Quiche is my go-to when I have bits and bobs of ingredients in the fridge: cheese, bacon, smoked meat and even leftover roasted veg. This is a basic recipe for you to utilise all those scraps and produce a delicious, healthy meal for lunch.
The recipe makes one large quiche which I bake in a loose-bottomed cake tin or two standard sized quiche, in fluted tins. You can feed eight hungry people if you add a salad and a fresh loaf.
For the pastry:
Make one batch of the recipe for Sour Cream Pastry.
Preheat your oven to 220℃.
Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Roll the pastry to a thickness of 3mm and line the bottom and sides of a greased loose-bottomed cake tin. If you have pastry left, wrap it in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator to make tomato tartelettes tomorrow!
Pierce the bottom of the pastry with the tines of a fork so that the steam can escape while the pastry is cooking.
Now line the pastry case with baking paper and fill it with dried beans or rice so that it is an even layer, covering the entire area.
Bake the pastry for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and take out the baking paper with the beans and immediately put it back into the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Remove the pastry shell from the oven and allow to cool.
Turn down your oven to 180℃.
For the filling:
2 onions, sliced
250g bacon or chorizo sausage
250ml cheese: mozzarella, cheddar, feta or a combination of what you have, grated or cut into small cubes
500ml of what's left in your fridge: mushroom, courgette, sweet pepper, roasted butternut, roasted mix veg, smoked chicken, spinach, kale
Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and bacon until the onion is soft.
If you are going to add something like mushroom, courgette, sweet pepper or spinach that is not yet cooked, you can add it to the pan now to cook it down. A minute or two will do as the entire quiche will be baked in the oven.
Take off the heat and allow to cool.
Spoon the cooled mixture into the cooled pie shell.
Sprinkle the cheese over the mixture.
For the custard:
250ml sour cream or fresh cream or a combination of milk and cream cheese, well mixed
4 eggs
salt and pepper
a pinch of mustard powder or smoked paprika
Whisk the eggs together and add the sour cream.
Season with salt, pepper and mustard powder and give the mixture a good whisk to combine.
Pour over the filling and bake at 180℃ for 30 - 40 minutes or until the quiche is a beautiful golden brown.
Serve at room temperature.
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