Violet Quiche
The first quiche I ever made myself was a outcome of a story I wrote on organic farming in 1989. One of the farmers I interviewed sent me home with a cardboard box full of rainbow chard and a recipe on the back of an envelope for ridiculously easy quiche. Using a flour tortilla for a crust, it called for lightly cooking greens, then mixing them with eggs, cheese, and herbs. The farmer told me her family ate this at least once a week (they also had chickens…) It was so delicious, I started having it about as often.
Over the years, I’ve developed a different version, one based on quiche aux oignons (onion quiche) from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups caramelized onions
- 2 cups cheese, such as sharp cheddar. (A mix is okay, a few Tbsp of goat cheese is nice!)
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 store-bought (!) pie crust
- 5-6 eggs
- Herbs and flower petals, such as violets
Method:
Heat oven to 350 and roll out dough in a generously buttered pie plate and bake for 10 mins until starting to whiten. Cool.
Whisk together cheese and eggs. Mix in cooled onions plus salt and pepper to taste. Pour mix into pre-baked pie crust. Top with herbs and petals.
Cover loosely with foil and bake until puffy and cooked through. Add time here.
In Victorian times, violet flowers were often symbolic of good humility and fortune. Some even believed that carrying violets might keep evil spirits at bay, while another tradition said that wearing violets atop a head would alleviate inebriation.
The earliest cultivation of violets supposedly traces back to 500 B.C. Ancient Greeks used violets in wine, food, and medicine. The plant was seen as the symbol of fertility and love, and as such was used in love potions and to ward off headaches and dizzy spells. This tradition was so popular that it also became the symbol of Athens.
