Lincolnshire sausage & sun dried tomato quiche - feeds a crowd!

If there's one thing that my menfolk are guaranteed to eat, it's a slice of quiche.  As I have now conquered my (stupid, as it turns out) tendency towards a soggy bottom (don't bake the tin on a baking tray - the two layers prevent the pastry from cooking properly.  So simple, but it took me years to work it out!) making quiche has become a regular occurrence in our house.

The good thing about quiche is that there are so many different variations of filling.  Yes, there's the good old bacon & cheese that always gets the thumbs up, but really you can put just about anything into a quiche so long as it's not wet, or will cook wetly.  (Courgette, I'm looking at you here).

In this instance, I was looking for something that would provide a man-pleasing filling.  Now my hubby has always loved Lincolnshire sausages, whereas I have been rather less than complimentary about them.  It's not as though I actively dislike them, it's just that there are other types of sausage that I find more appealing.  Stop giggling at the back!  I did think, though, that their herby character would go nicely in a quiche and tomato seemed a natural bedfellow for them.  Of course, it just isn't quiche if it doesn't have some cheese in and/or on it, so some mature cheddar was a given.  Now our son has a serious dislike of cooked tomato (he picks the tomato off the top of his quiche, strange child), which is where the sun dried tomato comes in.  Perfect.

The filling made up to be a good, deep fill with lots of character and substance, just what I was after.  You could certainly feed a crowd with this one, as mine very nicely cut into six decent sized portions, served with salad and chips for the menfolk.  I now have half a quiche (three portions) which should keep the wolf from the door for us all at lunchtime tomorrow, as well.

Oh and incidentally, as a means of making six sausages go adequately around three people, you can't beat it!

LINCOLNSHIRE SAUSAGE & SUN DRIED TOMATO QUICHE   (serves 6)

Ingredients :

400g Lincolnshire sausages, removed from their skins
approx. 300g shortcrust pastry (sufficient for an 8" sandwich or flan dish, approx. 1" deep)
3 extra large eggs
150ml soured cream
a half tsp of ground black pepper
a quarter tsp of sea salt
70g mature cheddar cheese, grated
6 pieces of sun-dried tomato (I used the ones in oil), sliced
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 medium tomato, sliced finely into 5 slices.

Method :

Your first job is to cook the sausages.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4. Remove the sausage skins and pinch off small pieces of sausage meat, forming them into balls.  1 sausage will make around 5 balls.  Place onto a foil-lined tray and give them a light coat of cooking spray.  Place into the middle of your oven for around 20 minutes until cooked through and just beginning to brown.  Once cooked, set aside to cool a little.

Next, you need to part-bake the pastry case.  If you are using pre-rolled pastry, keep it on the baking paper and roll it out a little bit thinner than it arrives.  Cut a piece that is significantly bigger than the baking dish or tin you will be using.  Keeping the pastry on the baking paper, gently sink it into the tin making sure there are no bubbles under the pastry and it is pressed gently into the corners.  Carefully remove the baking paper and trim off the majority of the excess with a sharp knife, but leave a decent overhang to cope with any shrinkage.

Replace the baking paper and lightly smooth it across the base.  Pour in your baking beans in an even layer and place the tin centrally into the oven for 20 minutes.  You can use this time to make the filling.

Break each of the eggs into a cup and pour them into a large bowl.  Doing this ensures that if one of your eggs is off or even slightly dodgy, you don't lose the lot!  Add the soured cream and whisk together.  Next, add the black pepper, sea salt, two thirds of the grated cheese and the parsley and stir until everything is combined.

Remove the pastry case from the oven and gently lift out the baking beans by holding the greaseproof paper.  Set the baking beans aside to cool down.

Tip the sausage balls into the pastry case and sprinkle over the pieces of sun dried tomato.  Pour in the egg/cream mixture and sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese.  Add the five tomato slices in an attractive pattern.

Gently place the quiche into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the filling has risen, turned golden and feels fairly firm when pressed in the middle.

Remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes.  You can now trim back the overhanging spare pastry and if you are using a loose bottomed tin, remove the quiche from the tin and place it back onto the cooling rack.  Serve whilst still a little warm or at room temperature, with a crunchy garden salad.

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Smoked Haddock & Asparagus Quiche - mellow deliciousness.

I'm not really sure what made me choose smoked haddock for this quiche, other than the fact that white fish is one of my "safe havens" where the risk of gout is concerned and as such, bacon, ham or sausage were out.  Obviously, I fancied making a quiche and I think I've become quite passably good at them over time.  It is unusual for me to pick fish as a quiche ingredient, but this combination of smoked haddock and asparagus worked really well.

(It is worth bearing in mind, if you - like me - have to watch gout triggers, that asparagus is also a very famous gout trigger.  However, I think that the amount of asparagus in each portion of quiche isn't at danger point for me.  Do judge that for yourself, though).

If you're looking for a quiche in the style of Quiche Lorraine, i.e. super cheesy and stuffed with bacon, then you may need to up the cheese quota and/or change from Gouda to mature Cheddar.  However, I didn't want the primary flavour to be cheese in this quiche, so I opted for the milder Gouda.

The smoked haddock is poached in milk, which also tends to mellow out the flavour a wee bit - although I used some of the poaching milk in the filling, to catch as much flavour as possible.  I have issues with throwing good flavour away down the drain!

A very good point with making any quiche, is that you can get on with the making and baking in the morning, then take it relatively easy where putting dinner together is concerned.  Just assemble a few tasty salad ingredients and maybe add a few buttered new potatoes - or in our case in this instance, chips - and you're done.  A good one for those make-ahead days!

