Chicken with mushrooms - the name belies the flavour!

It sounds so simple that it is hard to believe it could be so tasty.  However, never underestimate the power of a tablespoonful of vinegar to the flavour of a dish!

I was looking for a simple, no frills, mid week chicken dish that could be served with a couple of different vegetables, to balance up the low veggie dishes that were already on the menu plan.  As ever, when feeling a lack of inspiration, I turned to my recipe bible - www.bbcgoodfood.com.  Flicking through the dozens of recipes, I recognised one that I'd liked on a previous occasion but hadn't got around to cooking yet - the chicken with mushrooms.  For all that the name sounds singularly uninspiring, the photograph alongside looked really quite enticing.  Nice golden fillets of chicken with mushrooms and green peas in a light and not creamy, sauce.  It looked perfect for the job.

I had to make some alterations to the original recipe though, as I wasn't going to pay for pancetta (so I used Asda's misshapes smoked bacon for cooking), nor a bottle of white wine vinegar that I might not use again for months (so I used sherry vinegar, which I had already got).  

I also didn't bother with dirtying a bowl by dredging the chicken with flour (which would probably have stuck to the pan and burned anyway) and solved the problem of a too-thin sauce by adding just two teaspoonfuls of Bisto Best roast chicken gravy granules.  All three of these changes worked perfectly, so hence the recipe appears in its altered form in this blog.  If I didn't write down what I did, I just know I'd forget when it came to the next time!  However, if you want to stick to the named ingredients in the original recipe, you go right ahead - it's fine by me.

The keys to this recipe's deliciousness are as follows :

a)  the cooking of the chicken.  You must make sure that your chicken gains a lovely golden hue before you add liquid.  This is the real foundation of your dish's flavour.

b)  the bacon.  Don't be tempted to leave out the bacon.  The flavour profile needs it's intense savouriness and saltiness - but be careful about the addition of sea salt, just a tiny pinch!

c)  the vinegar.  The addition of the vinegar gives a lovely tang of acidity to the sauce.  Not as much as sweet and sour, but enough to give it a lift above a straight gravy.

d)  the late addition of the fresh parsley.  Don't be tempted to chuck it in early.  The sauce needs the freshness of the just wilted parsley.

e)  the reduction of the liquid in the sauce.   Don't be tempted to hurry it along and serve before the sauce has had a chance to reduce by half to two thirds.  It makes SUCH a difference to the intensity of the flavour!  Taste the sauce as you go along and you will see what I mean.

This is one of those recipes that is as good a mid week family dinner as it is a relaxed dinner with friends.  The flavour is so much more than its title!

CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOMS (serves 2)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
3 rashers thick cut smoked back bacon, diced
2 large eschalion shallots or 4-5 small shallots, chopped
150g button mushrooms, halved
2 chicken breasts, each cut in half lengthways to create 2 thinner fillets
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
250ml warm water, containing 1 low salt chicken stock cube
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tsp Bisto Best chicken gravy granules
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
50g frozen peas.

Method :

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, then add the bacon and shallots. Cook over a moderate heat until the shallots are softened, all the liquid has left the bacon and it has begun to turn golden.

Add the button mushrooms and continue to fry, stirring regularly, until the mushrooms have begun to soften.

Remove the bacon, shallots & mushrooms from the pan using a slotted spoon and reserve to keep warm.

Increase the heat under the pan and add the chicken breast fillets and season with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper. Leave them undisturbed to gain a lovely golden colour, then flip them over, season and cook the other side in identical fashion.

Once both sides are deliciously golden, return the bacon, shallots & mushrooms to the pan.

Add the water, stock cube (broken into pieces) and vinegar and stir gently until everything is combined. Bring to a steady simmer and cook for a further 15 or so minutes, turning the chicken half way through.

Once the liquid has reduced by half, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly then add the gravy granules and stir quickly to prevent them clumping. Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened.

Add the fresh parsley and frozen peas and taste the sauce to check the seasoning. Add a little more if necessary. Bring back up to simmering point, turn the chicken once and cook until the peas are tender but have not lost their fresh green colour.

Serve with new potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

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Quick cheesy scrambled eggs

This is one of my "hit and run" style of blog posts, that covers something I've made for myself - either breakfast, or lunch - that was too good not to share.

This quick cheesy scrambled egg in a toasted pitta bread breakfast is one such.  I didn't have my "proper" camera to hand, so snapped a picture with my camera phone.  This is why it's not a great picture - but it's enough to give you the idea.

