I really love the quiche at Tartine, which is light, airy, fluffy, rich, and all-around fantastic. I found that many different folks around the interwebs had posted the quiche filling recipe which had (ostensibly) come from the Tartine cookbook and I wanted to try it, with bacon, asparagus, and spring onions.


thick applewood-smoked bacon from the wonderful Avedano's in Bernal Heights


Well, I have to tell you, the version that I made was pretty good, but it was NOT like the Tartine quiche. Everyone agreed. It was creamier, less dense, not quite as rich, and just not the same. I had made a few minor changes to the recipe, but nothing that should have impacted it to that degree of difference.


preparing spring onions and asparagus from the Alemany Farmers' Market


Still, that's a high bar, so irregardless of the comparison, I will say I think it's probably the best quiche I have made to date, and would still highly recommend the recipe. But this recipe has definitely NOT cracked the code! It figures, they can't really give away all of their secrets, right?

I put bacon, asparagus, and spring onions in mine. You can put any accoutrements in that you like, but if it's a harder vegetable you will want to cook it first. If you don't want to cook bacon then skip a step by putting chopped ham in.


The last tasty piece of impostor quiche



Great Quiche, But Not Tartine Quiche

Ingredients:

for the crust:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup crisco or lard (can use all butter if you have an aversion)
• 1 cup flour
• big pinch of salt
• about 1/4 cup cold water

for the filling:

• 1 cup creme fraiche
• 1/4 cup cream
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 5 eggs
• 3 Tblsp flour

for the add-ins:

• 1/2 lb bacon, chopped into 1/2 inch squares
  
• 1 small bunch asparagus, trimmed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 4-5 spring onions, green onions, or 2 shallots, finely sliced
• juice of 1 lemon
• about 5 sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper
  

Method:

• Make crust by pulsing butter, crisco, flour, and salt in a food processor until it looks like lentil-sized crumbs. Add water, 1 Tblsp at a time, and pulse just to blend. Don't overmix. Roll out dough and put in pie pan. Prick with fork all over and put in the freezer for at least 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400. Cook frozen crust until browned, about 15-18 minutes. Remove and cover with a towel. (You can do this the day before, just leave it out on the counter with a towel covering it until ready to use.)
• Heat a saute pan over medium heat and add bacon. Cook until brown and crispy. Remove to paper towels and set aside.
• Drain out all but about 2 tsp of bacon fat. Add asparagus and thyme sprigs and cook about 5 minutes, stirring. Add onions and cook about 2 minutes more, until onions start to soften.
• Add lemon juice, a big pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper and cook until all the lemon juice evaporates and asparagus softens, about 3 minutes. Remove to paper towels (you can lump it in with the bacon) and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 375.
• Using a mixer, whisk creme fraiche til smooth. Add milk and cream, salt and pepper, and whisk to combine. Remove to a bowl.
• In the same mixer, combine eggs and flour and whisk, scraping sides to combine. Pour through mesh strainer over cream mixture to prevent lumps of egg or flour. Stir to combine.
• Combine bacon and vegetables with filling and stir. Pour into crust.
• Bake at 375 for 10 minutes then lower to 325 and cook 35-50 more minutes, until filling is set.
• Remove from oven and let rest at least 20 minutes before serving.

And as an aside, this shows you can spend a couple of bucks at Ikea and you can make up a pretty nice-looking brunch table!