Quelle Quiche! Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

Quiche, is very much part of French cuisine, with Quiche Lorraine (bacon and grated cheese) being the traditional quiche. But that French tarte made it across Europe and though the base is always the same. Shortcrust pastry with a baked egg custard, the fillings vary according to the seasons and the countries.

Did you know that in France if, someone is referred to as, "A quiche" as in, for example, "Quelle quiche!"  that would be describing somebody clumsy or stupid or both!

Ploughman with Maple Caramelised Onion Mini Quiches

Can't think of any english sound more difficult to pronounce than "ough". It's a nightmare.

 

"Through" sounds like "flew", "cough" like "off", "though" like "so" and what about "plough" why should it sound the way it does? For years, a group of us met at The Plough and for years, the jokes were on me. There would be all sort of references and invitations for me to say the name of the pub which I kept pronouncing "The Ploof".

 

For my defence, I had no reason to know how to pronounce that word, one doesn't use a ploof in suburbia. Of course when it came to order a "ploofman" so called friends chuckled in their beers. Eventually, I worked it out and The Plough never saw my custom again.

A couple of weeks back, Sue bought a wonderful food parcel back from Canada. It contained a jar of "Maple Caramelised Onions" which yesterday became a dinner saver. Shortcrust pastry, a spoon of the wonder jar, covered with guiche filling (egg + cream) and topped with grated cheddar, this is a must try recipe, Ploughman made into a quiche. My little revenge on The Ploofman and it was delicious cold too.

 

Camilla Stephens' Cheddar Ploughman Tartlets, seen in Higgidy Cookbook were the inspiration.

 

 Ploughman Mini Quiches

Makes 4
Preheat oven 190C/fan 170C/gas mark 5

Ingredients
1/2 pack of Shortcrust pastry (bought commercially)

1 onion finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp of maple syrup

1/2 spoon of balsamic vinegar

1 egg

2 tablespoons of creme fraiche

salt and pepper

60g mature cheddar grated
3 cherry tomatoes (optional)

 

To caramalise the onion

in a small saucepan

heat the oil

add the onion (2 is small)

leave it to soften and when it's translucid add the syrup and the vinegar (make sure the heat is low)

cook 5 minutes to coat the onion. have water ready on the side in case onion catches

 

For the quiches' egg mixture

in a bowl beat 1 egg and 2 tablespoon of creme fraiche (thick cream is required), season well.

Assembling and Baking
Use single tartlets tins.and a bowl larger that each shape to cut out the pastry
Roll the pastry out as thin as you can 0.5cm
cut 4 shapes
place the circles in the tins and layer thinly with onion, add the cream mixture, then the cheddar and top with half a cherry tomato
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes
Serve hot or cold

As I want a maximum people to know about this new recipe, I've shared it with

 

Catherine Wheels Mince Pies

Vanessa Kimbell from Prepped came up with the best Xmas 2011 idea: a food bloggers get together to exchange gifts. The event will take place at Fortnum & Mason. I feel extremely lucky to be able to take part.

My offering will be Catherine wheels mince pies. I will be cooking them nearer the time.  

Till then, I am asking you to close your eyes and picture a cross between a mince pie, a continental pastry and a squashed Chelsea bun. There, you've got it.This recipe is very easy to make and when you think about all what we will have to do before Xmas, this is just perfect

Catherine Wheels Mince Pies

Ingredients:

50g/2oz golden caster sugar

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry

411g jar traditional mincemeat

1tbsp milk

25g/1oz flaked almonds

Method:

Roll

Scatter the sugar over the worktop, unravel the pastry and roll it.

Spread the mincemeat evenly making sure to leave a border of 2cm all around

Fold one of the longest edges over the mincemeat and roll the pastry tightly into a sausage shape, when you get to the other edge brush it with milk and press down to seal

Press both ends in and chill for 30 minutes (if you fancy freezing this is the time to do so)

time to preheat the oven 200C/gas 6/fan 180C
Squash

Cut the roll into 12 rounds about 3 cm thick

Lay them evenly on a baking tray

Flatten them with your hand

Bake

Scatter the almonds on the top and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and the mincemeat sizzle

Leave to cool for 5 minutes

Serve as they are or with ice cream

"Whoo", "Whoo", "Whoo", Whoopie Pies

OK, this is a bit of an easy title for Halloween. Last year or so Whoopie pies were almost unheard of in the UK, now they are the new cake phenomenon or they seem to be.

But what is a Whoopie pie? Amish in origin; I bet you will have no difficulty to guess the reasons behind the name.

That doesn't answer, "What are they?" The reply will look like a cop-out: they are a cross between pie, cake and cookie. They look like two gooey cookies with fluffy icing in the middle.

There is no way of telling what the authentic whoopie pies did taste like. The story is that they were baked for Amish workers and put in their lunch-boxes . But if the Amish men were going "whoopie" just at the sight of them there might have been a reason and that reason is simply that whoopie pies are incredibly delicious.

To feed the little devils, wizards and witches of Greenwich on Halloween night, I used a short-cut and got my whoopies out of a Betty Crocker Whoopie Pie mix. Three simple steps, takes 15 minutes to bake and 15 minutes to mix. It worked a treat, next time you are shopping, you could do worse than grab a packet at £2.15 for 10 whoopie pies- though I managed only 9- comes in two flavours Chocolate and Vanilla or Double chocolate. Impressed.

Disaster Revisited: The Cake

I never really understood why my cakes were soggy in the middle and hardly ever rose.

