Cheesy Parsnip Flan - perfect for al fresco eating

Not that we ate al fresco on the night we had the flan, but it would seem like a very civilised thing to do.  Maybe once we've got a table and chairs for our new patio!

I've had some success with tarts and flans since I bought the new flan/quiche dish and - owing to an oversight on the shopping front - had two packs of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry in the freezer, doing nothing.

So, I began to think about what I could put into a pastry case.  Sweet flans are relatively easy - and pretty much off limits at the moment.  Hence, I began to ponder on what went with what, savoury-wise.  Smoked haddock immediately sprang to mind, but have you seen how much it has gone up in price just lately?  I can only think that it's out of season - and as I like to eat seasonally (where possible) I rejected that on both those grounds.

Chorizo was the next on the list.  I don't know why Chorizo keeps on coming to mind, considering I don't really like it.  It's one of those things that I think I'll like, but when it comes to it, it's just to strong on the paprika.  I suppose it could be the type of Chorizo I buy and maybe I should source some from elsewhere and see if I like it better.  I wonder if Spring Fields butchers does it?  I'll have to find out.

So anyway, that was out for obvious reasons.

I'd recently done a Quiche Lorraine, so that ruled bacon out - unless I could find a flan topping that was so far from Quiche Lorraine as to be unrecognisable.

However, before I could come across a flan topping that used both chorizo and bacon (well there's bound to be one!), my mind travelled down the celeriac lines (remember the Cheesy Celeriac Slice?), and after a quick dalliance there, it hopped over to parsnip.  I pondered on whether if you cooked your parsnip pieces (just boiling them), then riced (or mashed) them and added oodles of sharp cheddar, some cream (just a small amount), maybe some mustard (Dijon or English?), before topping up the whole thing with some beaten egg - whether you'd wind up with something good?

Well, funnily enough, you do!  In fact, you wind up with something that is so good, it quite defies belief.

It isn't as deep as a quiche's middle, and the parsnip gives it a totally different kind of texture.  The cheese and the parsnip go together quite ridiculously well.  I had been worried that the parsnip would stamp all over the cheese, but so long as you make sure you've got a good flavoursome sharp mature cheddar, it'll be fine.  Incidentally, at the last minute, I added a teensy bit of Grana Padano just to add another dimension to the cheesy flavour.

Again, this is another dish that is so easy to do, it'd be a great one to prepare with your kids (if you've got some - if not, then borrow some just for this).  You'd better issue them with their own little piece of cheese to munch though, or all your recipe cheese will disappear!

We ate it with some gorgeous chutney from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm, that my parents had brought back for us.  The pair of them were made for each other.

CHEESY PARSNIP FLAN  (feeds 4 hungry people)

Ingredients :

A piece of shortcrust pastry, enough to line your quiche dish
200g of cooked parsnip, cut into chunks
175g strong cheddar cheese, grated
75g grana padano or another cheese of your choice, also grated
3 large eggs
100ml double cream
1 tsp Dijon mustard
freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C//350deg F/Gas 4.

2.  Line the quiche dish with the pastry, then crack one of the eggs into a bowl and give it a light whisk with a fork.

3.  Brush some beaten egg onto the surface of the pastry and prick with a fork.  Line with non-stick baking paper and baking beans, then blind bake for 15-20 minutes.

4.  Remove the beans and baking paper and leave to one side while you prepare the filling.

5.  Into a large bowl, either mash the parsnip pieces or put them through a ricer.  You are aiming to have a smooth paste of parsnip.

6.  Add all but a handful of the cheeses to the parsnip.

7.  Crack the remaining two eggs into the bowl with the original egg and add the cream,  mustard and some freshly ground black pepper.  Whisk them up until they are nicely combined.  There is no need to add salt, as the cheeses will take care of that.

8.  Add the eggs to the mustard and cheese and stir gently to combine.  Pour onto the pastry case and smooth the surface, giving it a final flourish with the remaining cheese.

9.  Put back into the oven to bake for around 35-40 minutes, or until browned all over and firm to the touch.

Serve with a lovely piquant chutney and some salad.

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Meal planning - heading towards healthy!

Can't see me ever achieving this!

This week's meal plan has, of necessity, something of a bias towards the healthy.  Only a bias, you understand - I've not gone completely mad and thrown out ALL the cream, or the cheese, or the pastry!