It's a simple enough concept - an egg, scrambled, with grated cheese melted in and put into a pitta bread.  However, it's not a stovetop job, it's a microwave job.

Super-easy, super-quick and you're left with a mug, a fork and a knife to wash up.  As you can see, I didn't even bother to dirty a plate.   Perfect.  

QUICK CHEESY SCRAMBLED EGGS   (serves 1)

Ingredients :

1 large or very large egg
a small handful of grated cheese (I used Red Leicester, but any hard cheese is good)
a small knob of butter
1 tsp cream, if you've got it (not essential)
small pinch of sea salt and black pepper
Plus :
whatever you're serving it with - pitta bread, toast, bacon, whatever you like.

Method :

Crack the egg into a robust and microwave safe coffee mug.

Add the seasoning and cream (if you're using cream) and whisk them together with your fork.

Add the butter and grated cheese and stir lightly.

Place into the microwave and give it 30 seconds on full power.  Remove and give the contents a good old whisk with your fork again.

Replace and give it 15 seconds on full power.  Remove and whisk again.  Now, depending upon the power of your microwave, your egg will either be ready, or you'll need to give it small increments (say 5-10 seconds) further cooking until it reaches the consistency you like.

I recommend you remove it from the microwave when the egg is still a little bit underdone, as it will continue to cook even once it's on the plate!

In the meantime, you can have toasted a pitta bread, or made some toast, or if you're going very a la carte, even made some bacon earlier.  Serve up the egg with an extra sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper if you like that - and dig in!

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Mead - *hic* - yep, it's alcoholic and good for you!

Yes, Mead!  That apparently old style alcoholic drink that used to be sold by Merrydown in this country, but appears to have fallen off the map.  That elixir of life for Norsemen down the ages, who by all accounts had a great liking for the stuff (and who wouldn't!).  I gather, also, that it is a stalwart of many a Renaissance Fayre over the pond in the U.S. and perhaps even Canada.

I can remember my parents, way back in the seventies and one Christmas, producing a bottle of Merrydown Mead and being cock-a-hoop that they'd found some.  As I was knee-high to a grasshopper at the time, I didn't get to taste any but their happiness at having found it was testament to its popularity (at the time).

As time went on, it seems to have fallen by the wayside as so many good things often do. However, there does seem to be something of a resurgence going on - and in home brewing terms.  Now my hubby is a bit keen on dallying about with demijohns and hydrometers, but it was the news that Mead contains a significant number (by which I mean SHEDLOADS) of probiotics, that tipped the balance for us.  We're all into probiotics in this house as my use of Kefir (a fermented milk drink) and liking for Kombucha (have yet to try fermenting this one), along with the use of goat milk (unfermented, this time) seem to have made a significant difference to my irritable bowel syndrome.  Have a read of this piece here, for more information on that happy side of Mead.

Chicken in a Mead and mustard cream sauce

This being, primarily, a food blog, I think it is important to underline the very good work that our Mead has been doing in the cooking department.  My pork with parsnips and Mead was unbelievably good, the chicken in a Mead and mustard cream sauce was just out of this world and hubby has mounted an armed perimeter guard around the freezer since I made my rhubarb & mead semifreddo, with rhubarb & mead compote.  So, you see, Mead is not just for warming your cockles on a chilly night!

So as hubby is the Master Brewer in our house, I shall turn the remainder of this blog post - and the recipe of course - over to him.

There really is no magic involved in Mead, it is quite simply a combination of good quality honey, brewer's yeast and water, left to ferment.  The better the honey you use, the better the mead will be, so take care not to get any of the honey blends, as some will contain a sugar syrup.

You can flavour your Mead by adding raisins, spices such as cinnamon and cloves, or any number of other botanicals such as elderflowers, juniper berries and sweet herbs into the first demijohn. It is also possible to make a fruit Mead (called a melomel) by adding fruit (peaches, pineapple, oranges, rhubarb or whatever you want) into the second demijohn. (We haven't tried this one yet!).

As regards the yeast required, baking yeast just won't do, so put that back in the fridge before we go any further.  Brewers yeast (or wine making yeast) is what you want - as it is better at converting sugar to alcohol.  Champagne yeast is the very best and I found mine on Amazon.  Generally, one sachet of yeast is 5g although they can differ.  However 5g of yeast is the amount I use in this recipe.

