Here is a question that I asked twitter one evening:
“Is it lame to make Quiche Lorraine if your name is Lorraine and you’re having someone over for lunch called Lorraine? I suspect it is….”
Well, at least we weren’t in Lorraine, the region of France! And people on twitter were very encouraging of the whole idea.
I used to have this strange little game with myself. It involved inviting friends over at random. Well, not exactly and not out of the blue but after we had spent a day together, we’d invite them over for dinner afterwards making dinner out of whatever I had in the fridge, freezer and pantry. I never shopped for it and there was an even bigger challenge if they were invited on a Friday (the day before grocery shopping day).
What ended up happening was that I’d clear the freezer or pantry of an ingredient that I might have forgotten as it made me search through its deep, dark corners and I’d hopefully *cross fingers* turn out a few dishes that would please guests. I haven’t really done it in years, after all everything now needs to be photographed etc but I do it every now and then although sometimes Mr NQN’s brother Manu stays after they go kitesurfing and I make him something.
So there I was, two days before shopping. I had some eggs, bacon and whilst that’s a great breakfast, I had someone called Lorraine coming over for lunch. It’s a funny name Lorraine-there aren’t many around of us and yet most seem to know the name. And when I meet a Lorraine, I feel like we’re all part of a name club.
I was looking in the fridge. “I could make a pie…” I thought to myself before realising that someone much cleverer had earlier invented a version of pie with bacon and eggs and that they had called it a Quiche Lorraine. I had some pastry in the freezer but I decided to make my own, only because I love making pastry and I think that it tastes better if you have the time to do it. And then thought how completely meta and ridiculous it was to be making Quiche Lorraine and serving it to someone called Lorraine that was coming over to lunch.
I made the pastry the night before and just baked it in the morning along with the filling which is very easy to put together. There was a layer of gooey cheese on top of the crust and then the creamy filling on top with plenty of bacon. And the reaction of Lorraine when Lorraine served her Quiche Lorraine (ok we’re getting confusing now) was only positive. Thankfully she didn’t consider it lame!
So tell me Dear Reader, is your name a well known or common one? Do you have any food named after it?
Quiche Lorraine
An Original Recipe by a Lorraine 
Makes 4-6 mini quiches depending on the size of your tins or one large quiche
For pastry:
- 250g/8.83 ozs cream cheese, softened (light will do)
- 100g/3.5 ozs cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1 to 1 1/4 cup plain all purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- butter for greasing tins
For filling:
- 1 cup grated cheese (gruyere, cheddar or a mix)
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 150g bacon, cooked and cut into pieces
- 1 cup cream
- 4 eggs
1. To make the pastry, blend the cream cheese in a food processor and then add the butter, flour and salt and whiz until it comes together. Add a bit more flour if needed. Grease tins with a little butter or oil and then press the pastry into the tins trying to get it as thin as possible. Cover with cling film and allow to rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.
2. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Dock the pastry with a fork and then line each tin with a piece of foil. Fill these with ceramic pie weights or dried beans or rice and bake for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a bowl, combine the grated cheese and flour and mix to combine. In a jug measure the cream and beat in the eggs.
4. When the pastry is ready, remove from the oven and turn up the oven to 220C/428F. Place the cheese in the bottom of each pie and then cover with egg mixture and bacon. You could of course mix these all together and that would be fine too but I like the layer of melted cheese. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 180C/350F and bake for another 10 minutes. Serve warm from oven (which is when the pastry is at its best).
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64 Comments | Add your own
Delicious! I’m a big fan of that speciality.
Cheers,
Rosa
This is far from lame, it’s downright fabulous
There is Heidi Raclette cheese, I believe!!
I loved this question on twitter! I’m so glad you made it. I’ve always been surrounded by Clare’s, a best friend in primary school and a girl I lived with at uni for 2 years. Even our parents used to ask when they called our home phone which was which.
Season’s Greetings Lorraine. Can’t say that I am fortunate to have any dishes named after me and I am certainly not daring enough to invite anyone over on a whim hoping to make something with whatever I have on hand. My OCD tendencies won’t allow it:-)
Another lovely recipe Lorraine, and we wish you Happy Holidays from California!
Oh I haven’t had quiche in years but one look and I’m transported back to each buttery bite. These look scrumptious!
Ahhhh…my favorite version of quiche. Lorraine. Not lame. I’d serve it to every Lorraine I know! Love the cream cheese pastry, which I have never paired with quiche before. Names…Victoria Sponge????
You’re so sweet – I’d love to be your guest, lol. I don’t think there’s a dish named after me, or perhaps something that I’m unaware. But this makes me think what kind of dish it is, hahaha. Love quiche, in fact mom learns to love cheese through quiche when we first made cheese quiche. I’ll try this especially with homemade pastry.
