Quiche Questions

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVFjG8E3sbJcBw-9IWed_Obqd7B8wzDfvM53cBokCFiyRgoWOGfTY4WtOTzqkx665wKqLoEKZsiD61y9U5A53Q9FQ8ew771T90ftzxlnpcW2xQTDrP55_uChY90tXnoBWU87S4SNWI7NiL/s1600/quiche0600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVFjG8E3sbJcBw-9IWed_Obqd7B8wzDfvM53cBokCFiyRgoWOGfTY4WtOTzqkx665wKqLoEKZsiD61y9U5A53Q9FQ8ew771T90ftzxlnpcW2xQTDrP55_uChY90tXnoBWU87S4SNWI7NiL/s400/quiche0600.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New pie weights about to be used</td></tr></tbody></table> After years and years of using dry beans or rice to weight a pie shell, I finally bought myself some ceramic pie weights. Wheee!<br /><br />My culinary reading group is about to discuss <i>The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance</i> by Thomas McNamee so I decided to use the pie weights to prebake a pie shell for a quiche Lorraine according to Claiborne's <i>New York Times Cookbook</i>. There's quite a bit of information and admiration for this book in the biography I just read, in fact.<br /><br />So I <i>sort of</i> followed what Claiborne says to do. His NYT cookbook recipe differs in a couple of ways from the Julia Child recipe, particularly as she says there should be only bacon, not cheese, in quiche Lorraine. Further, Claiborne calls for onion cooked in a small bit of the bacon fat -- she doesn't even mention onion. I think I have always in the past made it her way.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLqsQISyA4YU25awv2kQ-rcFesS9UzbOutKkCdUhdmFRg4nbtHgE3LUo8AA31b0MusnacrbdSkVH3MPAE9SuVaMhFudCfACqw3stovtmSFIYCDscvbvFDGyu7pl9MAzzIsY4t_MOIxCyWn/s1600/quiche602.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLqsQISyA4YU25awv2kQ-rcFesS9UzbOutKkCdUhdmFRg4nbtHgE3LUo8AA31b0MusnacrbdSkVH3MPAE9SuVaMhFudCfACqw3stovtmSFIYCDscvbvFDGyu7pl9MAzzIsY4t_MOIxCyWn/s400/quiche602.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quiche after baking for almost an hour instead of 25 minutes</td></tr></tbody></table>After the amount of time specified in the recipe (which I later verified is the same as Child's baking time), the filling was still absolutely liquid. I ended up baking the quiche for at least twice as long as the recipe says. The oven temperatures were definitely correct.<br /><br />Question 1: Does substituting skim milk for milk + cream make the filling take longer to set? The last time I made quiche, I did the same substitution so I'm not sure. I don't know how long I baked it.<br /><br />Question 2: Am I totally out of my mind if I made this with skim milk instead of cream? It seems to have worked before. What's the problem?<br /><br />Anyway, it wasn't terrible. It definitely wasn't burned or over cooked, either. Next time I'll use cream or make something else.

Quiche Questions

New pie weights about to be used  After years and years of using dry beans or rice to weight a pie shell, I finally bought myself some ceram...

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Tarte au Citron

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggk-MHpLTd6DbfvMFBwD_qL1SjmewEQkUybLauyMAiFcaRj5rBUJj9TCuvfgF5z8vgBW2GinjgIPYoX_slZOjHOxKFrJtIUtKmpoHrX2ZRB8XoERYlQq7blwxmstaX2_yIEgJ0VBUip23n/s1600/citron1109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggk-MHpLTd6DbfvMFBwD_qL1SjmewEQkUybLauyMAiFcaRj5rBUJj9TCuvfgF5z8vgBW2GinjgIPYoX_slZOjHOxKFrJtIUtKmpoHrX2ZRB8XoERYlQq7blwxmstaX2_yIEgJ0VBUip23n/s320/citron1109.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />My project: to master a recipe for French-style Tarte au Citron. Above: my first effort. The crust and sugared lemons on top were based on this: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/sep/22/cook-perfect-tarte-au-citron">How to cook perfect tarte au citron</a>. I used a Julia Child recipe for the filling. The crust, especially, needs work, but the result was quite delicious.