You might be wondering what use the lemon juice is put to, but apparently it helps to wake the yeast up and kickstarts the fermentation process.  Sounds likely!

Yes, you do need some specialised equipment for the task, but really, not much of it!  Two 5 litre demijohns are a must, together with a length of silicone tubing, an airlock and bung, a large bottle brush for cleaning everything and a good selection of glass bottles to carry the final product.  I've found that Grolsch bottles - being swing-topped - are great.  It is an easy matter to obtain corks with which to seal wine bottles and these are great when storing the Mead for any length of time.  A hydrometer is useful if you want to check the alcohol content by any other means than "have I got a headache" when you wake up in the morning.

There are lots of ways to sterilise glass, the easiest of which is to use a sterilising solution. I use one called "Bruclense" which is easy to use and leaves no chemical residue once rinsed. There are other solutions which are sold to sterilise babies' bottles that do the same job. If you hate the idea of chemicals though, just wash the glass well, rinse thoroughly and then put into an oven at 110 degrees celcius for ten minutes.

Having assembled your small collection of equipment, you'll be raring to go - so here's the recipe.

MEAD   (makes approx. 4.5 litres)

Ingredients :

1,200 - 1,500g of runny honey (depending on how sweet you want the finished mead)

1 sachet (5g approx.) of brewing or wine yeast (I use champagne yeast)

1 lemon, juice only

5 litres of water.

Method :

In a saucepan, add the honey to 1 litre of the water and warm it up so that the honey dissolves.  Make sure not to let the mixture boil, just get it warm enough to be pourable.

Once dissolved, cover and leave to cool to room temperature before pouring it into a clean, sterilised 5 litre demijohn along with the lemon juice, the brewing yeast and then top the demijohn up with the remaining water, leaving a 5 cm air gap at the top.  An initial hydrometer reading can be taken at this stage if you're into that kind of thing.

Seal the demijohn with an airlock and bung and leave in a dark place for around 30 days to ferment.

Fermentation should, initially, be quite vigorous (more than one bloop per second) but after 30 days or so, the airlock should be bubbling only very slowly (a bloop every ten seconds or so).  This is time to carefully rack the mead into another clean sterilised demijohn, taking care to leave the sediment behind in the original one.  (Racking = decanting).  Racking can be a tricky procedure and I suggest that you visit YouTube to get a good sense of how it is done.   You can take the opportunity to top up with water to the full 5 litres, if you wish. Now is also the time to take a second hydrometer reading, which will give you an idea of the alcohol content at that moment.  Mine was 13.5%.

This is also the stage at which any botanicals or fruits can be added.  For my second batch of mead, I've used half a cinnamon stick and a few juniper berries but there are all manner of extra flavours that would work very well too.  Replace the airlock and bung and leave the whole thing for another 30 days to clear before racking into clean, sterilised bottles.

The mead can be drunk at this stage but the longer it is left in the bottles, the better it becomes. Six months is a good time to wait but it should keep for much longer than that if all of your equipment was sterilised and scrupulously clean.

Cheers!

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Cheesy Ham and Potato bake - a trip back in time

Oh I only wish I could show you how excited I am by this dish - and how completely stuffed but happy I was by the time I'd eaten it.  You see, it took me back to years ago when I would spend a week at my cousin's house and then she would spend a week at ours.  Happy days!  My aunt would cook dinners like this - comforting, kids' dinners of potatoes and cheese.

A Facebook friend was responsible for the inspiration for this dish, though.  She posted photographs of a very similar thing, but with sliced potatoes instead of chunks, that instantly reminded me of this sort of meal and how much I liked it.  Her recipe was very much made for adults though, being a version of scalloped potatoes and using garlic, much more double cream and some creme fraiche.

So I looked at various recipes and tried to recall the way my Aunt's dinner looked and tasted - and this is the result.  No, it won't win any awards for gastronomy but I suspect it could win a few where reminiscence is concerned!

It really is simplicity itself.  Par-boiled potatoes are mixed with diced ham, sliced spring onions and a good, thick and cheesy sauce seasoned with English mustard powder and nutmeg.  Cover with cheese and bake in the oven.  I love dishes that have a great payoff for minimum effort - and this is definitely one of those.

You can tinker about with the recipe as much as you like, to your own preference, too.  Add peas or sweetcorn, use a cooked supermarket ham hock for the meat instead of sliced ham - just shred the meat before you add it.  Add the chopped chives to the cheese sauce.  Maybe adultify it a little by adding garlic granules to the sauce.  All manner of tinkering about could go on!

