Kitchen Potterings

Last Night Tuesday

I set too and made the Quiche and the Custard Tart last night and they are both relaxing in the fridge ready for tea later on.

I was considering blind baking as I normally do but then decided would try and all in one method.  I was then looking on the Be Ro Recipe site and came across a tip to prevent a "soggy bottom" when working with pastry so I decided to give it a go to see whether it would work or not. So I did blind bake. Basically you cook your tart blind, lining it with proper clay beads or what I tend to do utilise some Pearl Barley or whatever else is going to hold the foil down in the pastry case to stop it rising up.  These are then kept separate in a jar to bring out for further use.  Cannot waste a thing.  The tip then is to bring this out of the oven, remove the baking beans or whatever you are using and then wash the bottom of the pastry tart with some egg white.  Pop it in until it sets and then bring it out and fill with your chosen filling. Will not know whether it has worked or not until later on. The "proof of the pudding will be in the eating" so they say.

Pastry is my personal nemesis when it comes to cooking.  My hands are nearly always cold, but thanks to the patience of a friend Eileen, I have continued to work on this particular issue.  Have worked out why I was having problems rolling the pastry out and it was falling to pieces.  I was putting far too much water in and not evenly distributing it.  Was also not cutting the fat up. Today I made up two batches of Be Ro recipe for Shortcust Pastry. One batch for this Quiche and the second batch for an old English Egg Custard Tart.  

Shortcrust Pastry Recipe

The recipe I used was 8oz Plain flour, 2 oz of Butter, 2oz of Lard and 3 Tablespoons of cold chilled water.

The all in one recipe is one I wrote down a while ago.  Unfortunately I did not make a note of the person who wrote about the recipe and therefore I am unable to give her credit.  However I have adapted the recipe to suit my needs.

Original All in One Recipe

Ingredients:

Bought or homemade Pie Crust

3/4 cup of Milk or cream or a combination

3/4 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper

1 cup of cooked Ham

1 1/2 cups of grated cheese

3 Tablespoons of Green Onions

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F/190 degrees C or Gas Mark 5.

If using bought pie crust, unroll this and press into a 9" pie dish crimping top edges as required.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle Ham, 1 cup of cheese and onions into pie crust and then pour the egg mixture on top.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on the top of egg mixture.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the centre is completely set and feels firm to the touch.  Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Now the changes I made

I made my own Pastry following the recipe above for Shortcrust pastry.  I did not use the all in one method that the recipe advocates, I cooked my pastry case blind and then added the fillings once the pastry had had the first initial cooking.

I changed up the fillings a little bit.  I had smoked Bacon cut into Lardons, Half a large Mushroom sliced and then cut into strips and half an onion.  I cooked all of these together until just going golden.  Do not want dark.  I then put aside to cool. Once cooled I added in the grated cheese and mixed the cheese through the remaining ingredients evenly.  I then added in some tiny florets of fresh Broccoli raw.

This was then added to blind baked Pie dish.

The egg mixture was then added in.

I then added in slices of Tomato and then sprinkled the rest of the cheese over the top of the mixture.

The finished cooked Quiche.

Once it was cold I then popped it into the fridge in readiness for our meal for tomorrow.

And then there was the Egg Custard Tart.

I blind baked the Shortcrust Pastry.  I used the recipe above for this.

Ingredients for Egg Custard Mixture

3 Eggs

75g of Sugar

*200ml of Double Cream

*200ml of Milk

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Essence (mine was homemade)

Grated Nutmeg

* I used all milk for this recipe as I had no cream available for cooking with.  For puddings already catered for but not in the actual custard so I just used milk.

Once the Pastry case was blind baked I then added the Custard.

The Custard was made by whipping up the eggs with the sugar. I use a hand Balloon whisk but you could also use an electric mixer or stand mixer.  I then added in a few gratings of the Nutmeg and the Vanilla Essence.

The milk was brought to the boil and then the boiled milk was added to the eggs and sugar mixture whipping all the time with the whisk. It was then strained to remove any bits which can sometimes form due to the egg being present.  I then brought this back up to the boil again and again passed it through the sieve for a second time.

