SWEET ONION QUICHE Makes 1 pie, serves 8 to 10. By Dennis W. Viau; modified from a recipe in a restaurant trade journal. I like quiche. This recipe was created by a chef for his restaurant in New York City. I made a few modifications, mostly to use better ingredients, such as Gruyère instead of Swiss cheese and prosciutto in place of ham. The result was a delicious sweet onion pie that I proudly served to guests. Ingredients: For the Filling: 2 large (18 ounces total/525g) sweet yellow onions; thinly sliced 1 tablespoon clarified butter 1 tablespoon pure (not extra virgin) olive oil 3 ounces (85g) prosciutto; diced 3 ounces (85g) Gruyère cheese; diced or shredded 4 large eggs ¼ cup (60ml) milk ¼ cup (60ml) heavy cream Optional: ½ tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon flour ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon freshly grated black pepper ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg For the Pastry Shell: 11/3 cups (7 ounces/200g) all-purpose flour 1 large egg; at room temperature 1 tablespoon water ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup (4 ounces/113g) butter; at room temperature Directions: Slice the onion and heat the butter and oil in a large skillet. Sauté the onions over medium heat, reducing the heat as the moisture evaporates, until they are a light golden color, 10 to 12 minutes. Set aside. Start the pastry shell by combining the eggs, water, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat well with a whisk. Add the room-temperature butter and whisk to break up the butter into small beads. Place the flour in a large bowl and the egg-butter mixture. Stir until dry enough to knead. Knead (you can do it in the bowl) until the dough is smooth, less than a minute. Roll the dough into a flat sheet to fill a greased 9-inch (23cm) pie dish with a little crust hanging over the edge. Carefully push out any air bubbles from beneath the crust. Shape the edges with a decorative pattern. Cover with plastic and set aside. Heat oven to 425 F (218 C). In a large bowl, combine the sautéed onions with all the remaining filling ingredients. Mix well. Pour into the pie shell. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the custard is set and lightly browned on top. Serve warm. The Step By Step guide begins on the following page. 1 20130322
1 STEP-BY-STEP 2 This is my mise en place for the filling. I bought four onions because the original recipe wasn t specific about the quantity. I used only two. Although I normally purchase prosciutto as a large chunk at a deli, I am using sliced prosciutto here, which I diced. The jar and bottle in the upper-left are my clarified butter and olive oil (pure, not extra virgin, for cooking.) In the Recipe Archive there is a procedure for clarifying butter. Look in Basics. 2 These are the ingredients for the pie shell. I ve been making this pie crust recipe for decades. It ways works.
3 3 To determine how much onion I would need, I quartered my onions and then sliced them thinly. I filled my pie dish until it was overly full (the onions will cook down) and I determined 2 large onions was enough. 4 Heat oil and butter (you could use all olive oil) in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions and sauté until tender and lightly golden, reducing the heat as the moisture boils off.
5 4 Here are my cooked onions. They are not caramelized, in which case they would be a darker golden color, but they are thoroughly cooked and lightly golden. These cooked 10 to 12 minutes. Set aside. 6 To start the dough for the pastry shell, combine the egg, water, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix well with a whisk. Add the room-temperature butter and whisk until the butter is broken up into small beads (you could not do this easily with butter cold from the refrigerator).
7 5 Place the flour in a large bowl and add the egg-butter mixture. Combine with a spoon or spatula until dry enough to knead. Then knead until smooth. It comes together quickly, a few seconds, and you can knead it in the bowl. 8 To assist me when shaping my pie crust, I drew a circle on a piece of parchment paper. The circle is slightly larger than my pie plate. I turned the paper over (to keep the graphite out of my dough) and rolled my crust slightly larger than this circle. I do this with my hands because the dough is so easy to work with. If you prefer, you can use a rolling pin.
9 6 Carefully arrange the dough in a greased pie plate, pushing out any air pockets. Trim and shape the edge for a decorative look. Meanwhile, be heating your oven to 425 F (218 C). 10 Put the cooked onions in a large bowl and add all the remaining filling ingredients. Although the original recipe included a tablespoon of sugar, I chose to make it optional when using sweet onions, such as Vidalias or Texas Sweets.
11 7 Combine the filling until mixed thoroughly. You might have noticed there were only three eggs in the previous picture. At this point the filling didn t look like it would fill the pie shell the way I wanted. So I added the fourth egg and the ¼ cup heavy cream that are listed in the ingredients. I also thought about adding chopped artichoke hearts, which I think would make a pleasant addition to this quiche. I chose to save that idea for another day. 12 Pour the filling into the pie shell. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the custard is set and the top is golden brown.
13 8 Here is my quiche, fresh from the oven. I removed it at 33 minutes because the top was browned enough. Conclusion This was a surprisingly good quiche. When I first saw the idea for an onion custard pie, I had my doubts. The quiche is slightly more dense than other quiches (probably all the onions), but the flavor is rich and satisfying. I served this to friends and they agreed it was a delicious quiche.