When you’re a keeper of the chickens, a good egg recipe will always catch your eye. We eat a lot of eggs at our place, something that we are all very happy about. Since the chickens were all killed last weekend, we are going to have to buy eggs again. At least for the short term.
You really can’t go past a classic quiche for lunch. I first heard of quiche when that “real men don’t eat quiche” line was doing the rounds in the eighties. I thought, “what’s quiche?” and found the recipe for an asparagus quiche in one of mum’s cookbooks. Erk. Asparagus and eggs. Erk.
Later, I found the quiche lorraine and my views on quiche were instantly transformed. Bacon and eggs in pastry? I can go for that! While no quiche could ever really be a dieter’s dream (it did originate in France, after all), this recipe is a little lighter than a classic quiche lorraine, using light cheese, light cream and lean ham instead of bacon.Served up with a big green salad it hits the spot perfectly. I make my own shortcrust pastry, but only because I know how super-easy it is in the food processor. It’s a very satisfying thing to make your own pastry – up there with bread baking (so I’m told!). I urge you to give it a try (recipe follows the quiche recipe).
Serves 6
You’ll need
2 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry (or make your own – see simple recipe below)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, diced finely
About 200 gm good-quality ham, roughly chopped
1 cup grated light tasty cheese (gruyere is gorgeous but not so light)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon plain flour
200ml light cream
1/2 cup light milk
You’ll also need
A 23cm tart tin or dish
Baking paper
Pie beads (marbles or rice work pretty well too!)
Heavy-based small frypan
Kitchen paper
Preheat fan-force oven to 190°C. Lightly grease the tart dish with a little of the olive oil and line with the pastry. Press down lightly and trim the sides to neaten. You can create a pattern around the edge with the prongs of a fork or the handle of a spoon if you like.
Put the baking paper on top of the pastry and fill with pie beads. Put into the oven for 10 minutes, take out and remove the pie beads and paper and put back into the oven for a further 10 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and reduce fan-force oven temperature to 170°C.
While the pastry is in the oven, heat the olive oil in the frypan until medium heat and add the onions. Cook gently until almost translucent then add the ham to cook until the onion starts to caramelise. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper, allow to cool.
While onion and ham mix is cooling, whisk the eggs, flour, cream and milk in a jug until well combined and slightly frothy. When ready, sprinkle the ham and onion over the pastry and then the cheese on top of that. Pour the egg mix over the top of the lot. Put the pie dish on top of a flat tray and place into the oven to bake for about 35 minutes until set and golden. Remove from oven, let stand for about 5 minutes and serve to thunderous applause (we wish).
Add this recipe to your Yummly feed: Yum
Shortcrust pastry the easy way Put 1 3/4 cups of plain flour and 125gm of really cold butter into the bowl of your food processor and whizz on high until the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs. Reduce the speed to medium and slowly add 1 egg yolk then enough icy water to bring it all together into a ball of dough. The amount of water you need will vary, but start with out 1 tablespoon and add in small quantities until everything shuffles together. Turn out onto a floured workbench and knead until smooth. Push into a disc shape, wrap in clingwrap and put the disc into the fridge for about an hour. Remove from the fridge, return to floured work bench and roll out firmly with a rolling pin until a thin and large enough to line your pie dish. To stop sticking, it helps to put a piece of baking paper on top of the dough when you’re rolling it out.
Add this recipe to your Yummly feed: Yum
[…] Easy lunch | A lovely lighter quiche lorraine […]