Prawn and Swiss Cheese Quiche

My chickens have started laying green eggs again.  They stopped for about 6 weeks while they moulted. So I had far too many eggs and needed to use them up. Quiche is easy and uses loads of eggs. First, pie pastry.  This makes enough for one double crust pie or, as in this case, a quiche and 6 butter tarts. The tarts were an after thought, not photographed, so I won't describe them except to say baking the empty shells first worked far better.

Pie Crust

2 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup lard

1 small egg

1 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp cold water

Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the lard into the flour and salt till it resembles coarse oatmeal. The small bits of fat form a crust on their top and bottom which makes the pastry flaky. Whisk together wet ingredients and add 3/4 to the flour mixture. Use a fork to lift the flour into the egg until all liquid is absorbed and mixture is uniform.  Add more liquid a little at a time till the dough can be formed into a ball.  It should not be sticky wet. Put dough in fridge to cool for 30 minutes so the lard will roll.

Take the larger half of the dough and roll it out on a floured surface to 1/8" thick or slightly larger than the pie plate. Roll the dough onto the roller to transfer to the plate and unroll it.  Fix any holes or tears and cut excess around the edge. Bake 5-10 minutes at 400ºF. Cool.

I thawed some cooked prawns and sweated them with a diced onion and chopped clove of garlic. My pie plates hold 3 cups of filling so I cracked open one and three quarter cups of eggs. I grated at least a quarter pound of Swiss cheese and added that. A dollop of home made yoghurt added with the prawns and onions.  Then I filled to 3 cups with milk. If you have cream on hand use that to make it richer. I'm fighting an expanding waist line so I use milk. Pour filling into shell and place in oven then turn down heat to 325ºF. Bake 30-40 minutes or until the centre is set. 

This was way better than cereal.