That curiously named dish, the quiche

A week or so ago, quiche was somehow mentioned on tv, an article, or maybe it even came up in our conversation. I'm not really sure. But Steve thought a quiche would be a nice change of pace and I agreed. I haven't made a quiche since . . . um, ever. But it couldn't be that hard since it's basically an egg pie. Which is my new name for quiche - egg pie.

I looked up quiche in my bright shiny green copy of The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh. Two recipes were offered - one for quiche with caraway and leeks (hey! I actually have both of those ingredients!) and one with chiles, bacon, and green onion (and double hey! I have two out of three of these!). I let Steve pick which one to make. Guess which one he went for?

Yes, the one with the bacon, of course.

The recipe in the cookbooks says to cut corners by using a frozen or refrigerated pie crust. Since I have a very good pie crust recipe, I went ahead an made my own. I did eliminate just a bit of the sugar so it wasn't too sweet for this savory pie. I skipped all the instructions regarding the crust except for the par-baking for five minutes.

The rest of the recipe I made as directed and it turned out really well. I could have used a little bit more spice as the green chiles were even more mild than usual it seemed. Next time I might add a bit of chili powder or cayenne.

Bacon and green chile quiche
From The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh

6 servings (or eight in our case)

1 refrigerated pie crust, room temp
8 bacon slices
1 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups half and half (or milk, as I used)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Unfold crust. Using fingertips, press together any tears. Press crust into 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish. (My dish isn't a deep dish, but all of the filling just barely fit.) Press foil onto crust to hold shape. Bake five minutes. Remove from oven; remove foil. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Cook bacon in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat (or microwave, like I did) until brown and crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. (After it cools) crumble bacon. Sprinkle bacon, then chiles and green onions over crust. Mix Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar cheese and sprinkle over. Whisk eggs, half and half, and salt in medium bowl to blend; pour mixture into crust.

Bake quiche until knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let quiche stand (to set) about five minutes. Cut quiche into wedges and serve.

This is not written to be a low-fat recipe but it could easily be adapted so some of the fat is cut out. Such as using milk rather than half and half, low fat cheese (which I usually don't like but I bet it would work in this), and microwaving the bacon. The pie crust also has quite a bit of butter, but when it comes to pie crust, I think the butter needs to stay. Many quiches are crust-free, so this may also work without it.

Enjoy your egg pie!