Quiches: tarts with heart

By Terry Farris

Quiches make great summer food. They’re portable enough for a picnic, and robust enough to hold their own as a main meal

There’s more to quiche than Lorraine. Although this lovely tart is credited with being the first of its kind, and it is a true classic, don’t let your imagination stop there. You can incorporate just about any type of ingredient you like – vegetables, meat, fish – into a pie crust set with egg and cream. Most quiches use the easiest-to-make of pastries, short-crust, but if you really don’t want to make your own, you can buy ready-made.

An important technique to be familiar with, whether making your own pastry or using ready-made, is how to ‘bake blind’. This means cooking the pastry on its own, before cooking the filling inside. This stops the pastry from going soggy and gives it a light, crisp texture.

Simply line the pastry in its dish with baking parchment or greaseproof paper and scatter ‘baking beans’ over it to weight it down. These can be the specially made ceramic variety or any type of dried bean. Keep them in a jar just for this purpose and you can use them time after time.

And a final word on what type of tin or dish to use: glass or ceramic quiche dishes are fine and make a handy all-in-one, oven-to-table container. Metal flan rings are also good because they conduct heat very well and allow you to remove the pie from the dish for serving. These also come in small sizes so you can make individual quiches for special occasions. Whichever type you use, make sure it has sides at least 3.5cm high – pastry can shrink during baking, and you need to be able to fit all of the filling inside.

Recipes Shortcrust Pastry Quiche Lorraine Provençale Tart with Herbs Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche Baked Salmon, Dill and Potato Pie Two-haddock and Leek Quiche

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