Tarte au Citron

My project: to master a recipe for French-style Tarte au Citron. Above: my first effort. The crust and sugared lemons on top were based on t...

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Julia Child Recipes

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">More spinoff from thinking about Julia Child's 100th birthday ...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-tIepJ5qAEtpP3t0Bj_S05L7bEiBy-KShhKHNfjjZnveB5DO4Gb8oM3W3OApYNVGdfqJfgNb93hSP9zG1uDudCux-RdxEFIM53g8uGXq3y4HZJVyGGNW4yRqYW-EuZ82Tys1sfc5YRryk/s1600/champigons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-tIepJ5qAEtpP3t0Bj_S05L7bEiBy-KShhKHNfjjZnveB5DO4Gb8oM3W3OApYNVGdfqJfgNb93hSP9zG1uDudCux-RdxEFIM53g8uGXq3y4HZJVyGGNW4yRqYW-EuZ82Tys1sfc5YRryk/s320/champigons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />August 17: Champignons a la Grecque, served with tomato, cucumber, and cilantro.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJjXvTvMTQQQw1ojdP4JlZH1qXhHrK-wIbgaSie-gIuv0VE2Kdfvt_tKkmgQmh_72W5lqBSFN4dIjV2PhgSH0BtBvJhHHLif8fYJ3O0sS1nqG8cBbD0Lq6P3XvqYWkKVtA2YtdX_2o-sL/s1600/clafoutis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJjXvTvMTQQQw1ojdP4JlZH1qXhHrK-wIbgaSie-gIuv0VE2Kdfvt_tKkmgQmh_72W5lqBSFN4dIjV2PhgSH0BtBvJhHHLif8fYJ3O0sS1nqG8cBbD0Lq6P3XvqYWkKVtA2YtdX_2o-sL/s320/clafoutis.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Tonight: a clafoutis made with huge black cherries. I think I last made this in 1965, though I suspect I have made clafoutis with other fruit once or twice in the intervening years. My guest in 1965 quipped, "What about clafou-coffee?"

Julia Child Recipes

More spinoff from thinking about Julia Child's 100th birthday ... August 17: Champignons a la Grecque, served with tomato, cucumber, and...

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Happy Birthday Julia Child and Evelyn

