Quiche

Used my 9"x 6" (2" deep) rectangular baking dish for a quiche for a change and think it will be something I repeat regularly. One packet of shop bought ready rolled short crust pastry fits nicely. (Don't tell my grandmother that I don't always make my own pastry!). Alternatively use an 8" flan dish.

Recipe

One pack of ready rolled short crust pastry
3 eggs beaten
300ml milk
Filling of choice
Grated cheddar

Heat oven to 180C
Line baking tray/flan dish with the pastry. Prick the base all over with a fork and brush with egg (taken from the beaten egg for the filling).
Bake 'blind' (ie with no filling) in oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and add filling and cheese
Mix together the beaten eggs and milk and pour over filling
Put back into oven and cook for 30-40 minutes (until skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean)

Filling ideas
Fillings without the grated cheese should come to about half way up the dish (loosely added, ie not pressed down in any way)

• Gammon/ham and onion (fry onions until transparent)
• Asapargus (suggest use flan dish rather than deeper baking tray)
• Caramalised onions (finely chop 1.5lb onions and cook long and slow in 2oz butter until caramalised, ie deep brown)

No Pastry quiche aka Frittata with a twist

As we're getting at least 3 eggs a day from the new hens I have spent some time working out how to try and keep at least only slightly behind the supply without resorting to cakes.

This recipe is perfect for lunch either at home or in the office as it is lovely eaten at room temperature with a green salad.

Having been making this every other week for the last couple of months, refining as I go along, am now ready to record/share!

Heat oven to 180C

8 eggs whisked until lightly frothy
100ml milk
- Add milk to eggs with seasoning depending on filling (eg less salt when using home cooked gammon)
- put other filling ingredients (see below) into dish aiming to fill two thirds of the dish loosely.
- Pour over milk and egg mixture
- cook in preheated oven for about 25 minutes or when egg mixture is set

Size of dish: the above is for 12" quiche dish. For 9" quiche dish use 6 eggs with 75ml milk. 10 eggs etc if large lasagne dish. The egg mixture should not quite cover the other ingredients. If unsure on how many eggs needed it is easy to quickly whisk up more eggs to get to the right level in the dish. Adjust time of cooking accordingly.

So far I have included new potatoes in all fillings, well they are in season, about 250g scrubbed, sliced into about 1cm pieces then cooked.

Unless otherwise indicated, another common ingredient is at least one onion chopped and fried in oil until soft.

Successful fillings to date

New potatoes, sliced chorizo, halved cherry tomatoes, fresh marjoram, cubed feta (no onion)
New potatoes, asparagus spears (cooked), grated cheddar
New potatoes, cubed home cooked gammon/bacon joint, extra fried onion, parsley, grated cheddar [Frittata Lorraine?!]
New potatoes, broccoli and blue cheese (stilton or danish blue and quite a bit of it to get the bite of the 'blue' coming through)

As the vegetable patch starts to produce then bulk of potatoes is likely to be replaced by courgette etc