You would think that such creations would never see the light of the day. Au contraire. I always took them dished them up, mostly at picnics, never realising that in doing so I was consolidating a certain reputation.

Till not long ago, a friend arrived for lunch complete with a hand made cardboard box full of pepper-flavoured cookies, presented with the following sentence : " you have bought me some non edible desserts in the past, now it is my turn" who could blame him really and by the way, the pepper cookies were delicious.

So when I read an invitation to revisit my dessert memory vault and take another look back at...a dessert disaster. I was in. You could too: Sugar High Friday is the The Domestic Goddess' brain child.

Slightly worried though I decided to approach the cake from a "one portion angle". I also broke my rules and bought all the ingredients. To make sure of sure I got the recipe out of what I consider the best baking cook-book: The Baker by Leanne Kitchen and to leave no room for the devil to do is work I follow the recipe for Little Jam-Filled Cakes step by step.

Perfection, loveliness, risen to plume height in the sky ( may be not that high), cooked in the middle, light, great recipe ..........at least for the first batch. For the second, I decide to put a little paper-cup in the holes....disaster: the cakes ate the paper which in turn meant that if we wanted to eat the cakes we had to cut off the edges.

Little Jam- Filled Cakes

IngredientsMakes 12
75g (2 1/2 0z) unsalted melted butter, plus more for tin
170 g 960z/ 1/4 cup) granulated sugar superine
2 large eggs
280g 910oz/2 1/1 cups) self-raising flour
250ml (9fl oz/1 cup)milk
6 tablespoons strawberry jam or preserves
1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
6 small strawberries, hulled and thinly slice
icing (confectioner's) sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method
1.Preheat oven to 200C (400F/Gas6). Butter a standard 12-cup muffin tin; set aside.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine. Make a well in the center
3.In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and butter. Pour into the well in the flour mixture and gradually stir until just combined, using a large metal spoon.
4. Spoon 3/4 of the cake batter into the muffin holes. tope each with 1/2 teaspoon of the jam then cover with the remaining batter.
5. Fan the strawberry slices over each cake, gently pressing them in.
6.Bake for 20 minutes or until lighly golden or until a cake tester inserted in top cake layer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to coll in the tin for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to coll completely.
7. Dust with icing sugar if desired
8. Little jam-filled cakes are best eaten the day they are made but keep well in a cake tin .......and I have just got one.....hand made by a friend.

Lorraines are not the only quiches

"Debbie Nextdoor" came to stay over. Debbie used to live next door, hence her name.

She had been invited to a birthday party. On Sunday she was enumerating all the party food when it crossed my mind that such as a catalogue of food sounded strangely like Waitrose party food.

So I got their free magazine out and so it was. Though one of the clues should have been that when she got there, the house did not smell of cooking.

As I was sifting through the mag. I noticed a lot of various quiches, great, I was going to cook with no recipe but from a picture.

A quiche is a shortcrust pastry, then on the top a mixture of eggs, cream, salt and pepper, plus something else, in the oven for 35 minutes at 200C. Et voila.

Quiche Lorraine contains ham and bacon but why not try something else. What Waitrose offers is the egg mixture and the something else first and then topped up with something more, if you see what I mean. Like in the picture quiche mixture + spinach topped up with ratatouille.

• Red onion topped up with goat's cheese quiche
• Asparagus topped up with Cherry tomato quiche
• Spinach & Chargrilled Vegetable quiche
• Mushroom & Watercress quiche
• Wensleydale & Tomato quiche
• Bacon, Leek & Roqueford quiche

These are only a few ideas and with the summer picnics coming up, I hope this list will be useful.

La Flamiche or "White Pizza"

Hopefully, we all have around us people who will help us out of a sticky spot a the drop of a hat, warm generous people and last week-end I found myself in one of these situation: I had written an article which had not met the buyer's approval, wanting to do my best, I called on Ann and Barbara, both ex-teachers, Barbara spotted the issues straight away and helped me no end. Still the person whom the article was for, took a red pen to it, I guess there are people who cannot be satisfied, but I was pleased with the much improved end result and to say thank you ask them both for dinner.

Then came the tricky question of what to cook, since I am currently reviewing "Crust" by Richard Bertinet" I decided on his version of the Flamiche, a hearty, convivial pie from Picardie in the north of France, I'll spare you the legend of how a good farmer's wife came to have the idea for such a dish on her way to the market. Richard refers to it as a "pizza blanche" which is spot on have a look:

Flamiche

Ingredients :
for the dough*500 gms bread dough *
10g fresh yeast
500g strong white flour
10g salt
350g water
a little white flour, for dusting
for the topping
1 tablespoon olive oil
200g lardons or sliced pancetta ( I used bacon)
2 leeks, finely sliced
3 eggs
300g creme fraiche
salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste
a little grated Gruyere (optional)

To make the base:

• Rub the yeast into the flour using your fingertips, add the salt and the water and mix well, work it as for a bread dough, (personally I use the food processor)
• leave it to rest on the baking tray
• flatten the dough, ridge the edge, using your fingers of a pair of scissor "dimple" the edge.

to make the topping:

• heat the olive oil in a frying pan, put in the lardons and saute until they start to colour. Remove the lardons and then put in the leeks, saute them lightly until they colour a little
• in a bowl mix the eggs, creme fraiche salt pepper, nutmeg, add the cooked ingredients
• top the base with the mixture
• Put the Flamiche into the oven (230) and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crispy edges, I checked it after a 15 minutes, mine took a little longer.

et voila.
slight adaptation of Richard Bertinet's recipe, map of France from Wikipedia