rumtumtigger

On Sunday afternoon I noticed I had the following in the fridge: half a green pepper, half an onion, a wheel of feta cheese and half a pack of diced bacon. I thought of making omlettes for supper but then realized that, not only would I need to use about 10-12 eggs to feed 4 people, I would not have something to take to work for lunch the next day. That’s when I decided to make a quiche.

For the pastry:

250ml flour

3ml baking powder

pinch of salt

50g butter

1 egg yolk

3 tbs iced water

100ml grated cheese

Filling:

half an onion

half a green pepper

250g punnet of mushrooms

half a pack of diced bacon

Egg mixture:

300ml milk

3 whole eggs

seasonings of your choice

I blitzed the dry ingredients with the butter in my food processor and, once that turned into what looked like bread crumbs, I added the cheese and egg yolk and added the iced water with the motor still running. Only use enough water to bring the dough together. You may need more, you may need less. Wrap this ball of dough in some plastic and put it in the fridge for about an 1 hour. Roll out just before you start frying off your filling ingredients.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. I sliced the onion and fried in oil until golden brown, then I added some balsamic vinegar and allowed it to caramelize. I put this into the pastry that I had rolled out and placed into a greased pyrex dish. I then fried the peppers with a punnet of mushrooms and added garlic and seasonings. This was placed on top of the onions. I sprinkled over a wheel of feta cheese and then fried off the bacon. This became my final layer before I whisked together 300ml and 3 eggs with some Robertson Pesto and Parmesan seasoning. I poured the egg mixture over the filling ingredients, scattered over some more grated cheese and baked for 20 minutes.

I find that as long as you have your framework (flop proof pastry recipe and the right ratio of eggs to milk) you can do anything you want when it comes to fillings. I have used leftover creamed spinach or leftover roasted veg before. Throw in some cheese and you’re sorted.