The custard mixture was then decanted into a jug and this was used to pour the custard into the pastry case.

More Nutmeg was grated onto the top.

Quite pleased that the Egg Custard has not come up too badly, but I did not allow enough for the edges on the pastry cake.  Something to work on for next time.  It was then left to cool and then popped into the fridge to store it.

Later I managed to water the plants up, even though it was getting dark when I ventured outside.

And then I went mad!

I have a bit of a reputation for starting things at odd times of night.  I tried to get all my fruit I had bought into the fridge which was an abject failure.  Therefore about 9:00pm I started to clean the fridge out giving it a good bottoming out and getting it all cleaned and washed out, and re-filled by 11:00pm.  Can find stuff again; all my veggies are in the veggie drawer, plus all my fruit is safe in the bottom drawer.  All being kept lovely and cold until I am ready to process which might be tonight/tomorrow night for the Redcurrant jam.  If that gets done tonight, then the Greengage jam will get made tomorrow.  However, if it is deferred for one night, then it will be the next night on for the Greengage.  It will be good to get some more preserves put up and away on the Pantry shelf.  I have quite a way to go to get caught up (if I ever can).  However at the very least I want to get some Peach and Chilli chutney made, some Peaches in syrup and some Peach jam, as well as what I can find on the Blackberry front.  I will probably also buy in a few bags of frozen Mixed forest fruits, and make some "Jumbleberry" jam (mixed red fruit jam) as well as it is an easy one to make which is lovely in cakes and baking as well as on Croissants etc.  A really good one for the Pantry shelf.  It looks as though have missed out on the Cherries and Strawberries though. One day I will have that dream house and garden where I will be able to grow most of what I need. However, until then, you have to do the best you can with the circumstances given to you.  Yes I am a "Dreamboat" but you have to have something to focus on to get you through.

Wednesday

Breakfast routine followed and today G had a full English.  I stuck to a couple of Pain au Chocolat, cream cheese and my homemade Blackberry jam.  Nearly at the end of another jar.  Going to have to get out and gather more to make some more jam and other lovely goodies.

Terribly hot day, really to hot to do very much although I have done some of the washing and have got it on the line to dry.  I have made a couple of large bowls of Strawberry jelly to set in the fridge.  One to be used as is the other to be turned into Mousse or Fluff, with the addition of a little cream. You add just enough cream to the jelly then whip it up with some beaters and then put it back into the fridge to re-set.  Once set, if you decant some of the jelly, some fruit, then some Mousse and then some whipped cream in a long tall Sundae glass, you can make a very nice pudding to finish off your tea.  You could also add some broken Meringue in or indeed some chocolate or some sprinkles.  Thought it would be a cooling pudding for either tonight or tomorrow night or even the night after.

I have a lot of eggs at the moment and so may later on when it cools down do a little bit of baking.  Changed my mind on this because of the heat but there is always tomorrow.  Want to make up a batch cake mix and make several variations on a theme from it.

Tea tonight is therefore to be:

A bought Prawn Cocktail as a Starter;

Homemade Quiche with a mixed salad, coleslaw, new potatoes, and some salad cream,

Pudding is to be some Strawberries and cream.

And the best bit, plenty of Quiche for another meal for tomorrow; there is still Salad, and coleslaw in the fridge.  Might do a Tomato and Onion salad and a Potato Salad for tomorrow night just to vary things up a little bit.  I also might have Knicker Bocker Glory type pudding tomorrow as mentioned above using some of the jelly made today and some of the Strawberries and if there are enough left I might make a few scones just to make them go that little bit further.  

Must say it has been good to get back into the kitchen again. Even though I am a little rusty on the Pastry making.  Cooking I think is my first love; I just love doing it. I am not good at presenting stuff, I never was in cookery class at school.  However nine times out of ten it tastes good and for me flavour is everything.

We are just having tea, and have bought some of the Thatchers Apple and Blackcurrant Cider to wash things down with.  I am a bit partial to Cider, but have not gone a bundle on some of the flavours bought in, in recent years.  However this one is absolutely delicious.  Might be a new favourite.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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