I decided that once my birthday was out of the way, I'd knuckle down to concentrating on making the meals a little lighter, healthier and better for us.

Now that doesn't mean that you won't find pastry, or cream, or cheese working their way in to the recipes, but what it does mean is that there will be rather less than there has been of late.

Also, (don't tell Son & heir) I'm going to be increasing the fruit and vegetable intake and trying to reduce the emphasis on meat.  I'll be trying to make the meat and vegetables work as a team, as opposed to the vegetables just taking up space on the meat's plate.

This first week, we're just going to be easing into the routine.  I can't just jump into it, because I've got foodstuffs in the cupboard and fridge that need using up.  I'm not going to throw away something that's perfectly good and that we paid good money for, just because I'm changing the emphasis of our meals.  However, hopefully, as we go along you'll notice a healthier trend (with the occasional "less than healthy" meal, just to create balance!).

So, here's how this week is looking :

Tuesday (Pizza night) : Son & heir is out, so hubby & I are having Tuna & lemon pasta.

Wednesday : Cheesey Parsnip Flan and salad.

Thursday : Smoked sausage, lime rice & succotash.

Friday : Devilled sausages and fruity quinoa salad.

Saturday : Beef & spinach pasta bake.

Sunday : Chicken & Sweetcorn Pie, roast potatoes, broccoli & carrots.

Monday : Crunchy fish (minus batter, for me), potato croquettes & peas.

I'm looking forward to that lot!

Well, today is Wednesday so we had the Tuna & lemon pasta last night.  It really is such an easy dish to prepare - and is almost a complete store cupboard recipe, except for the green beans.  The mixture of tuna, lemon zest, capers and chilli is just delicious - and keeps your taste buds interested!

Tonight's Cheesey Parsnip Flan and salad was a triumph, if I say so myself.  This was another recipe that was incredibly easy to produce.  I've tried to make all this week's recipes easy to make, in the belief that if I don't challenge myself too badly in the kitchen, I'll live to fight another day with a bit more energy than otherwise!

I'll be blogging both the Tuna pasta and the Flan immediately after this one, so I won't talk too much about them here, or I'll have nothing to say in their own dedicated blogs!  (That's how simple they are to produce!).

I'm intrigued by hubby's smoked sausage, lime rice and succotash idea for Thursday's dinner.  He's got a very definite idea in mind that he's trying to reproduce, he's been doing a lot of research via the internet on various recipes and it all sounds pretty good!

Friday's dinner is a meal of two halves, I'm afraid.  The devilled sausages are a pretty dead cert to be a Good Thing, but the quinoa salad is a completely new entity for all of us.  I'm dead keen to try quinoa and devised the recipe for this salad after doing extensive reading up on what other people have put into successful quinoa salads.  I'm hoping that the fruity aspect will go well with the curry/spicy aspect of the sausages.

I'm having a go at the Beef & Spinach Pasta Bake from www.foodwhine.com on Saturday.  Hubby has an extensive spinach patch developing at the bottom of the garden and it would be just fabulous to make a meal from it.  It's one of those recipes that is a cross between a pasta bake and a casserole, so I'm hoping the weather won't be roasting on Saturday, or you may find that this gets changed to a prawn salad!

Sunday sees the return of the home-made Chicken & sweetcorn pie.  I've been wanting to make a pie for ages and before we decided to upgrade the health value of our meals, had bought the double pack of frozen pastry.  Well I'm not about to let that go to waste - and making a pie gets rid of both packs at once, so it gets to stay on the menu!

One of our peas - the formative years

We were running out of time (and inspiration, if I'm honest) when it came to deciding what hubby was going to cook on Monday.  Hence the "crunchy fish" (aka fish in batter), potato croquettes (hideous things!) and peas.  I'm quite determined to de-crunchy my fish and so reduce the fat content, but I can't guarantee that either of the boys will be doing the same thing!  In truth, they probably don't need to, as they are both normally active people - unlike me who is sedentary at best!  It would be just fabulous if our pea vines were to yield enough peas to cope with feeding the three of us, but we'll just have to wait and see where that's concerned.  We had a sneaky taster of a couple of fresh peas from the vines just yesterday and they are truly gorgeous - so sweet!  Yum!

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T