So where does quiche come from? Quiche as we know it is from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, rich farming and dairy country that France and Germany have fought over for centuries. These days Alsace resides in France, for how long no one can say (those Germans really dig quiche). What about before that? Most […]
READ ONSay it with me. A quiche is not a pie. A quiche is not a pie. A quiche is not a pie. A real quiche is round, flat and with squared corners. None of this American slope-sided pie-plate stuff. That’s not Euro-food elitism talking, it’s simple science. A flat, cylindrical shape heats far more evenly, […]
READ ONIf you really want to see how far quiche has fallen in popularity over the years, try running a recipe search on your favorite food site. I just tried it over at the Food Network and 52 recipes came up for “quiche”. Compare that to “pizza” which yields 604, and “pasta” that comes in at […]
READ ONIt seems Chicago Mayor Daley has been attracting the attention of, shall we say, some “diverse” personalities lately. It seems some lone nut, angry about the police shooting of a wild cougar near my old neighborhood (yes that’s right a 150-pound wild cougar…and were I, my 105-pound wife, and 35 and 25-pound daughters still living […]
READ ONFor those of you not keeping up with the spring horse racing, Big Brown won the Preakness on Saturday — big. He coasted to victory by some 7 lengths, his jockey Kent Desormeaux didn’t even use the whip (in fact I’m pretty sure I saw an open copy of Audition by Barbara Walters in his […]
READ ONNo pastry poses a more fundamental threat to American masculinity than the quiche. This thanks to one Mr. Bruce Feirstein whose 1982 book on the subject made every quiche-loving man subject to cheap cracks and jibes, the dining equivalent of the guy who showers in his shorts after basketball practice. But then it’s unfair to […]
READ ONWhich works fine for me, I’ll have their helping. Quiche is one of those things that when done well, sings like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The problem that real men have with quiche is that it’s been mostly presented to them in foil pie plates on block party buffet tables. You know the stuff I […]
READ ONIt seems miracles do happen. In a bizarre but welcome about-face, the Chicago City Council voted yesterday (37-6) to reverse its 2006 ban on foie gras, clearing the way for goose and duck liver to be served throughout the city starting, well…now. Celebrations are going on at restaurants all over town, but nowhere are they […]
READ ONThere are only a couple of simple rules to remember about water baths. First, that the water you put in them must always be hot, and second that you must never cover them. Why? While filling a water bath with lukewarm or even cool water seems to make sense (slow warming, right?), it actually leads […]
READ ONMore than a few custard recipes call for the addition of a starch, usually corn starch, as a stop-gap against curdling. You frequently find it in pie recipes, flourless chocolate cakes recipes (which routinely instruct home cooks to bake them for extended periods at higher-than-ideal temperatures), and in custard filling recipes, especially pastry cream. How […]
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