Ode to Quiche

One big change in my life since Hubbie has gone back to work is the increased importance of dejeuner (lunch). This is because he works only 15 minutes away by car, so a couple of times a week he comes home for lunch. He doesn't ask for much. I could put a tuna sandwich in front of him and he'd be happy. Yesterday all he had was bread and a tin of Saladiere, and he didn't complain. But today, I thought I would try my best to be a good wife. I thought, if he's coming home, he shouldn't just come home to canned fish. So I made a quiche.

Last weekend I bought a roll of ready-made pastry crust (the crust is brisée, not sure what you'd call it in English). It occurred to me the French traditionally made quiches to use up leftovers. What a great idea! I looked through my fridge and tried to match what I saw with one of the quiche recipes I had. Eggs, tick. Cream, tick. Then I thought, Hold on a sec. This is simple stuff. It's always the same basic things (eggs, cream, emmental cheese), just slightly different added bits.

I had a leek and lardons fumées (like little pieces of thick, smoked bacon). So why not? I fried up the 100 g lardons and then added the sliced leek (just the white part). I splashed a bit of water in it to keep the leek from getting crunchy (other recipes used stock, but I didn't have the time nor inclination). In a bowl I mixed together 4 eggs and 200 ml light cream and then 100-150 g grated emmental. I didn't mess with splitting yolks and whites. I didn't even use the scale to measure the emmental. Hey now, that's exciting! Then a dash of salt, pepper and ground nutmeg (or cayenne pepper, but my 21-month old doesn't like the kick).

Once the leek was soft, I added the lardons and leek into the wet mix. Some perfectionist's recipe tells you to "sprinkle" the lardons over the crust to make sure it gets evenly distributed. To that I say, What a waste of time!

I wanted to add a tin of button mushrooms but then I remembered who this was for, and he hates mushrooms. Anyone ever try putting canned mushrooms in a quiche? Was it good?

With well-clipped nails, it should only take at most 5 minutes to stretch the crust over the baking pan you're using and poke holes in the bottom with a fork. I had taken the dough out of the fridge well in advance, but it took way too long for me to press the dough into the ridges of the pan as I tried to avoid getting nail marks in the dough. Once that was done and the wet mix was in the crust, I realised I had turned on the oven way too late. Now I had to wait for the oven to heat all the way to 180 C. Fortunately, Hubbie arrived at 12:30 and not 12, and the quiche was ready at 12:40. Presented with a bit of salad, voila. And not only did he like it, but his finicky son did too. I think we'll be eating a lot of quiche for the next few weeks.

The wrong side of the tracks

From our living room window on the sixth floor, the windswept sky, a municipal sanitation warehouse and a freight train station take up most of our view. A long nondescript building which I assume functions as train storage or for fixing old trains, runs right to left and seems to divide the multiple lines of rail into two halves. At night, when the fog rolls in and the dim streetlights puncture the dark, we can sometimes see a pair of headlights raking the streets, someone undoubtedly in search of the type of female company that's for sale. Not far from the train tracks is a settlement of people who live on the streets, called in French, SDF (sans domicile-fixe). Many of these SDF, generally the ones who choose to live rough, have large scary dogs who look hungry enough to eat you if you pass too closely. It's said the SDF keep these dogs to deter police arrest, on account of a law stating a dog must be caught and cared for if its owner is arrested. I generally don't have an opinion about the homeless keeping dogs, except when I step in what they so generously leave behind on the pavements.

People tell me this town isn't what it used to be, that it's seen much better days and no one seems to care about it anymore. Now it is a haven for the SDF and other not-so-desirables. To me, it still has a beauty and a history asking to be explored...