Marmalade time and recipe for Caramelised Red Onion and Feta Quiche

Seville oranges are in season and we are down to the last few jars from the batch I made two years ago (even though the recipe makes 20+ jars we don't eat it every day).

Recipe is here. It takes a couple of days elapsed time and a VERY large pot.

I was invited out for supper with a couple of friends on the spur of the moment yesterday evening. A delightful evening with Naomi, Jane and new friend Kate. It meant my eldest took on cooking the pasta with saffron pea and ham I had planned for family last night. Great success all round.

Meals for the week, including using remains of pork roast from today:

Toad in the hole with red onion gravy
Chicken wrapped in Parma Ham with creamy tomato sauce - the one we have is from a magazine as stored in Mr B's folder of good recipes. Closest online is this
Pork Shepherds Pie
Chilli Enchilladas as requested by eldest which must mean the cook for the night will be...!
Something from the freezer

For lunches
Couple of packs of 'salad cheese' (a cheap imitation feta that is only good for cooking and something I will not buy again) that need using. I cooked a caramelised red onion and feta quiche in the oven once I had removed the roast to rest today and will try out an olive and feta gratin from the Stones recipe book for the rest. Gravy and vegetables left over to make either bubble and squeak or 'left over soup'; not quite enough for two portions of b&squeak so soup it is. That's at least three lunches sorted!

Caramelised Red Onion and Feta Quiche with salad (see below)
Left over soup
Quiche and salad again?
BBQ pork and coleslaw salad
Olive and Feta gratin

Caramelised Red Onion and Feta Quiche
Pre heat oven to 180C.
Line a 24cm quiche dish with a pack of pre rolled ready made (sorry Curly) shortcrust pastry.
Prick thoroughly with a fork and bake blind for approximately 15 mins.
In the meantime finely slice 4 medium, or 2 large, red onions and cook slow and long in a frying pan with a bit of oil until very soft. Sprinkle over a couple of teaspoons of sugar and cook on higher heat for a few minutes. Put to one side.
Chop approximately 300g feta into cubes.
Beat 5 medium eggs plus 2 extra egg yolks with good pinch of pepper. Beat in 500ml of milk.

Spread the red onions on the base of the quiche then scatter the feta pieces on top. Half fill the dish with the egg mixture, move to the oven and once the dish is on the oven shelf finish filling with the egg mixture. Bake for 45-60 minutes until a knife/skewer come out clean.

Bonus bits
All from the excess pieces from making the quiche; well my family were impressed!
Feta and Olive Tartlets : use the pastry trimmings to line as many pattie pan/yorkshire pudding tin 'cups' as possible. Bake blind as per above but for closer to 5 minutes than 15. Quarter one black olive per tartlet and put along with feta cubes into base of tartlet tin. Fill with egg mixture from above. Bake for 15 minutes, depending on size of tartlet.

Meringues: two egg whites left over from making the quiche so Whisk egg whites until stiff. For each egg white you will need 2 oz caster sugar (thus 4oz needed today). Keep whisking whites whilst gradually adding the sugar until mixture is stiff and glossy. Spoon mixture, a good tablespoon for each meringue, onto lined baking trays. Bake in 150C (fan) oven for about 30 minutes. Turn off heat but leave fan on for another 30-45 minutes. Turn off fan and leave for a number of hours to fully dry out (make in evening and leave in oven until morning is probably the ideal.
Mine never make it into a tin in fact my offspring have a tendancy to ensure that I don't eat any!

A top tip - use Magic Liner to line baking trays for meringues, almond biscuits etc

Kumquat or Calamondin chutney

I bought Mr B a 'Calamondin' baby tree a few weeks ago. It came with some already formed fruit - these are slightly bigger than Kumquats. Although quite sweet in taste, there isn't much to them so searched around for a marmalade recipe. Based on this recipe from James Martin, I now have a jar of this 'marmalade' which goes nicely with gammon or ham as we discovered with the large gammon joint I cooked last night.

Calamondin fruit (quartered) and lemon (finely chopped) to make 250g
1 tbsp oil
1 small red onion sliced
2cm stick cinnamon snapped in half
40g soft brown sugar (preferably light brown)
60ml sherry vinegar

Fry the onion in the oil until softened (about 2 minutes).
Add the cinnamon and continue to fry for a further 2 minutes.
Add the fruit and cook until just beginning to soften.
Add the brown sugar and vinegar.
Cover and simmer until the fruit is fully softened and have lost their shape.
Put into a clean, hot jam jar. Leave to cool and then seal.
An aside - the difference between a marmalade and a chutney these days is just the word. See this article. I prefer chutney for the above and keep marmalade to a citrus jam!

Menu for w/c 21st June
M BBQ - including chicken breast marinated in Jerk paste, and turkey burgers for me
T Stir Fry
W Quark based - one idea, as have ham, http://www.quarkmaker.com/Quark_Recipes/Main_Dishes/quark_cheese_overbake.html
Th Turkey steaks - probably on bbq looking at the weather forecast
F Cold gammon with new potatoes, summer vegetables and Calamondin chutney

Lunches
Pitta filled with ham and salad
Lentil soup
Cottage Cheese and pine nut salad
Visiting universities with eldest on other two days.

Orange Marmalade

Finally writing up my mothers recipe for marmalade. Out of season for seville oranges, but someone asked me for the recipe over the weekend.

You do need a Large pan (I use a stock pot) and about 20 sterilized jam jars (prepare more just in case. How to sterilize Jam jars )

Wash and quarter, separating out pips and capturing any juice:
3.5 lbs of Seville Oranges
2 sweet oranges
1 lemon

Place pips in a muslin bag
Mince fruit and add to juice in the pan.

Add 11 pints water and leave for 24 hours

Boil for 1 hour with pips in their bag.

Add 13 lbs of sugar
Stir until sugar is dissolved and then bring back to boiling .... slowly

Boil until set is reached.

Pot and seal