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9w9rhULo8OVXegTfXABYXpU7VpLJaoGASA81FxXnqs2_BHIlBI_ZrHlZWTZL6DPjeK9w1f4gRRXddU9rnOlvdFEUlza-rahkb7aikTbB_uINEDWM_DXQogQctUjHvXtgKaXqlJGBCw_y/s1600/julia-child1039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9w9rhULo8OVXegTfXABYXpU7VpLJaoGASA81FxXnqs2_BHIlBI_ZrHlZWTZL6DPjeK9w1f4gRRXddU9rnOlvdFEUlza-rahkb7aikTbB_uINEDWM_DXQogQctUjHvXtgKaXqlJGBCw_y/s320/julia-child1039.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Julia Child would be 100  years old today -- as every food blogger and food writer knows. I first encountered her work and TV show in the fall of 1964, when I was newly married and learning to cook. Marcy, the secretary of the office where I was working was a member of Book of the Month Club, and purchased <i>Mastering the Art of French Cooking</i> for me at a reduced price. I loved it immediately!<br /><br />In gratitude, we invited Marcy to dinner, though in fact we didn't have much in common with her. I made the recipe on page 246: "Roast squab Chickens with Chicken Liver Canapes and Mushrooms" -- I used Rock Cornish Hens. I have never made that recipe again, though I've tried dozens of others in that book. Why I remember that one, I can't imagine. I served it on a beautiful Danish Modern wood tray that had been a wedding present. Forever after it faintly smelled of liver.<br /><br />Over time, I've memorized many of the recipes from <i>Mastering the Art of French Cooking</i>, and now make them without looking. A few of these favorites: onion soup, carbonnades a la Flamande, casserole roasted veal, gratin Dauphinoise, salade Nicoise. I once roasted a goose according to her recipe (memorable, but it's hard to find another goose), and once made Riz a l'Imperatrice (disappointing). I made clafoutis a few times. I use her recipes for crepes, ratatouille, daube de Provence, and chicken with tarragon, and quite a few others. Despite my love of artichokes, I don't recall having tried her method of trimming them down to the artichoke bottoms and then stuffing them. And I admit that I've never had the patience to try the most challenging desserts, those with puff pastry.<br /><br />Over the years, I have acquired other Julia Child books, beginning with the second volume of <i>Mastering...</i>, which was published a few years later. Compared to my original copy of Volume I, full of stains, splashes, and dog-ears, my Volume II is pristine. I'm not sure I've ever made a single recipe from it, though Lenny did make the French bread recipe for a while. It's full of things I would be afraid to try, like roast suckling pig.<br /><br /><i>Julia Child & Company, </i>published in 1978, turned out to be a real favorite. My copy is full of notes about when I cooked various dishes or even whole meals. For example, the "Indoor Outdoor Barbecue" gave us the idea of cooking a butterflied leg of lamb on the barbecue. It's fantastic -- we have done it often. My handwritten notes on page 193 record that I made the entire dinner on May 6, 1984 (including the Topinambours, or Jerusalem artichokes), and repeated all or part of it in 1992, 2004, and 2010. Here's the photo of that meal from the book:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi59w3Jn7c1df5Ja6rH-uxs8lcCGz6xwDOf63uZiwlvFeK4O0gP8syjaw9tU6_IlEwh1pw2I3wy8Ncxrozp2dsf_4-dGRMsixVr9YbkW4LaGxXB_5ZgcbelilVSxI5YYzH3Gp-7CamVgdzG/s1600/julia-child1040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi59w3Jn7c1df5Ja6rH-uxs8lcCGz6xwDOf63uZiwlvFeK4O0gP8syjaw9tU6_IlEwh1pw2I3wy8Ncxrozp2dsf_4-dGRMsixVr9YbkW4LaGxXB_5ZgcbelilVSxI5YYzH3Gp-7CamVgdzG/s320/julia-child1040.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I have loved all her books that I own -- shown at the top of this post. The one I bought most recently was <i>My Life In France</i>, her wonderful autobiography. And I have also enjoyed her kitchen in the Smithsonian, <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2008/06/julia-childs-kitchen-in-smithsonian.html">which I wrote up here</a>.<br /><br />Happy Birthday, Julia. And also happy birthday Evelyn, who shares her birthday.

Happy Birthday Julia Child and Evelyn

Julia Child would be 100  years old today -- as every food blogger and food writer knows. I first encountered her work and TV show in the fa...