SMOKED HADDOCK & ASPARAGUS QUICHE   (serves 4-6)

Ingredients :

Sufficient shortcrust pastry to line an 8" loose bottomed sandwich tin or quiche dish
125g asparagus tips
250g smoked haddock fillets (chunky ones are best)
250g or thereabouts semi skimmed milk
2 whole very large or 3 whole large eggs
150ml single cream
pinch of sea salt
pinch of black pepper
half a tsp onion granules
75g Gouda cheese, finely grated
a pinch of dried parsley, to garnish.

Method :

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

Carefully line the sandwich tin or quiche dish with pastry, ensuring the pastry doesn't become pierced.  Cover the pastry with greaseproof paper and fill the case with baking beans or ceramic pellets then bake for 15 minutes.  Remove the greaseproof and baking beans and bake again for another 3 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

In the meantime and in a small saucepan, boil some water and add the asparagus tips.  Cook for 3 minutes, then drain and run under cold water to arrest the cooking process.  Set aside to drain fully.

Place the smoked haddock into a small lidded frying pan and add the milk.  The milk shouldn't cover the fish, but come two thirds of the way up.  Place on the heat to simmer with the lid on until the fish is just cooked.  Set the pan aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, add the eggs and quickly whisk them together.  Add the cream, sea salt, black pepper and onion granules and whisk them all together.

Cut the asparagus tips to fit the surface of the quiche in an attractive pattern.  Cut the excess into small log shapes and add them to the egg mixture.  Set the decorative pieces to one side.

Remove the fish from the milk and take off any skin.  Flake the fish into the egg mixture and add the grated cheese.

Judge the quantity of egg mixture according to the pastry case and add a little of the poaching milk.  Gently stir everything together, so as not to break up the fish any further.

Using a slotted spoon, spoon the solids from the egg mixture into the pastry case and spread evenly.  Pour the egg mixture into the pastry case, but make sure it doesn't overflow or the quiche will argue about coming out of the tin once baked.  Any excess can be poured into a ramekin and baked for a cook's bonus taster.

Arrange the remainder of the asparagus spears attractively over the surface of the filling and press lightly so that they are partly submerged.  Add a light sprinkle of dried parsley and a grind of pepper, then bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and firm to the touch.

Serve with a side salad and buttered new potatoes or chips.

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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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Tenderstem Broccoli & Bacon Quiche

We have a new vegetable interest in our house - the yummy Tenderstem broccoli.

As hubby said - and I quite agree with him - Tenderstem broccoli is almost (not quite!) as delicious as asparagus.  Now that's saying something, basically because a) asparagus is, well, asparagus, right?  I mean, there's not much can rival it for specialness and flavour; and b) Tenderstem broccoli is, not wishing to be unkind, broccoli.  Granted, broccoli is one of the few vegetables not greeted with melodramatic sighs and distraught glances (unlike green beans - and you just don't want to hear their opinion on the humble cauliflower or brussels sprout), but ordinary broccoli isn't greeted with anything like the enthusiasm that its Tenderstem brother is.

So, I was quite keen to know a bit more about this 'ere paragon of vegetables and so visited the inevitable Tenderstem website.  Amazingly, this website contains rather more than just a page telling you how good broccoli is for you - including some recipes that sound more than do-able and just as yummy.

The one which particularly caught my eye was the Tenderstem broccoli & bacon quiche.  Now I've made a quiche before, using ordinary broccoli, which was very nice - so I figured that the combination of the favoured Tenderstem and the amazing bacon we get from our local butcher just had to be a winner.

Like many quiches out there, it is really very easy to make and gives super results.  The one thing I will say, is that next time I may very well blanche the stems (not the fluffy bits) for a minute or two before baking.  Some of the larger stems were still a bit hard when it came to eating.  Blanching shouldn't be difficult, as I cut each stem into three which liberated the fluffy bit anyway.  I'm firmly of the opinion that quiches should be soft and pliable throughout, and hitting on a bit of crunchy broccoli stem - although tasty - is a bit of an unwanted wakeup call.

I've reproduced the recipe below, mainly just in case the website ever goes away.  That way, I'll always have the recipe to hand - as I can tell I'll be making this one on a regular basis!  Oh, and - it incorporates my little tweaks that I made as we went along.

TENDERSTEM BROCCOLI & BACON QUICHE  (feeds 5-6)


Ingredients :

500g short crust pastry (I used one of the ready rolled frozen pastries)
1 tbsp olive oil
8 rashers of back bacon, diced
1 small clove of garlic, grated
a pack (300g) Tenderstem broccoli
4 medium or large eggs (depending on how big your quiche dish is)
200ml double cream
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
enough grated mature cheddar to sprinkle over the top.

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 200°c (400°f, gas mark 6).

2. Roll out the pastry and line a 16cm spring form tin or quiche dish.  Add a layer of greaseproof or baking paper and fill with baking beans.  Part-cook for 15-20 minutes, then remove the baking paper and beans.

3. Heat the oil in a small frying pan, add the bacon and cook until almost crisp.  Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

4. Sprinkle the bacon and garlic over the base of the pastry.

5.  Cut each stem of broccoli into three pieces (you may want to blanche the stem parts for 2 mins, if they are particularly big).  Fill the case with the Tenderstem and lightly mix them with the bacon pieces.

6. Beat the eggs with the cream and season with salt (being aware of the salt in the bacon & cheese) and pepper. Pour the mixture into the case.

7.  Sprinkle the grated cheddar over.

8. Bake in the middle of the oven for 35 minutes or until set. Serve warm.

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