After making this quiche, I wasn’t sure whether to call it a quiche or a tart.  In fact, I wasn’t even sure what the difference was between the two.  I decided, rather randomly, that it must have been a quiche.  In my mind a quiche was made with that egg and milk mixture (called a migaine in French) that is then poured over the pastry dough, making it into a hearty meal perfect for cold weather.  Savory tarts on the other hand would be more dainty and  served on summer picnics, and, since the meal in question was made with eggs, it couldn’t possibly be a tart.  But then, after his first bite, one of my French friends exclaimed, “Mmm… c’est bon cette tarte!”

Tarte?!

“Mais c’est une quiche!” I said sure of myself.

“Non, c’est une tarte… une quiche c’est… bah c’est…” He couldn’t explain to me the difference between a quiche and a tart, but he was sure that this was a tart despite the presence of the migaine. Our debate didn’t last long since both of us confessed that we really didn’t know the difference between a quiche and a tart.  I decided that I needed to do some more research before I entered into another debate about quiches and tarts.

I found out that I was right – it was a quiche.  But, my friend was right too – it was also a tart.  What I made technically was a quiche thanks to the migaine, as I had assumed, but as it turns out all quiches are tarts (but not all tarts are quiches).  A tart is simply a pastry with a filling and no top.  The filling can be either sweet (think of apples, strawberries, chocolate…) or savory (such as a quiche).  There are a lot of misconceptions, however, about quiches and tarts.  Some assume that quiches have meat, such as the quiche lorraine, whereas tarts can be made with vegetables or cheeses or anything else you can think of.   Others go about it more visually by assuming that a quiche is deep-dish, while a tart is more shallow.  The shape really doesn’t matter.  It all depends on the presence of eggs and milk to determine whether or not it’s a quiche.

Caramelized Onion and Tomato Quiche

For the tart dough:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or spelt flour)

1/8 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons very cold butter

Mix the flour and the salt in a medium bowl or food processor.  Add the cold butter and cut in using a pastry blender (your fingers work just fine), or pulse in the food processor. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, until dough forms into a ball. Gather up and pat into a disc. If possible, cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes before rolling out. When ready to use, roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 10-inch circle. Gently fold into quarters using a little flour as needed to prevent sticking. Place dough in pie plate and carefully unfold, fitting loosely and then pressing into place. Trim the edges.

To pre-cook the crust, heat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 degrees Celsius), cover the dough with a layer of parchment paper and place baking weights or fill with a layer of dried beans.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

For the filling:

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon brown sugar

3 medium tomatoes, diced

Dijon mustard

1 cup grated gruyère de compté cheese

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups whole milk

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius).

Saute the sliced onion in the olive oil over medium heat until they become translucent.  Add the brown sugar and salt and continue to saute until the onions become brown and caramelized.  Transfer the onions to a bowl.  Using the same pan, cook the tomatoes over medium-low heat until they become soft and have lost most of their juices.  Season with salt and set aside.

Beat the eggs and mix in the milk.  Add a dash of sea salt and pepper to taste.

Spread a good layer of Dijon mustard on the bottom of the pre-baked pastry crust.  Fill the pastry crust with the caramelized onions, the cooked tomatoes,  and the cheese.  Cover the fillings with the egg-milk mixture and place in the oven to bake for 30-40 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes before serving.

28 Oct This entry was published on 10/28/2011 at 1:10 pm. It’s filed under Recipes and tagged Caramelized Onions, Quiche, Recipe, Tart, Tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.