I served mine in two ways - I served mine simply with a baked tomato.  For my son, I cooked some sausages and gave him some raw tomato that had been tossed with chives as growing boys need their protein and he doesn't like cooked tomato.  Oh boy, it was so good!

CHEESY HAM & POTATO BAKE   (Serves 2-3)

Ingredients :

4-5 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced into half inch pieces
4 spring onions, sliced
10-15g salted butter
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml skimmed milk (you may not need it all)
100ml double cream
1 tsp plain Philadelphia cream cheese
a scant pinch of sea salt
a good pinch of ground black pepper
a quarter tsp of grated nutmeg
1 tsp English mustard powder
250g of mixed cheeses, grated (I used Gouda and mature Cheddar)
200g thick sliced ham, cut into half inch pieces
30g of grated cheese (I used Red Leicester)
chopped chives to serve.

Method :

Place the potato dice into a saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil. Cook for 1-2 minutes until just slightly softened, then drain and tip the potato into the baking dish.

Slice the spring onions and add them to the potato in the baking dish.

In a non-stick pan, melt the butter and once melted, add the flour and stir well. Cook over a moderate heat for 1-2 minutes, then add a little milk and remove the pan from the heat. Stir the milk into the butter/flour mixture until lump free, then return to a reduced heat and add a little more milk. Stir that in and add the cream, cream cheese, seasoning, nutmeg and mustard powder and stir through.

As the sauce heats, make sure to keep stirring to prevent it from catching on the bottom of the pan. You need a fairly thick sauce at this stage, you can always add more milk once the cheese is melted, if necessary.

Add the mixed grated cheese and remove from the heat as it melts. You need the sauce to be fairly thick, but still of pouring consistency. When you are happy with the sauce, plate it on one side.

Add the ham pieces to the potato/onion mixture and stir through. Pour the cheese sauce over and give a light stir, just to make sure the sauce is right the way through the potatoes. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degF/350degC/Gas 4 for 45 mins or until the potatoes are soft and cooked through.

Sprinkle with chopped chives for colour and serve.

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Rhubarb & Mead Semifreddo with compote - such a simple joy!

Okay, now before I go any further, I feel I must explain both Mead and Semifreddo - just in case.

Mead is an alcoholic drink made (in a very skimpy nutshell) by mixing honey with yeast and water and leaving it to ferment.  Hubby has made a couple of batches of this elixir of life and it has very much received the thumbs up from the whole family.  However, if you're not into fermenting or wine making, you can easily substitute a sweet sherry, dessert or Marsala wine which will be slightly different in flavour, but just as delicious.

Hubby's home made Mead

Semifreddo is basically an ice cream.  Both product and name originate in Italy, the home of so many scrummy ice creams.  It translates as "partly frozen" and relates to the fact that the cream mixture is frozen solid, then allowed to thaw for an hour or so prior to serving.  This gives the deliciously icy texture along with the unctuous creamy texture of the thawed edges that is so characteristic of a Semifreddo.

I asked hubby what he would like for dessert on Sunday, following on from our roast pork dinner.  After just a moment's thought, he announced "a rhubarb semifreddo".  Well, what a blindingly good idea!  I briefly considered making it a rhubarb & ginger version but I'm keen to work the Mead into as many dishes as possible, just to prove how versatile it is.

Our first experience of semifreddo was one my Mum made - a mango & nectarine version.  Since then, I have made a lemon version which had a buttery ginger biscuit base and took the cream quantities from this BBC Good Food recipe : Limoncello & Raspberry Semifreddo which sounds equally good.  So this recipe has taken its inspiration from many different sources.

Baked rhubarb, ready for the compote

I was so pleased at how this one turned out, as I really wasn't sure about the quantities of sugar involved.  Well, you know how tart rhubarb can be - but I wanted a degree of that tartness to remain, to provide contrast between the tart fruit and the sweetness of the iced cream.  I decided against a biscuit base, this time, because I wanted to serve the semifreddo with some rhubarb & mead compote and I felt all three would be too much.

All ready for freezing

The end result was truly lovely.  Hubby was fairly incoherent in his attempts to lavish praise upon it, so impressed was he.  He immediately set up a manned exclusion zone around the freezer, just in case anyone attempted to help themselves.  The iced cream was deliciously sweet, rich with the flavours of the Mead and with that slightly acidic tang that creme fraiche brings to the party.  Our home grown rhubarb is so tasty, dear old Ruby and her daughter RubyTwo excel themselves every year in providing the best a rhubarb plant can.

