Quiche Lorraine

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If there are such things as much mutilated dishes in the restaurant trade (and there are!), Quiche Lorraine would have to figure right at the top of the list along with coq au vin, spaghetti Bolognaise and bouillabaisse.

My recipe comes from Lorraine - the French province, not the exotic dancer of the same name - and allows for little or no variation.

Of course, your cream will be pasteurized and your bacon will be processed, you can't help that, but if you add broccoli, cheese, mushrooms or any other of the multitude of horrors that masquerade in pubs, clubs and bistros all over as authentic ingredients, I will haunt you to the day you die. You have been warned!

All you need is this:

• 250g of shortcrust pastry
• 50g of smoked bacon
• 450ml of double (heavy) cream
• 4 very fresh eggs
• about 12 flecks of butter, lifted off with a knife point
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C, 400F.

Line a 20cm flan dish with the pastry and bake it blind for 10 minutes. Remove the lining and bake for a further 5 minutes. If the pastry lifts after this, push it down gently with a pad of kitchen towel while it's still hot.

As the pastry is baking, lightly fry the bacon in a heavy skillet and allow it to drain on absorbent paper. Beat the eggs and fold them into the cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Scatter the bacon pieces over the pastry base, pour in the egg/cream mix and dot the top with the flecks of butter. Bake in the over for 30 minutes or until lightly set. Allow to cool but DO NOT chill.

Serve while still slightly warm with a crisp salad and one of those glorious whites from Alsace, the Napa valley, New Zealand or the Yarra. It works with all of them.

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