Quiche Alsacienne

Potato pancakes (Rösti)

• 250 GRAM SELF RAISING FLOUR
• 150 GRAM BUTTER
• 150 GRAM HAM
• 150 GRAM CHEESE
• 1 ONION
• 2 CUPS MILK
• 4 EGGS

• 500 GRAM POTATOES
• 300 GRAM CARROTS
• 1 ONION
• 3 TABLESPOONS FLOUR
• 3 EGGS
• 1/2 CUP CREAM
• 100 GRAM CHEESE
• 200 GRAM HAM
• DILL

Make a dough from 200 gram flour, cold butter en 2 tablespoons water. Put the dough in a round oven dish. Chop the onion and the ham, fry the onion during 5 minutes, add the rest of the flour, heat for some more minutes, add the milk and heat until boiling. Then add the cheese and the ham, put off the fire and add the eggs. Put the mixture in the form. Bake at 200 degrees in the oven for half an hour.

Peel and grate the potatoes and the carrots. Chop the onion and the ham; mix all these ingredients together with the eggs, the flour and the cream. Heat some oil in 2 large frying pans and put small heaps of the mixture in the hot oil (about 2 table spoons). In the meantime, grate the cheese. Turn the pancakes around after 7 minutes, and divide the cheese over the top of the pancakes. Fry for another 7 minutes. Decorate with dill.

A Quiche Alsacienne is actually a Quiche Lorraine with onions. The first version of Quiche Lorraine, originating in the French Lorraine region, was filled with just egg-and-cream-custard and bacon. A similar dish was already prepared in the 16th century, but in those days the basis was probably bread dough.