Sunday, April 22, 2007

A very rustic quiche

My local Waitrose was having a promotion on French cheeses and it seemed rude not to try a few of their proffered samples. I really enjoyed the Pié d'Angloys which is a creamy little number created by Cistern monks and Germain Langres from the Champagne Ardennes. They also were giving out a booklet with a few recipes for sharing some of France's delicious cheeses and one in particular caught my eye.

Le Rustique Quiche Normande
to share with 8
Prep: 5min Cook: 50min
1 Le Rustique Camembert 250g
2 medium onions, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
7 tbsp water
100g bacon, chopped
200g short crust pastry
- Stew the onions in a pan with the olive oil and water over a low heat until the onions soften
- in a frying pan, cook the bacon for 5 minutes until golden.
- Roll out the shortcrust pastry until 5mm thick
- Cut out a circle slightly larger than the the Camembert, and place onto a baking tray
- Slice the Camembert in half horizontally and place one half on the the pastry.
- Cover this half of the Camembert with the onions and most of the bacon
- Then place the other half of the Camembert, rind side down, on top.
- Mould the pastry around the edge of the cheese and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180c for 40 minutes.
- Garnish with the remaining bacon and share with friends

Naturally I made a few tweaks, I used my remaining leeks instead of the onion. And even though I thought I'd got the bacon about right there seemed lashings of it so either I should have crammed more inside the two halves of the Camembert; which would tricky it was rather abundantly overflowing already, or used less. This was very tasty though I am most intrigued how you could have shared it amongst 8 people. I assume either they are not very hungry or there is plenty of other food for them to distribute. If I served this for 8 I would be accused only catering for Peter Pixie!
It seemed appropriate to serve this rustic quiche on one of the white French china plates and a black 'bon appetit' placemat purchased on our last trip to Lille. All in all, very French and très délicieux and if served with a green salad and maybe some new potatoes to dip in the gooey centre, I could have eked it out more.

3 comments:

Deborah Dowd said...

This looks and sounds so good! I would love to try this aas a meatless meal or a heavy hors d'oeuvre. Thanks for yet another fabulous thing to do with cheese!

J said...

Good point, Deborah. This would have make a great meat-free quiche without the bacon, I think I would have upped the leek mixture though.
Thank you for reading, J

Linda said...

wohoo! a quiche recipe! i am always looking for a better one. looks delish! thanks! can't wait to try it!