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.

Spicy Sausage Pasta

Sometimes you need a little bit of heat.
A subtle hit of chili to wake up the senses.

That is exactly what my spicy sausage pasta did. Merques sausages, jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, tomato frito, onions and garlic. With the obligatory olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some cayenne pepper. Add a dash of cooking cream to the sauce and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Delicious and very spicy indeed!

Sausage with Polenta and a Tomato, Mushroom and Aubergine Sauce

I love polenta.
It is tasty, easy and most importantly: cheap!
You can slow cook it or it can be cooked in about 10 minutes depending on the type you use (I'm not that patient so you know how it went in my kitchen).
Cook it with milk or with water or with stock or a combination of all three. And here is the kicker, you can even let it chill and then grill it later!!
Lots of potential for experimentation :-)

I served my polenta with a basic beef sausage and a hearty tomato and mushroom sauce. Basically a lot of mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, one aubergine peeled and diced, one big onion and a clove of garlic with a bit of pepper, beef stock and a dash of sugar. And grate some parmesan cheese over the polenta once you've served it if you have some!

The kids are still a bit wary of polenta but at least they have been tasting it without spitting it out and that is the first step..

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...

Pasta with Ham, Mushrooms and Asparagus

I love asparagus.

Two weeks ago I made a pretty tasty pasta dish with garlic, shallots, ham, mushrooms then I topped it with a sprinkle of parmesan and pan fried asparagus.

Of course that sounds very basic but there was some skill involved and a cup of white wine.

In this foto I applied Florabella's colour pop and ocean actions.

I quite like the subtle effect!

Orange Chicken

I had chicken breasts, fennel, onions, mushrooms and some oranges.

What to make, what to make.

Luckily the Internet is full of ideas. 

I love the Internet.

I stumbled across a recipe that matched my ingredients on this website. It turned out to be rather good and very easy (bonus!). It calls for 'herbs de provence' which of course I did not have lying around but that did not stop me from just adding whatever I felt like in terms of herbs and spices. 

Long live improvisation!

Here is a link to the original recipe.

Here is my improvised version.

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, peeled and sliced thinly

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 bulb of fennel (top, bottom and outer leaves removed), sliced thinly

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoons herbs (coriander seeds, basil, cayenne pepper, etc.)

salt and pepper

Juice of 2 oranges

Method:

Melt the butter in a deep skillet on medium heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook, turning occasionally, until browned and just cooked through (about 15 minutes, but depends on the thickness of the poultry).

Meanwhile prepare the mushrooms, fennel and onion.

Remove the chicken from the pan and add the olive oil, heating it for about 1 minute. Add the sliced onions, mushrooms, and fennel. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

Return the chicken to the skillet with the vegetables, then sprinkle with the herbs, and salt and pepper. Pour the orange juice on top and adjust the heat so that the liquid is just barely bubbling.

Simmer for 10 minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on top of rice.

Eating Outside

As soon as the weather is nice I have this urge to eat outside.

I want to sit on our roof terrace and enjoy the fact that the sun is setting later.

We had a chance to do just that when the weather was surprisingly good in March.

I grilled courgette and mushrooms, made lovely cod fillets in the oven and served it all with crispy potatoes. 

Squeeze fresh lemon on top and dinner is sure to be fabulous.

Anything is great when you're sitting outside for dinner!

Spinach Scrambled Eggs

We had a little experiment the other night.

Spinach scrambled eggs seemed like a good idea.

And it turned out pretty tasty surprisingly.

I probably used a bit too much spinach, about 300 gram for 4 eggs, but I really liked it.

Green eggs.

Literally.

No salt, only ground black pepper and chilli flakes.

How's that for being good!