Blue Cheese Quiche

I didn’t eat quiche for about a decade. I was, I am sad to say quiched out. It seemed that back in the early 80’s quiche was the latest rage in northeastern Scotland, and the only appropriate party food, at least in my horribly Dickensian village.

Every single party, pot luck, fete, gala or birthday seemed to be filled with quiches crawling out from behind the tuna loaf, pushing aside the three bean salad, knocking over sausage rolls and silently accosting and garroting the deviled eggs when they thought no one was looking (They had it coming…deviled eggs…bad to the core…). Literally a quiche revolution, here a quiche, there a quiche everywhere a quiche- quiche. Viva la revolution!

Well eventually I got over my fear of quiche and started making it again.  Though my favorite is still quiche Lorraine with the Canadian bacon and Swiss Cheese, this blue cheese and caramelized onion is really delicious vegetarian option.

Believe it or not the following recipe will serve 6 people as a brunch or light supper dish. 

Ingredients for six marshmallowy peeps: 

Packaged or homemade Pie crust for a one crust pie

1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil

2 Large onions sliced thin

½ Cup of Crumbled blue cheese

3 Eggs

½ Cup of milk

½ Cup half and half or cream

½ Teaspoon salt

½ Teaspoon Thyme

1/8 Teaspoon black pepper

The Method to the madness: 

Preheat the oven to 425. Heat the olive oil over low heat in a large heavy skillet add the onions and cook slowly, stirring occasionally for 20-30 minutes will lightly caramel colored. Meanwhile lightly grease up a pie dish (glass preferably) and line with the pie crust. Poke a few holes in the bottom with the tines of a fork, and I mean all over, everywhere. Well maybe not everywhere, however you do want to have a good perforating. Toss this in the hot oven for about 5-6 minutes. Then remove and set aside till onions are cooked. Pour cooked onions over precooked crust then sprinkle with the cheese. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs together with the seasonings, milk and cream. Pour over the cheese and onions. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes at 375, then reduce temperature to 350 and continue to cook for a further 35-45 minutes till a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Serve with a mixed green salad with dressing of your choice. I chose an organic mixed baby green and herb salad mix from my local supermarket. Unfortunately it was heavily organic and smelled earthy (In other words like manure, but one expects that with the higher price one pays for organic produce. A little s#!t on the leaves means that it is organic, one has to wonder if there are giant lettuce factories with $#!t throwing machines that make sure that everything has a good coating. OK I am lightly p!$$ed off.) I did what we always did in Syria when the lettuce seemed a little "rural" and washed it, to my surprise a family of fat slugs fell out. To my horror they were heading to my garbage disposal (Running at the time) for some reason I fliped the switch off and thrust the sinks drainer into the garbage hole and all the little slugs ended up in the drain catch, I then walked them outside and left the catch by the camellias. Once I was back in my kitchen I realized what I had done. I went out of my way to save a parasite. I am ok with that. I faked killing a black widow spider this past weekend too, some freak du jour was buying a chest of drawers at a garage sale and went b!tc#cakes because there were black widows nesting in the underside of said chest. In actuality they were house spiders, innocuous and about as poisonous as vanilla ice cream.  I faked it with a wad of tissue and a bit of dirt from the garage wall. Hey I am superstitious in Scotland, if you kill a spider it will rain (If you are lucky) because a spider told Robert the Bruce what to do when he was in hiding from the Invasion, by it's web weaving. At least that is what you get told as a wee bairn in Caledonia. I tend to think that all of us that have lived in the Highlands of Scotland are just slightly "Mad in the Head". We are well with that and when we next have to rush the English army wearing nothing more that a thin slathering of blue paint we will be ready.