This morning I was thrown off guard when they said my first task was to make quiches.
Actually, the thing that threw me off was the amount of freedom I was granted; I could do whatever I wanted in order to use up ingredients. That makes sense, really... they're almost like the stir-fried rice of French cuisine...
We use pre-made 6 inch crusts, fill them with a hodgepodge, crimp the crusts, then pour in some "royale," leaving room for it to puff up.
The royale is made by first cracking and whisking 14 eggs, then adding 1 cup of cream, 3 cups of milk, and a bit of salt and pepper. I'm not sure if the French style calls for all cream, rather than the mix of cream and milk that we use...
Baked the quiches for 13 minutes, turned the baking tray on which they sat 180 degrees (to cook them all evenly), then baked for another 10 to 12 minutes until they were puffy, golden, and stiffened up (no longer wobbly).
In the vegetarian quiches, I used some day-old sauteed mushroom + onion mix, along with ementhal and gruyere cheeses. In the meat quiches, I used pesto chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and lady Jane cheese (a very soft, goat-like cow cheese). They looked and smelled great, but I didn't get to taste them.