I wonder if you are more likely to be destined for a career involving food if you are named after a food???:) Mary Berry and Dave Lamb for example:)
Amazing you! You can make even quiche Lorraine look gorgeous!
I have never used cream cheese in my quiches but I will be trying it next time
I was wondering, Lorraine, if you would ever blog, Quiche Lorraine! I’m very glad you did – these look wonderful and it is such a great flavoured quiche. I love your pie weights – I use some sort of lentils. I think I need to become more sophisticated xx
One of my fav foods, thanks for sharing your recipe. I don’t have any food named after me, but used to live in Lyndia Street for 20+yrs (my name is Lyn) and the street off it was named Michael (my husband’s name) people used to ask if we moved there deliberately!!
Plus I have a sister in law with exactly the same (first and last) name as me, comes from 2 brothers marrying girls called Lyn, gets confusing when we are both out together in a group.
LOVE quiche Lorraine!!! It is the best flavour combination so can never be lame regardless of who is making or eating it.
Really like how you’ve put the bacon right on top to go nice and crispy.
Yum! Have never tried making quiche but I am well over due for having a go at it
I have pastry I’m the fridge but I think I want to try yours with cream cheese more! Sounds sturdy and good for freezing. What fat percentage of cream did you use in the filling please?
No it’s not lame to make Quiche Lorainne I think it’s a fun idea. Plus yours looks amazing! I love quiche Lorainne whether it’s your name, my name or anyone else’s. Go for it.
These look beautiful and I love that it is your original recipe. Maybe you should name it “Lorraine’s Quiche”
There’s no food called Melanie as far as I know…so you’re kinda lucky! Plus Quiche Lorraine is delicious. I have a tonne of leftover ham to use up, might try and make this…without the homemade pastry as that’d kill me.
I think it’s great fun to make a pie with the same name as you for a guest who also shares that name. I think it highly unlikley that there are any dishes that bear my name, unless you count the Thai word for chicken.
How could that delicious looking Lorraine made by Lorraine for Lorraine be lame?!! GG
An oldie but a goodie, Lorraine. My Peter makes a very mean quiche! I don’t think there are any dishes named Elizabeth, but I’m delighted to invent them a la Lizzy!
Growing up, no one could get my first name right. I was always called Julie, but my name is not Julie, it is Julia, as in Julia Child. As told one teacher, my name is NOT Julie, it is JULIA. Quiche Lorraine is a good thing to eat.
Love Quiche Lorraine. I’ve made Chicken Marie for guests. Delicious!
So, it’s a quiche Lorraine, from Lorraine, to Lorraine…interesting.
My name is not so common here and of course there is no dish with my name, I really don’t know why my grandfather named my mom as Nydia…yes, that’s my mother’s name, that is why it’s mine too. I find a silly thing to name your kids the same as you.
Well my name is fairly common which is why I didn’t like it much when I was growing up. If you’ll excuse me, I just have to forward this to my sister Lorraine…
Hehehe… every coastal town/city has my name all over it! The closest food would be marinara sauce. Anyway, I am having a lot of fun with my name!
And yes, since I started to follow your blog, each time I see quiche Lorraine somewhere, I think of you… 
My Mum is Lorraine. I haven’t met many others.
My name isn’t common at all and yet, I met someone with not only my first name, but also my last name! We’ve become great friends and her family is my family and vice versa.
What a fun holiday post
! And a fun dish to have picked for the lunch! If I were you I would do it more often! ‘Eha’, meaning ‘last light of day’, definitely is not a common name outside Estonia and I cannot imagine a dish named after the name even there 
! But I DO remember getting off the plane on Kauai Island in the Hawaiian group to get in the taxi and a moment later shriek when we drove past ‘Eha Street’! Must be why I fell in love with the Islands then and there 
!
Love those things you can whip up from ingredients from the freezer!
Like your photos and stories, they are always a pleaser!
I don’t have any foods named after me that I know of YET!
But listening to the song Joanna by Scott Walker (written in 1968), my “food, fun, fantasy” heart is set!
Love love love quiches , and having one named after you brings quadruple love!
I hope Linda reads through all your comments, as a cake that I make which guests often comment on(in a good way!)is “Linda’s Orange Cake” a recipe from New York dating back to 1984.
I’ve enjoyed very much all your posts over the past 12 months – thank you!
I love your cheekiness making a quiche to match both your names
And Lorraine quiches sure are tasty! Though I always do wonder why they were named Lorraine…
I use to be obsessed with quiche!
Celebrate all the Lorraine you can Lorraine and why not. If your guest couldnt see the humour in that then she should not be called Lorraine!
