized. Take all the minutes you need - 25 or so - to let them soften to translucent, then to let the water they release start to evaporate, then to allow the sugars they contain to start to brown in the pan, so that you end up with soft, sweet and evenly browned onions. This is achieved by a slow caramelization. Set onions aside to cool.
• Roll tart dough out to a 1/4-inch-thick round, and drape over a round 10-inch fluted false-bottom tart pan. Lay dough into the pan, gently pressing into the bottom, and roll the pin across the pan to cut off the excess dough. Use your fingers to press the edges into the flutes, accentuating the shape of the dough edge. Dock the bottom of the dough with the tines of a fork, weight the pastry with beans or weight and blind-bake for 25 minutes.
• In a bowl, beat the egg with the cream. Stir in the caramelized onions. Season with pepper, nutmeg and salt to taste. Stir well, and make sure the onions are all evenly coated with the custard.
• Remove tart shell from oven, and slip it onto a baking sheet. Remove weights, fill with the onion-custard mixture and distribute it evenly. Return tart to oven on the sheet, and bake for 25 minutes, or until custard has set, the tops of the onions start to achieve a deeper brown and the dough is dark golden brown at the edges.
• Remove from the ring, and allow to cool just a few minutes on the rack, so that the piping hot tart shell can kind of tighten up enough to be sliced with a sharp chef's knife. (In the first few minutes straight out of the oven, the dough is kind of soft from the heat, possibly giving you the false impression that you have a soggy tart. Let it sit on the rack just to shake off this initial soft stage and to recrisp and refirm, which it will.) Cut into wedges, and serve while hot.

ALSATIAN ONION QUICHE

Steps:

• Fit pastry into a deep-dish pie pan. (1 recipe pate brisee #rz.170934).
• Sauté the onions in the butter over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until they turn very soft and translucent.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Sprinkle the onions onto the bottom layer of the pastry.
• Beat together the eggs, half and half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
• Pour the eggs over the onions and bake the quiche for 45-50 minutes, until the eggs are set in the middle.
• Cool slightly and serve.