Quiche

 

To start me off for the year, here's a post with some pictures of quiche. This has been sitting here for months being ignored. (The post... not the quiche. I ate that.)

There are two quiches. One Tomato, Basil and Mozerella. One Cheese, Bacon and Onion.

They're both shortcrust pastry - blind baked, and chilled before being filled with the ingredients, and topped with the savoury custard mix (milk, eggs, cheese...)

 

 

Tortilla Wraps

These wraps were really easy (if a little time consuming) and are much, much nicer than the ones in a plastic packet!

300g Plain Flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
50g Lard (cold, diced)
150ml warm water

- Put the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl and add in the diced lard
- Rub the lard into the dry ingredients until the mix resembles bread crumbs
- Add almost all of the water and bring the mix together to form a dough (add more water if required - different flours absorb different amounts of water)
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth (10-15 minutes)
- Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover with cling film. Leave to rest in a warm environment for about an hour.
- After an hour, turn the dough back onto a floured surface, and cut into 8

Pieces of eight!

- Roll out each piece of dough into a thin circle, about 8-10 inches in diameter. (you may need to cover the remaining dough with clingfilm to prevent in drying while you work)

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Even with the circle guide I can't get that right!

- Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, and dry fry the tortilla for a minute or until it starts browning.

no. it's not a circle.

- Flip the tortilla and cook the other side until browned

It looks like a tortilla though!!

Who ate all the pies?

Why, I did!

Yummy flaky pastry with a chicken and bacon filling. And I found a new use for the cake cooker!

Hello again!

It is now my mini pie machine...

Look how very pie-like those little holes are!

I started off by making the pie filling - frying onions, bacon, chicken and mushrooms together until cooked, and adding a tarragon flavoured bechamel/veloute sauce.
(equal amounts of butter and flour melted together over a low heat, with hot milk and stock whisked in until smooth, and tarragon and seasoning added to taste)

Rough puff pastry

6oz plain flour
1.5oz cold butter - grated
1.5oz cold lard - grated
Ice cold water

Makes 7-8 pies depending on how big you cut the circles!

• add the cold grated fat to the flour, and rub together with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs
• add water 1 tablespoon at a time, and bring the mixture together with a palette knife. Only add enough water to just bring the mix together.
• using your hands incorporate any crumbs into the dough as you form a ball with it.
• refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• roll out onto a floured surface

• cut out circles of pastry to form the base of the pie, and slightly smaller discs to form the lid.

• set up the cake machine- allow to come to temperature before opening - and feed the pie bases into the holes into the machine. Gently tap into the dip using a balled up piece of pastry.
• fill each case with a tablespoon of chicken mix, and top with a lid.

The various stages of pie cooking! Yeah, it looks pretty gross there...

 

 

• Close the lid of the cooker, and leave to cook for 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp.

Some of them may need a little trimming!

Look at that! Golden and crisp!

Look at that too... flaky!!

And not a soggy bottom in sight!