Coronation Quiche

Here's a royal recipe for a royal weekend. In honor of the coronation of King Charles III, the Royal Family shared the recipe for Coronation Quiche. 

Who remembers waking up at 4 a.m. to watch Princess Diana marry Prince Charles in 1981, or Princess Kate marry Prince William in 2011? Well tomorrow it’s time to wake up at 4 a.m. again, because that’s when the coronation of King Charles III will be aired in the US. We are ready with Fortnum & Mason tea and Amazon quinceañara tiaras!

For years we have been loving Coronation Chicken, the curry chicken salad served at Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation luncheon. Now, we have Coronation Quiche, which King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla have decided will be one of the official centerpiece dishes served on coronation day. The Royal Family shared the recipe for Coronation Quiche a couple of weeks ago on their social media accounts, which is when I decided we must have a lunch of our own with a centerpiece Coronation Quiche (plus a little Coronation Chicken on the side for good measure). 

The quiche recipe has, of course, brought all manner of rejoicing and rebuking, just like any good royal story. Some love the idea of a garden-based, meatless dish that celebrates King Charles’ love of the organic produce he farms at his Highgrove estate. Others are complaining that the quiche is bland, or that the royals shouldn’t be promoting egg-based recipes when eggs are in short (expensive) supply, or that a quiche is too French, or “why tarragon?” Speaking only for myself, if the quiche is literally good enough for a king, it’s going to be just fine for lunch for my friends and me.

The recipe below is almost word-for-word the recipe released by the royal chefs, with one exception: I could not get the pastry crust to work for me. Call it user error, but it was just crumbly and messy. So I went with Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey’s crust recipe in NYT Cooking, which I’ve listed here.

Find the official recipe here. Happy coronation weekend!

Coronation Quiche

½ cup whole milk
⅔ cup heavy cream
2 medium eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup cooked spinach, chopped, excess liquid sqeezed out with a paper towel
½ cup edamame
1 pastry crust (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together the milk, cream, eggs, tarragon, salt, and pepper.

Scatter half of the grated cheese in the blind-baked crust. Top with the chopped, drained spinach and edamame. Pour over the liquid mixture. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Place in the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes until set and lightly golden.

Pastry Crust
Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey for NYT Cooking

1 ½ cups flour
8 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons cold water, approximately
1 egg, beaten

Put the flour into the container of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse. When the mixture resembles coarse meal, add the egg yolk. Continue pulsing while gradually adding the water. Add enough water so that the dough will come away from the sides of the container and be firm but pliable enough to shape into a ball. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly flour your countertop, flatten the dough slightly, and roll it out with a rolling pin into a circle approximately 1/8-inch thick. Carefully transfer the crust to an 8-inch pie plate. Fold the dough edges over and crimp with your fingers to make a pretty edge. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Line the crust with parchment paper and fill it with dried beans or pie weights. Bake 10 minutes.

Remove the parchment and beans or weights. Brush very lightly with beaten egg.