The rhubarb compote, as with the rhubarb for the semifreddo, is made by oven baking the rhubarb, then combining it with the Mead and sugar and leaving the three to match up deliciously.  It was just fabulous along with the semifreddo.  On the one hand, sweet rhubarb with Meady syrup, on the other hand creamy semifreddo with tart fruity rhubarb.  Oh yes.  Very much yes.

The best, the very best, part about this recipe is that it is simplicity itself to make.  No fiddling around with eggs as with so many semifreddo recipes, but a simple matter of two bowls, some spoons and a whisk.  Oh, and a freezer.  Yup, got to have a freezer!

As you'll now no doubt be busting for the recipe, here we go.

RHUBARB & MEAD SEMIFREDDO WITH COMPOTE   (serves 10-12)

Ingredients :

6-8 good sized sticks of washed rhubarb
1, 1 & 2 tbsp granulated sugar
300ml double cream
80g golden caster sugar
400ml creme fraiche
5 & 3 tbsp Mead.

Method :

Firstly, prepare a 2lb-3lb loaf tin (or 2 x 1lb loaf tins) by lining them with a double layer of cling film, which should be significantly bigger than the tin, so as to be able to wrap the contents once frozen.

Then, take 3 or 4 of the pinkest sticks of rhubarb and slice them into half inch chunks, then halve each chunk.  Spread them out onto a non-stick baking tray (non-stick silver foil is great for this!), sprinkle with 1 tbsp of the granulated sugar and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degF/350degC/Gas 4 for 10 minutes, then turn the tray and replace for another 10 minutes until the fruit is cooked through and just beginning to lose juice.

When the cooking time is up, place the rhubarb to one side to cool and prepare the baking tray for another lot of rhubarb.

For this second lot, take the remains of the raw rhubarb and slice into one inch pieces but leave these pieces whole.  Spread them out onto a baking tray and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sugar, as before.  Once again, exactly as the first time, place into the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the tray and replace for another 10 minutes until the fruit is cooked through, then remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Place the double cream, golden caster sugar and 5 tbsp of Mead into a large bowl and using a hand mixer, whisk until the cream will stand in soft peaks.

Place the creme fraiche into a separate bowl and whisk until visibly softened.  Some will go to soft peak stage, some won't.  So long as the creme fraiche has some air whisked into it, it will do nicely.

So long as the first batch (the smaller chunks) of rhubarb are perfectly cold, add them to the sweetened cream and add the creme fraiche. Gently stir them all together, not being too particular about it.  A certain degree of swirliness keeps the flavours interesting.

Pour the creamy loveliness .. no, actually, before you do anything else, taste the creamy loveliness.  You deserve to know how it is going to taste before the following day when you get to sample the end result .. so, having done that and recovered, pour the contents of the bowl into the loaf tin(s), smoothing down the top layer.

Place - uncovered - into the freezer until the following day, or until solid frozen.  Wrap the overlapping pieces of cling film over the top to protect the semifreddo until you require it.

To complete the compote, take a large Mason Jar or other sealable wide necked container and decant the larger chunks of rhubarb, sugar and any juice that's escaped, into it.  Add the remaining 3 tbsp of Mead and 2 tbsp granulated sugar and mix through lightly.  Seal the top and refrigerate until required.  

To assemble, remove the semifreddo from the freezer around 1 hour before required.  Turn the contents out onto a suitable plate and remove the cling film.  Place into your fridge to defrost slightly.  When ready to serve, using a sharp knife, cut a slice and add a good spoonful of the rhubarb & mead compote.  Enjoy!

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Leek & bacon tart - a quiche-alike!

One of my favourite vegetables is the leek.  Now I know that friends would say there's not a vegetable that I don't like - and I admit they have a point.

However, leeks are right up there in my top 10, along with things like the humble spud and the princely asparagus.

So, when I decided that I must explore egg enriched pastry dough (which is a very lovely thing that finishes with a biscuity texture), I naturally pondered on what to put in said pastry.  Naturally, I contemplated such things as pasties, sausage rolls - even a rhubarb & strawberry pie (which has to be done, very soon).  However, we all like a quiche and even if the pastry was a complete disaster (which it wasn't), I figured you can at least eat the filling out of the middle and save dinner that way.