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Quiche = Pie for Pi Day

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfr6Js-OR5_z6H5TP6dlfcX7aN9pIX1SZo5lONAtAV4EYxqVKlkRaye50C8CXCeI2ooRnQOAB6l1BepsW-BUOIDg_dgpBZkZJn2ehWnnMG0AJhD7BTuap_1uRFXWVP863fEuUWrXTxmGK/s1600/pi-pie9364.jpg" style="font-style: normal; "><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719894194828693906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfr6Js-OR5_z6H5TP6dlfcX7aN9pIX1SZo5lONAtAV4EYxqVKlkRaye50C8CXCeI2ooRnQOAB6l1BepsW-BUOIDg_dgpBZkZJn2ehWnnMG0AJhD7BTuap_1uRFXWVP863fEuUWrXTxmGK/s400/pi-pie9364.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br />Here's the pie -- in this case a Quiche Lorraine -- for this year's Pi Day, today, 3-14. I like the idea of round food for Pi Day! I baked the big letter PI separately and added it as a decoration.<div style="font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">For my quiche I started with my old standby piecrust recipe from the Cuisinart cookbook. I adapted this evening's method as well as filling from Julia Child's first great cookbook. That was the first quiche recipe I ever made, to me the authentic and original (not any of those debased concoctions from the 1980s!) Tonight, heretically, I used skim milk in place of cream.<div><br />Below you can see the ingredients, ready to assemble: a partly-baked 8 inch pie shell, a mixture of eggs, milk and spice, and some lightly browned bacon, for which I used pancetta. Note that pancetta is a less-heavily smoky bacon than the usual kind, so I didn't blanch it. Blanching smoky American bacon was a step that Julia Child needed because the lighter European style bacon varieties weren't then available here. So I don't feel that was a heretical choice at all!</div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjBgiy7FRdD3ekqN6IZLIUHQd2mbxybL6LqFhDNGM2HtYKBK5_4XOEqYS184Guv2bckeVvmhE5jNP3bHsw5hrSRfzhnmCrMRjPkQe6i6oWZonsUbinR2CE7awq-A8bB3WUafCI9qdg22zI/s1600/pi-pie9355.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719894180505665586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjBgiy7FRdD3ekqN6IZLIUHQd2mbxybL6LqFhDNGM2HtYKBK5_4XOEqYS184Guv2bckeVvmhE5jNP3bHsw5hrSRfzhnmCrMRjPkQe6i6oWZonsUbinR2CE7awq-A8bB3WUafCI9qdg22zI/s400/pi-pie9355.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br /></div>I arranged the bacon on the crust, poured in the eggs, dotted the top with a few pats of butter, and baked it as directed. It did puff up and was very delicate and good!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFKW4xlodSw4zH40yG6W13TFwboMY_6ebGxYa_C7dLd0Szg045IQyU4IUXZQ0P8TT2fwRRD2OqKaX0Sa1vQ7-acryC4Ni0jvFe7NfsJQfx8NXSuMl9BV4PSAbdwgPqsWwx10PpvRhyV8QJ/s1600/pi-pie9358.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719894186403889074" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFKW4xlodSw4zH40yG6W13TFwboMY_6ebGxYa_C7dLd0Szg045IQyU4IUXZQ0P8TT2fwRRD2OqKaX0Sa1vQ7-acryC4Ni0jvFe7NfsJQfx8NXSuMl9BV4PSAbdwgPqsWwx10PpvRhyV8QJ/s400/pi-pie9358.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a></div><br />The first time I ever ate quiche was at my friend Olga's college apartment. She was such a sophisticate! I had never heard of it, but not long afterwards, I also tried quiche in France, and then came back to learn to cook French food from the recently-published <span style="font-style: italic; ">Mastering the Art of French Cooking</span><i style="font-style: normal; ">.</i> The book <i>Real Men Don't Eat Quiche</i> was published quite a lot later, after the crimes against quiche that were propagated by second-tier restaurants that made it days in advance and thought you could just warm it up and put a leaf next to it and call it French. No way. This is the real deal.

Quiche = Pie for Pi Day

Here's the pie -- in this case a Quiche Lorraine -- for this year's Pi Day, today, 3-14. I like the idea of round food for Pi Day! I...

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Here's to Julia Child

For New Year's Eve I decided to make a very retro dinner: duck a l'orange from the first volume of <span style="font-style: italic;">Mastering the Art of French Cooking</span>. I neglected Julia's suggestion of simple side dishes and made acorn squash with cranberry relish and kasha to go with it. Our friends Elaine and Bob brought appetizers (spreads from Detroit's fantastic Star Deli) and dessert (a rum cake from a bake sale, made by the wife of the Russian Orthodox priest in town).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312059041/" title="nyeve0329 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0329" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5285/5312059041_025e643115.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312648500/" title="nyeve0330 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0330" height="334" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5312648500_7d766170fe.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312058493/" title="nyeve0336 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0336" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5125/5312058493_7d2d4f79f7.jpg" width="333" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312648288/" title="nyeve0342 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0342" height="685" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/5312648288_5b760528d5_b.jpg" width="1024" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312649000/" title="nyeve0347 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0347" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5312649000_edf6c0d97f.jpg" width="433" /></a>

Here's to Julia Child

For New Year's Eve I decided to make a very retro dinner: duck a l'orange from the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooki...

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Julia Child Lives

Just a note to say that I made a Julia Child recipe for dinner, accompanied by the sides she recommended. A ragout of duck in which the sauce contained a whole head of garlic, accompanied by rice with mushrooms and steamed broccoli. A baguette from the store. Simple. Delicious.<br /><br />But I didn't take any photos. My recipe came from the book <span style="font-style: italic;">Julia Child & Company</span>, but she also made the same dish on one of her shows with Jacques Pepin. In fact, I was motivated by a rerun of the Jacques Pepin-Julia Child show that was shown recently on the Create channel from PBS.<br /><br />She's still my favorite cooking teacher and recipe writer.

Julia Child Lives

Just a note to say that I made a Julia Child recipe for dinner, accompanied by the sides she recommended. A ragout of duck in which the sauc...

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