Spinach, Tomato, and Brie Quiche à la française

For dinner tonight, my family and I donned and knotted our scarves and dug into spinach/tomato/brie quiche, some salad, some white wine, and croissants “tartinee” (toasted and slathered with blueberry jam and butter or Nutella).

The prerequisites for the dinner were: that everyone must wear a scarf, speak French at least once, listen to generic French cafe music during the meal, and try everything.  Aside from the quiche taking longer to cook than planned (and one or two obstinate family members trying to refuse to wear a scarf and putting chocolate milk in a wine glass), the dinner was actually very amusing.

Rather than scarfing down our dinner in 0.2 seconds sans conversation, we had some pretty funny translations occur between the 2/3 of my family that knows some French and the 1/3 that knows some Spanish.  Courtesy of my dad, we learned about the origins of the restaurant and the importance of coffee and wine in those establishments.  There was also a showdown between snobby Barcelona accents and snobby French accents, courtesy of the Nutella and the wine.  Overall, it was pretty good practice for when all six of us reunite in France next winter.

Quiche!

• 1 pre-made piecrust (I used Pillsbury)
• 1 egg, plus 5 additional
• 1 3/4 c fat-free half-and-half
• 1 heaping tbs of champagne mustard (like Cherchie’s)
• pinch of sea salt
• freshly-ground pepper, about 3 times around should do the trick
• about 6 oz Brie, thinly sliced
• large handful of baby spinach, washed and dried
• 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced and paper towel-dried

Roll out pre-made pie crust and fit to 9″ pie pan.  Crack and beat one egg, brush over crust.  Pre-bake crust according to directions on box.  Let crust rest until cool.  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Meanwhile, whisk together the rest of the eggs, half-and-half, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.  Layer the bottom of the crust with the brie, then spinach, then tomatoes.  Pour egg mixture over the cheese, spinach, and tomatoes.  Put in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the egg mixture is firm.  Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes, then cut, divide, and conquer!

an orangey-looking quiche-- much more yellow and eggy in actuality

Always Having Paris…In Philly

Searching for a bit of France this side of the Atlantic, I discovered that a local restaurant, Bistrot La Minette, had several French movie nights during the summer months.  After having discovered this, I got my dad on board and made the reservation–one half of my brain cackled wickedly in excitement, the other just thought, “My poor father.” It was one thing dragging him off to a French bistro where salmon definitely wouldn’t be on the menu, it was an entirely different thing to make him sit through a film called “Coco Before Chanel.”  But oh well.  He said he wanted to practice his French, and best of all, he was willing to pay for the experience, so of course I’d come along.  Unfortunately, he ratted out to my mom that I was trying to get a dinner out of it (c’mon, it was “Corsica” night!), so we settled for dessert instead of the whole nine yards.

My dad ordered the pot de crème au chocolat (“chocolate pudding, cat’s tongue cookies”) and due to a rushed/gushed suggestion from our waiter, I ordered mousse à la rhubarbe (“rhubarb mousse, fromage blanc, wild strawberry sorbet”).  I had my eyes set on the vins de dessert—after all, what is more French than some fancy French pastries and a glass of wine? —but ended up ordering roobios-chai tea (my two favorite types in one bag!).  While neither dessert was out-of-this world, the movie playing in the little courtyard more than made up for the lack-luster dessert ordering on our part.  As we sat enjoying our desserts under the glow of overhead twinkly lights, the lull of lilting French accents echoed around us as we drank in the parisienne atmosphere.  Unfortunately, the ominous clouds overhead decided to open up and dump buckets on our heads, so we had to leave early or risk turning into human mops.  However, our water-whipped sprints to the car were made a little more bearable knowing that we’d always have this part of Paris (in Philly, at least) to come back to.

A Piece of Paris in Suburbia

Entranced for a little more than an hour and a half watching the documentary, Kings of Pastry, I watched, slack-jawed with amazement, as French pastry chefs competed for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOFs) and made masterpieces from simple ingredients.  As my dad remarked, “they put ‘Ace of Cakes’ to shame.”  The French maîtres featured in the film created  sugar spun into glass, chocolate molted into sculptures, and buttery pastries from naught but flour and butter.  I sighed, knowing that such things were few and far between in suburban Philadelphia.

So it was with pure amazement that just two days later, within the pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer, I found an article detailing how a suburbanite such as myself could have a nibble of France within the confines of the SUV-heavy suburbs.  With the first mention of croissant, I was hooked, lined, and sunk (or whatever that saying is).  This Saturday, with my pastry-loving mom in tow, I visited Georges Perrier’s (owner of Le Bec Fin) The Art of Bread:

and Le Petit Mitron (a mom-and-pop Narbeth stalwart):

 

Advice for those who seek these other-worldly pastries– Perrier’s establishment has lunch-type food such as quiche and sandwiches, and a few imports from Le Bec Fin’s pastry chef (i.e. macarons!).  Le Petit Mitron focuses primarily on the baking– pain au chocolat, tartes, sables, and fancy tartes. Get here early though, because once the bakers at Mitron are done for the day, they’re done.  Voilà!