Leek and Bacon Quiche

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I’ve never made a quiche before and even though I like Quiche Lorraine, I thought I’d do something a bit different by making a Leek and Bacon one.
I made some shortcrust pastry which was really easy to do and the recipe below makes enough pastry for 2 quiches if using an 8-inch flan tin.
Steve and I did like this quiche a lot as the pastry was really nice and the filling didn’t taste too eggy, but we were discussing different fillings and agreed next time I’ll make a Breakfast Quiche with sausage, bacon and mushrooms. I’d like to add some cherry tomatoes but Steve wasn’t keen on that idea, so I’ll add caramelised onions instead.

• Makes: 1 quiche but enough pastry for 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C then Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Cooking time: 1 hour
• You will need: an 8-inch flan tin

Ingredients for the Shortcrust Pastry:

• 225g plain flour
• 55g butter, cold
• 55g lard, cold
• approx. 9 teaspoons water

Directions for the pastry:

1. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Cut the fat into small pieces and add to the flour. Rub the fat into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you shake the bowl, any big lumps of fat should rise to the surface, so you need to rub these in.
3. Make a well in the centre, then add the water and using a round bladed/palette knife, mix into a firm dough. Don’t force the mixture together, if you need to add another teaspoon of water to bring together the dry bits at the bottom of the bowl then that’s fine.
4. There is no need to chill this dough, so you can roll it out and use it straight away or store it in the freezer for another time.
5. You only need half the amount of pastry for 1 quiche, so split it in half and freeze whatever you don’t need - if you have a spare flan tin then it’s ideal if you line that tin with the pastry and then pop the whole thing in the freezer, then it’s ready to use for next time!
6. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
7. Roll out your pastry to 2-3mm thick and use it to line an 8-inch flan tin, pressing it into the flutes, then neatly trim away the excess with a knife. If your tin has a lip then make sure it is covered with pastry as when it bakes it will shrink. Then line the tin with some greaseproof paper and fill with a layer of baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, it should be pale golden brown. Remove the baking beans and the paper and return the pastry to the oven for about 5 minutes to dry out the base.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 medium sized leeks
• 25g butter
• 2-3 rashers of bacon, grilled and cut into pieces
• 75g mature cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 large eggs
• 150ml double cream (I used Elmlea)
• salt and black pepper
• pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions for the filling:

1. Trim the leeks, discarding the dark green part. Wash the white part of the leeks and slice thinly into rings.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the leeks and mix well. Season with salt and black pepper. Cover with a piece of damp greaseproof paper and a lid and sweat the leeks until they are tender. Stir in the bacon.
3. Place the leek and bacon into the blind-baked pastry case and sprinkle on the cheese.
4. Whisk the eggs with the cream, salt and cayenne pepper. Pour the liquid into the pastry case, being careful not to overfill it (you might not need all of it).
5. Place in the top third of your oven and cook for 10 minutes at Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C , then reduce the temperature to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

I served the quiche with Vichy Carrots: allow one large carrot per person and peel and cut them into even sized batons. Place in a fairly small saucepan and add a generous knob of butter, a pinch of sugar and some salt and pepper. Add enough water to the carrots so that they are barely covered, then boil rapidly for about 10-15 minutes, until the carrots are tender and the water has evaporated so that you are left with a lovely buttery glaze.

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

The crumble topping is more like the topping you have on an Apple Crisp, which is an American dessert. I used apples because we always have some apples sitting untouched in the fruit bowl and this is a perfect way to use up the ones that are starting to go a bit soft. I always prefer to use eating apples to cooking apples, as I think they’re naturally sweeter (and not so sharp so you don’t have to add so much sugar) and they keep their shape more, so you have something to bite into, rather than a spoonful of mush.

I went out into the garden and picked some blackberries that were overgrowing from next door’s garden. They’re bang in season now, so go out and look in a nearby hedgerow and you’ll probably spot some ripe for picking!

• Makes: 4 individual crumbles
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
• Cooking time: 20 minutes (or 30 mins if doing 1 large dish)

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 eating apples (I used Gala), peeled, cored and cut into bite size pieces
• big handful of blackberries (as many as you can pick!)
• 1-2 Tablespoons sugar (depends how sweet you like it)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (this is optional but if you’re making these in advance then I’d use it to stop the apples going brown)

Ingredients for the topping:

• 50g rolled oats
• 100g ground almonds
• 150g melted unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour
• 100g soft brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. Put the apples and blackberries in a small bowl and mix well with the sugar and lemon juice, if using.
3. Mix together all the topping ingredients together.
4. Distribute the fruit between 4 ramekins and then sprinkle over the topping, but don’t press it down too firmly.
5. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

I bought this set of 4 ramekins from Amazon for £6.99. They are 3.5 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, so the perfect size. They are blowtorch, dishwasher, microwave and oven safe. I plan to make crème brûlées in them next!

