Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

You guessed it. I had spinach and I had mushrooms. So yes, a quiche was inevitable, right?

I searched the internet for recipes but didn't find anything I wanted to use so I just made it up as I went along. The result was delicious and the quiche was enough to serve two dinners (with a side salad) and one lunch which made me feel thrifty too!

Here's what happened. I made a pastry which is basically flour, butter and sesame seeds. While it was chilling in the fridge I sauteed a big bag of fresh spinach leaves with a bit of crushed garlic and olive oil. Once wilted I let it rest in a colander so that the excess fluid could drain away. The next step was cooking the mushrooms and letting it rest. Then I whisked three eggs and added 300 ml double cream which I just happend to have in the fridge (yay!). After I rolled out the pastry and draped it into my pie dish I pricked the pastry with a fork.  I decided to blind bake the pastry for about 15 minutes just to give it a head start.  Layer the spinach and the mushrooms on the pastry. Make sure you squeeze as much juice as possible out of the spinach before adding it to the quiche.

A sprinkling of grated cheese goes a long way. Lastly pour over the double cream and egg mixture (remember to season it with salt and pepper!). Place it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Mushroom and Asparagus Quiche with Sesame Pastry

My mom brought a feta, mushroom and asparagus quiche recipe with her which she loves to make.
The funny thing is that she found it in a magazine about 10 years ago and she still has the page with the original recipe... impressive right?

Well we made it for dinner and it was lovely.
I especially love the sesame seeds in the crust.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
I guess I'll be making this quiche again very soon...

Here is a copy of the recipe from the January 2004 Woman's Value magazine:

Serves: 6
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Oven temperature: 200 C

Ingredients:
270g cake flour
50ml toasted sesame seeds
125g butter, cut into cubes
125ml cold water
100g asparagus spears
20ml sunflower oil
1 onion, finely chopped
200g mixed mushrooms
3 eggs, lightly beaten
100g feta, crumbled
100g Gruyere (or mature Cheddar), grated
125ml milk

Method:
1. Sieve the flour. Add the sesame seeds. Rub in the butter and mix in about 125ml cold water. Knead lightly, cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge.
2. Boil the asparagus in a little water for one minute. remove from heat, drain and cover with cold water. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat the oil and add the onion. Saute for one minute. Slice larger mushrooms and leave small ones whole. Add to the pan and fry for two minutes.
4. Set aside to cool. Mix eggs and milk. Season to taste.
5. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and line a 22cm quiche tine or pie dish. Prick base with a fork several times then add the cooled ingredients and the cheeses. Pour the rest of the mixture on top. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden and set.
Serve warm or cold.

Crustless Spinach and Mushroom Mini Quiche

For the second time in my life I made quiche. The first time was back in 2011 and I had quite the pastry disaster. So this time I figured it was a good idea to make crustless quiche and to downsize it significantly. Muffin size to be exact.

I tell you, my muffin tray works very hard.

But what prompted me to make this specific quiche?
Well it was the very large bag of fresh spinach which I bought. I was trying to figure out what to do with the last bit of spinach I had left over and then it just came to me. Make a quiche!

Definitely a good idea and I'm already thinking about more variations... you know, for when the we go on picnics or just whenever.

I found inspiration from this recipe and adapted it to suit my ingredients as follow:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 small spring onions, finely sliced (or use 1 medium onion)
2 rashers streaky bacon, chopped up (leave this out if you want to make vegetarian quiche)
approximately 250 gram fresh spinach (washed and stems trimmed)
5 eggs (I used medium free range eggs)
1 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used half plain cheese and half parmesan)
approximately 250 gram brown button mushrooms, chopped
100 ml fresh milk
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Heat a little oil in a large skillet and saute the garlic and spring onions until soft over a medium heat.
Add the bacon and continue sautéing until cooked.
Add the mushrooms and saute until they are soft.
Now add the spinach and continue sautéing until they are wilted.
Drain any excess fluid from the spinach.
Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl until combined and add the milk.
Season to taste.
Add the cooked spinach and mushroom mixture and the cheese to the eggs.
Mix well and then divide evenly among the 12 muffin cups. I managed to fill about 11 with this mixture.
Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until they are cooked through.
Let them cool down for a few minutes and then remove from the muffin tray.
They are lovely served with a salad and fresh bread and make for perfect picnic food.
Enjoy!

P.S. I also decided to freeze a few of them as a bit of an experiment. Will let you know how it turns out...

Quiche Lorraine

This was a week of many firsts... I finally decided to make a quiche.
Perfect picnic food, right?

I found a James Martin recipe for quiche Lorraine on the BBC Food website. It had a rustic look about it which tempted me into making it.

Well, it did turn out to be delicious but I had a bit of a pastry disaster.

Lesson learnt: Use ready made pastry - it will just make your life much easier!

Here is a link to the recipe.

The most important thing to note is that you simply must make sure that the pastry does not have any holes or cracks or else it will leak when you pour in your egg mixture.

Here is a copy of the recipe:

For the pastry

• 175g/6oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• salt
• 75g/2¾oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• (alternatively use ready made pastry)

For the filling

• 250g/9oz English cheddar, grated
• 4 tomatoes, sliced (optional)
• 200g/7oz bacon, chopped
• 5 eggs, beaten
• 100ml/3½fl oz milk
• 200ml/7fl oz double cream
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

Preparation method

To make the pastry, sift the flour together with a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb texture. Add enough cold water to make the crumb mixture come together to form a firm dough, and then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a light floured surface and line a 22cm/8½inch well-buttered flan dish. Don't cut off the edges of the pastry yet. Chill again.

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

Remove the pastry case from the fridge and line the base of the pastry with baking parchment and then fill it with baking beans. Place on a baking tray and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment and return to the oven for another five minutes to cook the base

Reduce the temperature of the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.

Sprinkle the cheese into the pastry base and add the sliced tomatoes if you are using them. Fry the bacon pieces until crisp and sprinkle over them over the top.

Combine the eggs with the milk and cream in a bowl and season well. Pour over the bacon and cheese. Sprinkle the thyme over the top and trim the edges of the pastry.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool and set further.

Trim the pastry edges to get a perfect edge and then serve in wedges.