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

Chicken Tagine

Based on this recipe from James Martin. Slight variation:

Take 4-6 chicken skinless breasts and toss in spice blend made of 2tsp ras-el-hanout (I have found this in a local Tesco's), 0.5 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp ground cinnamon.
Fry in large pan for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Remove and then fry onion, garlic and ginger until onion are translucent. Add stick of cinnamin stick and any of the spice blend remaining and fry for further minute. Return chicken to pan - continue with James' recipe adding pinch of saffron at same time as stock. Season to taste

I served with cous cous with chopped parsley and coriander as is not the season for mint.

Fruit based recipes

Poor man's brulee with fruit

Lamb Recipes

Lamb, Olive and Caramelised Onion Tagine
Lamb OssoBuco and Milanese Risotto
Lamb stock
Roast Lamb with Boulangere Potatoes

Leftover lamb

- Shepherd's Pie

- Lamb Rogan Josh

Beef Recipes

BBQ Beef - slow cooker

Beef Braciole

Cheese Recipes

Nigel Slater's Cheese and Thyme Souffles

Turkey - Christmas 2010

We ended up spending Christmas at my mother-in-law's; so the local free range happy turkey we had ordered, and had been feeling smug about having managed to get on the supplier's list, ended up having a few days in the freezer and was then eaten at lunchtime on New Year's Eve. I used the same recipe (2021 - updated link) as last year but included the stuffing (stuffed the neck only); the bird was 6+kg and needed the additional 20 minutes. I SO need to get a different roasting tray ahead of next Christmas as my halogen hob and the current tin do not get on well. With VAT going up in a few hours time maybe I ought to go look online once I have finished writing this! Along with turkey sandwiches for lunch yesterday and a very tasty soup from stock made from bones etc to be had for some lunches this week the meals for the week, mainly using up the turkey, are: Turkey Curry: to date I have used a different more tomato based recipe (not written up as yet) that does well for any cooked meat, but this one went down well on Saturday. I used low fat creme fraiche rather than the yoghurt/cream/lemon mix. It could have done with a squeeze of lemon and some toasted almonds. Beef braised in Guiness with Pickled Walnuts: A Delia recipe from her original Cooking series. I cannot find the recipe online but this one with Venison is a variant. This evening we will try out this pasta and leftover turkey recipe. I won't put in the leftover stuffing as these have been formed into 'patties' to be fried up and served with chips and peas tomorrow. Update: use low fat soft cheese and try adding artichoke hearts next time. IF we have any turkey left, which I doubt, I will look at trying out this potted turkey recipe to go with the various pickles I have either made myself, been given or found have been bought in.