Having just made a couple of Quiche Lorraines (for different occasions) recently, I was after something more interesting than the standard egg, cheese & bacon.  Consulting my copious list of "recipes gleaned from t'internet", I came across this one - Leek Tart, from the Cooking in Plain Greek blog.  Now, as I've said up there ~nods upwards~ leeks are one of my favourite veggies and I remembered this recipe. I'd had it sitting in my list for probably years, just waiting for a moment such as this.  Curiously, it also uses an egg enriched pastry dough!  Oooh, it was meant to be.

Now because I'm me and you wouldn't expect anything else, now would you?  I tinkered about with the recipe for the filling.  Well, you see, I had 100ml of single cream that had no home to go to and just made sense to put it in this recipe.  I also had more bacon than 100g available to me - and everything is made better with more bacon, right?  I looked up the cost of Gruyere cheese, as I know it has been pricey in the past - and it hadn't improved any.  However, there on the same online shopping page, was Gouda cheese - and for a lot less money.  Well, it seemed to make sense, so that's what I went with.

It even looked fairly pretty before it was baked!

Well, I was jolly pleased with how the whole experiment turned out.  The pastry was light and crisp, with a touch more substance to it, finishing up slightly more biscuity than a standard lard/butter shortcrust pastry.  I shall definitely be using it in more recipes.

The filling became interestingly fluffy from the addition of the yoghurt.  As I mixed it into the eggs, the whole lot thickened - somewhat alarmingly at first - which caused the filling to be a lot less "wet" than a usual quiche filling often is.  Interestingly, our son's opinion of the tart was that the filling was more "wet" than normal, but not in a "runny" kind of a way, but in a juicy-leeks-and-bacon kind of a way.  I know exactly what he means - and I like it!

True, this tart isn't the cheapest to prepare - the butter, eggs, bacon, cheese and cream all add up.  However, it is a deep fill tart and a quarter of an 8 inch tin goes a long way, so you can afford to be cautious with your portion sizes.  I dare say you could easily feed five, if not six, if you're careful with your cutting.

Mmmmmnnnn, there's a good half of my tart left in the fridge.  I can tell, it's not going to have a long wait before it sees me again.

LEEK & BACON TART    (serves 4)

Ingredients :

For the pastry

200g plain flour
100g cold salted butter
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp water
pinch of sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

For the filling

1 tbsp olive oil
100g thickly sliced smoked bacon
3 medium leeks, halved and finely sliced
1 large banana shallot, chopped finely
100ml Greek yoghurt
100ml single cream
2 eggs
freshly ground black pepper
60g Gouda cheese, grated.

Method :

Put the flour, butter and seasoning into your food processor and process until the contents resemble fine breadcrumbs.  Add the egg yolk and the water and blitz again, until the contents form a clump.

Decant out onto a large piece of cling film and form into a ball and cover with another big piece of cling film.  Then, roll the pastry out flat until sufficiently large to line your 8 inch pie dish, or tin.

Remove the top layer of cling film and drop the pastry into the dish, pastry side down.  Ease the pastry into the dish with the cling film attached and once securely lining your dish, remove the cling film.  Trim the pastry to fit and crimp the edges in a pretty pattern.

Pre-heat the oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

Cut a piece of baking parchment to slightly bigger than your pastry lined dish, then crumple it into a ball and smooth out on top of the pastry.  You'll find crumpling it like this allows it to fit the dish better.  Tip in a good quantity of baking beans (to prevent the pastry from bubbling) and place the pastry case into the oven to part bake for 15 minutes.  Once the time is up, remove from the oven, remove the parchment paper and baking beans and set the pastry case aside to cool slightly while you prepare the filling.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the bacon.  Fry over a high heat until all the water has evaporated and the bacon is just beginning to turn golden.  Reduce the heat to moderate and add the leeks, shallots and more black pepper.  You may need to add a little more olive oil at this stage - I use a little extra virgin olive oil for flavour.  Once the leeks are softened, remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Place the yoghurt, cream, eggs and black pepper into a bowl and whisk to combine.

Add a small amount of the grated cheese to the bowl, along with the leek mixture from the frying pan.  Stir quickly and gently, to combine.  Then, pour the filling into the pastry case, taking care to distribute the leeks and bacon evenly.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the surface of the leeks and put the whole thing into the oven (middle shelf) for some 35-40 minutes, or until the surface is nicely golden and the centre feels firm and not at all squishy.

Set aside for 10 minutes or so to settle before serving, or alternatively allow to cool and serve at room temperature with salad.

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