Thursday, March 4, 2010

Swiss Chard Quiche


Swiss Chard Quiche
© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2010


Quiche sounds like a fancy french recipe, but when it comes to the cooking and baking they are easy to make, can easily be made for a large number of guests in advance, you can reheat them and they are fantastic for having them in the freezer when you are mucht too lazy for any type of cooking. The making of the shortcrust is not time consuming and again you could sore the dough in the freezer to have it at hand. For this one I have used swiss chard.


Swiss Chard Quiche
(for one large quiche form 26cm diameter or for some smaller ones)

Dough:
200g all-purpose flour
130g butter (right from the fridge, cut into pieces)
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon vinegar
1-2 tablespoons water
butter for greasing the form
flour for working with

Filling:
1 bush swiss chard
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
grated peel of 1/2 lemon
200g whipping cream
100ml milk
4 eggs
75g Gruyère cheese (grated)
salt and pepper to taste
nutmeg to taste


Making the dough: Put flour, butter, salt and eggs into your food processor and mix until the butter and flour are mixed (about one minute). While machine is running add the vinegar first and then 1-2 tablespoons water and mix until dough is formed. The dough will be crumbly still. Knead with hands a few times to form the dough. Then wrap into clinch film and let rest for at least one hour in the fridge. You can prepare the dough the day before you will bake the quiche.

Making the filling: Divide the swiss chard into single leaves and rinse under water. Cut the white stem part of the leaves. Cut the leaves into stripes. Cut the stems into small pieces. Cut onions into rings and garlic cloves into small pieces. Preheat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan. Add onions, garlic and the stem parts and cook for about 43 minutes. Then add the leaves and let cook on low heat for five minutes or until the leaves are soft. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Remove from heat and let cool.

Preheat oven (200°c) and greas the form with butter. Get dough out of the fridge and roll out thinly (to avoid sticking use some flour). Line out the form with dough and form a rim. Prick the dough several times with a fork. Arrange the swiss chard mixture on dough.

Mix whipping cream, milk, eggs and 60 grams of the cheese until well blended. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Pour this mixture over the swiss chard. Sprinle with the rest of cheese. Bake quiche in the oven for 35-40 minutes until quiche is done and golden.

Note: if you don't like shortcrust you can use store bough puff pastry too.


About the photo
This is a very basic recipe, easy to make and rustic. I wanted a very basic setting and so I used just the quiche (still in the form) on a towel with a fork on the side. The colors are subdued and earthern to reflect the rustic impression. An old-fashioned looking fork and the wooden board do the same. The quiche is almost centered on the vertical line to get a more quite image. The lighting is coming from upper right from a window (the fork is in the line of light). A bounce on lower left is giving a slight fill light to brighten the front part of the towel a bit. In upper left I have used a flag (black cardboard) to get shadows here. This is enhancing the direction of light coming from upper left.

10 comments:

The Cutting Edge of Ordinary said...

Beautiful as always. I love Swiss Chard.

I have a nice collection of old utensils that I've gathered from antique stores and yard sales. I think they give such character to a photograph.

I have a question for you? My friend who is from Slovenia grew up in Germany and makes a bread every Easter called Potica. Have you heard of it or have you made it?

Thorsten said...

Thanks Lisa. To have some old utensils at hand is always great. Potica is similar to what we konw as nut roll. A Potica is often made in a Gugelhupf pan and based on a yeast dough. I have a recipe for hazelnut braid:
http://thorsten-food-photography.blogspot.com/2009/09/hazelnut-braid.html
Is this what you have in mind?

Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary said...

It looks very similar. I think she uses walnuts in hers. If I remember correctly, her's is a lot higher too. I'll have to ask her and show her that post. Thanks!

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

Sounds like a great simple yet satisfying dinner, Thorsten! Thank you so much for sharing the story and set-up of each photograph. It's really helpful to understand the process. I like the rustic styling to match the quiche. I think I might have liked to see the quiche in slighter brighter light, but this is probably an issue of personal preference.

Thorsten said...

Lisa, I think there are many variations of this recipe.

Xiaolu, I wanted to keep this photo darker. And also the quiche shouldn't be bright. But yes, that is due to my personal preferences and ideas here. Maybe the next one will be much brighter again.

Kim - Easy French Food said...

Hi - I am so pleased to have come across your blog. Very, very useful information for me. Hopefully I will be able to apply it to my own (very amateur) attempts at photographing food.

As for the quiche, I almost always use a high quality (it should contain butter, flour and not much else) puff pastry dough for the crust. This makes the whole thing so easy that one can then cut loose and experiment with many different fillings. Love the idea of chard.

Thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

I have been looking up your recipes and photographs,both explaind painstakingly, Thank you Thorsten.

This Swiss Chard recipe looks interesting.But we do not get it here, so i will have to try with the various spinach options available.But try I am going to.
Thanks again.

Thorsten said...

Thanks Kim for your feedback. The addition of vinegar in this shortcrust gives a nice touch of freshness.

Yes, spinach would be a good substitute for swiss chard.

Sari @ Cook Your Dream said...

I love quiche, they are so versatile and easy to make. I'm really intrigued by your recipe with the addition of vinegar. Sounds great.

Thorsten said...

Thanks Sari. The vinegar is making a difference, but it really works by adding a fresh note.