The things you come across accidentally...

Ages ago, when my friend had just moved house she invited us to her flat warming party. Being the nice person that I am I decided to bring along some food. It had to be easy, make an impact and be simple to transport. The answer: quiche.

Like I said, it's been years and I had all but forgotten about the recipe, a bummer really given that I don't tend to use recipes. In fact, the only part of the recipe that was written down at the time was the basic short crust pastry recipe I pilfered from some cookbook. Sadly, what make a quiche is not the pastry casing however, it's the filling.

Well, today, while looking through some paperwork, I found my fillings, at some point I must have written them down after all.

 

The wet ingredients are the same in all cases:

2 whole eggs and a tub of double cream. After that it's pretty much whatever takes your fancy.

 

Classic Lorraine: 1 leek, finely sliced

200g bacon lardons or chopped slices.

Fry the bacon, add the leek and lightly fry until the leek has softened. Season with fresh nutmeg, salt and pepper. Leave to cool then either mix with the wet stuff and transfer into a blind-baked pastry shell , or pop it in first and pour the wet mix over.

 

Spinachi:    ½ red and yellow pepper each, chopped finely

2 cloves of garlic sliced or crushed

        4 spring onions, alternatively 1 medium red onion

bag of baby spinach leaves

        1 tsp Italian/provencal herbs, salt, pepper

Lightly fry the peppers, onion and garlic in some olive oil in a pan, when the peppers start to soften, put in the spinach and let it wilt. Watch out the garlic doesn't burn. Take of the heat and transfer to a colander to drain any spinach juices. Once dry and cold give the mix a rough chop , then mix with the wet and into the pastry case it goes.

 

Broccoli     1 head of broccoli in small florets

        1 punnet of cherry tomatoes/ small tin of sweet corn

        1 red onion

        Bunch of basil leaves/ 3 slices bacon, chopped

Blanch the broccoli, then shock under ice cold water to retain its colour. Saute the onion , bacon and sweet corn in a little olive oil. Mix carefully with the broccoli, put in the casing and pour over the wet mix (season it well with salt and pepper, and maybe some finely chopped red chilli).

 

Pop the whole lot in an oven and bake till set and lightly golden on top.