Chicken Thigh Pie

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I’ve adapted a Rachel Allen recipe to create a filling with a creamy sauce. I
made the pastry myself and it was lovely and flaky, but ready-made puff pastry would be good for this too.

Next time I will add a bit more beurre manié (equal parts of flour and butter mixed to a firm paste) because the sauce was a bit thin after the pie had been baked – I think the frozen peas released a lot of water.
This was quite a time consuming and labour intensive meal to prepare, but it was worth it as both Steve and I really enjoyed it. You could of course cut loads of corners by using ready-rolled pastry and cooked chicken, but I get so much pleasure out of cooking that I prefer to cook from scratch.

I called this Chicken Thigh Pie as that is the part of the chicken I like to use, but you can use breast if you prefer and adjust the cooking time of step 1 for the filling.

• Serves: 4 people if served as part of a 3 course meal (or 2 very greedy people for a dinner)
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C for 15 minutes, then reduce to Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C for 15 minutes.
• You will need: a shallow 1 – 1¼ pint capacity ovenproof dish

Ingredients for the Flaky Pastry:

• 100g plain flour
• 38g cold butter
• 38g cold lard
• 4-5 Tablespoons water

Directions for the Flaky Pastry:

1. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl, then add half the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add 4 Tablespoons of water to the mixture and blend lightly together with a palette knife. If the mixture isn’t coming together easily and there are dry bits in the bottom of the bowl then add more water a ½ Tablespoon at a time (there are many factors that affect pastry-making, so only use measurements as a guide).
3. Once you can bring the mixture together with your hands into a soft but not sticky dough, then you can roll it out into a long rectangle, about 30cm long, onto a lightly floured board until it is about 5mm thick.
4. Mark the rectangle of the dough into thirds, without cutting all the way through.
5. Dot the top two thirds with half of the lard, then fold the bottom third up to cover the middle third.
6. Fold the top third down to enclose all the fat. You should now have a small rectangle.
7. Using your rolling pin, seal the edges by pressing down firmly. Give the pastry a quarter turn clockwise.
8. Roll again to form a long rectangle and repeat steps 4 to 6 but this time use the remaining butter.
9. Fold and roll again, but this time use the remaining lard.
10. Fold and roll for the last time without any fat being added.
11. Cover the pastry with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using.

* I thought a diagram would be useful so here are my best efforts using Photoshop and Steve’s help! (click to enlarge):


Ingredients for the filling:

• 500g chicken thighs, bone in
• ½ carrot, cut into chunks
• ½ onion, cut into wedges
• 300ml chicken or vegetable stock
• pinch of dried rosemary and thyme (or fresh if you have it)
• salt and black pepper
• 85ml double cream
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 3 rashers of bacon, chopped
• 6 button mushrooms, sliced
• 1-2 Tablespoons of beurre manié
• 100g frozen peas
• ½ small tin sweetcorn
• 1 beaten egg, to glaze

Directions for the filling:

1. Put the chicken, carrot, onion wedges, stock, herbs and seasoning into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked and no blood appears when you cut into the chicken.
2. Remove the chicken and vegetables from the pan (you can discard the vegetables), reserving the stock for the sauce. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and cut the meat into bite size pieces. Put the chicken in the pie dish.
3. Whilst the chicken is cooking, gently fry the chopped onion until it is soft but not coloured. Add the bacon and the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Put this mixture into the pie dish with the chicken and mix well.
4. Put the reserved stock back into the saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the cream and whisk in 1-2 Tablespoons of the beurre manié. Boil the sauce for a few minutes to cook out the flour in the beurre manié and for the sauce to thicken. Pour the sauce into the pie dish over the chicken mixture and mix well. (If you are baking the pie immediately then you can proceed with the next steps, otherwise allow to cool before covering with the pastry).
5. When you are ready to bake your pie, add the peas and sweetcorn to the chicken mixture and mix well.
6. Roll out your pastry onto a lightly floured board until it is large enough to cover your pie dish.
7. Cut a strip 1cm wide from the outside of the pastry and place it on the moistened rim of the pie dish, then brush with water.
8. Carefully place the rest of the pastry over the pie mixture and seal the edges together by pressing firmly. Trim off the excess pastry and knock up the edges of the pie with the flat of your knife.
9. Make a small hole in the centre of the pie to allow steam to escape and place a greaseproof paper funnel in the hole.
10. Glaze the top of the pie with the beaten egg.
11. Cook in a preheated oven at Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C for 15 minutes or until golden brown and then reduce to Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C for 15-20 minutes.