If my name was Lorraine and someone cooked me Quiche Lorraine I would be thrilled! My name is Susannah and sadly I don’t there is a dish named after me. My name did peak in popularity in the 70′s so maybe there’s some kitsch recipe out there.
I love it, entirely appropriate
And looks yum
I love Quiche Lorraine and I would serve it to you if you came over for lunch – no probs.
How apt! I make a lot of pasta dishes with what ever I find in the fridge. In SA I have a very unique name for a white person as it is Zulu
Ooh, cheese in the pastry AND the filling! Good on you, Lorraine!
You make this so easy that I think I’ll give it a try. I hope they will look as good as yours.
My name (and family name) are the Turkish equivalent of Jane Smith
And no, no food were named after either.
I love Quiche Lorraine, thanks for the recipe! And no, it’s not lame, but quite “punny” as my boyfriend would say haha
Definitely NOT lame- in fact, actually very cool. And your challenge sounds like fun- and a little bit like this Brit tv program ‘Come Dine with Me’. Have you seen it? It gets pretty intense.
These look gorgeous. Now I want some quiche, Lorraine!
Layering the cheese on the bottom must keep the crust nice and flakey…sounds great.
Bahahhaha… This is awesome, Lorraine! Now we all know that Lorraine isn’t just a beautiful, but delicious name as well hehe. And hey, if you know of any dishes that’s named “Winston”, don’t forget to let me know!! ;p
I think Quiche Lorraine is a perfect dish to serve anyone even another Lorraine.
Barbara is not a very common name either yet it is also well known. There is a beautiful city in California named Santa Barbara where I would like to live, and also Barbra Streisand, but she spells it wrong. xoxo Mum
What an interesting dough! I never tries adding cream cheese. I will try to remedy this soon!
Ya know, I don’t think I’ve ever had quiche Lorraine…. This is unfortunate, because it looks really delicious!
when thinking about foods bearing one’s name, a person could do a lot worse than a quiche lorraine–they’re yummy!
Quiche Lorraine is THE comfort food for colder days and yours looks particularly delicious!
No! it is not weird.
As far as I’m concerned, it was probably named after YOU to begin with, Lorraine.
My name is quite boring “Kim.”
but my middle name is cool “Rae”
How are you, dear? xx
Great read and a nice alternative recipe to the usual Quiche recipes around.
Happy New Year and thanks for everything this year!
Valentina
Heehee a quiche Lorraine made by a Lorraine
These are so cute!
What a lovely idea for a luncheon, Lorraine, and I’m sure Lorraine2 enjoyed it as well. JT says that about me, that I can make something out of nothing. I love the idea of inviting people over to clear out the fridge!
My name wasn’t common when I was growing up, but now-a-days I hear it more and more often.
Hehe i was also wondering if you’ll ever post a Quiche Lorraine
And i think it’s rather cute that your guest was also called Lorraine hehe
I haven’t heard of any dishes called Daisy hehe damn I wouldn’t mind if someone made a dessert an then named it ‘Daisy’
Gotta try your recipe soon Lorraine hehe!
I love the sound of the cream cheese pastry & seems super easy but mine never cooks properly with dried beans & rice. Think I must need the heavier pastry weights. What tins have you used? They look ideal.
And no, I often come across many who share my name, a ballet does though!
Hi Paquita! I used some Donna Hay enamel pie tins
I can’t remember the brand of ceramic pie weights but I like them because they can be easily reused time after time 
How wonderful to share a name with a ballet!
Naw this reminds me of my mothers cooking. Growing up with a Chinese mother and French father our meals alway consisted of an eclectic combination of traditional French and Chinese meals. This was a sure fire fav.
If there was a quiche with my name I would make it all the time
lol
I love quiche – Lorraine or otherwise. It’s a fantastic lunch with just a few bits of salad.
I don’t have an uncommon name but I do get a lot of “how do you spell your name?”
I made these for lunch today and they were divine! My first attempt at making my own pastry. I impressed myself!
HI Lea! YAY! That’s wonderful
And great job with the pastry too!! I’m so pleased! 
Surely everyone knows the name Lorraine because of Lorraine Bayley (well in Australia if you are of a certain age). My mum rarely made quiche lorraine but she often made egg and bacon pie – I regret to say I never liked it but I think even then I preferred a quiche – these days the idea of a vegetarian quiche lorraine tickles my fancy
I know I’m late to the party but I have an unusual name – Morgana! Unfortunately I don’t think I have any food named after it… I was disappointed to find out that a fata morgana is a name for a mirage, not a delicious dish!
Lorraine serving Quiche Lorraine to Lorraine is so cool
I’ve always thought it’d be awesome to have a name relevant to your interest/career – e.g. Lorraine, Nigella, (Karen) Martini, (Jamie) Olive-r…
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