A Quick & Easy Summer Quiche

Quiche is a traditional French savoury open tart. Quiche Lorraine is the most famous, being a smoked bacon & cheese version. There will always be a lot of debate about what should go into a "quiche" and the truth is, you can put what ever you want into it! At home there are no rules or regulations as to what you can make - you are only limited by your imagination!

Quiche is fun to make and can be eaten for dinner or lunch, as a meal or an appetizer.  This time of year it is a great way to get kids to eat all sorts of vegetables and eggs as it can be eaten hot or cold.

Serve it with your favourite summer salads and sides and a glass of cold white wine!

Serves 6 in a 10” Baking tin about 2" deep

My Ingredients:

Egg Mix

300ml milk

4 medium eggs

Beat this together and prepare your Pastry.

 

Pastry

400g plain flour

150g real butter

1 egg

50ml cold water

sea salt & black pepper

 

Filling

You can use whatever you like to fill a quiche. These are my favourites:

½ red pepper

½ green pepper

½ onion

1 red onion

5 mushrooms

1 clove garlic

2 vine tomatoes

a few slices of Chorizo

200g grated Irish cheddar cheese

My Method:

1. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Season. Break in the egg and add half the water. Pull the mixture together in the bowl and add a little more water if needed.
2. Use a little extra flour to smooth the pastry. Cool in the fridge for twenty minutes to relax the pastry before rolling out.
3. First you bake the pastry case ‘blind’. This means to roll out the pastry into your baking case with some greaseproof paper inside it. Put a layer of dried beans or rice on the paper and bake for 10 minutes. Take the pastry out of the oven and remove the paper and beans. (You can keep this aside and use them again and again).
4. Meanwhile slice all the vegetables to the same size. Add the chorizo, a little salt & black pepper and cook on a low heat in a little butter to soften the vegetables for about 10 minutes stirring often.
5. Spoon the filling into the cooked pastry case and sprinkle the cheese on top. Gently pour the egg mix over the filling just until everything is covered. Being careful not to spill over the edge, place in a pre-heated oven at 160*C and cook for 30 minutes.

To test if it is cooked, gently push a knife into the middle. If it isn’t firm give it another 5 minutes or so in the oven. mmmmm!

Don't forget to Feed the Fish at the bottom of theis post!
zack

Nouvelle Cuisine inventor, Paul Bocuse, named Chef of the 20th Century

The Frenchman credited with inventing nouvelle cuisine has been named 'Chef of the 20th century'. Frenchman Paul Bocuse, credited as the father of "Nouvelle Cuisine" and the first of the modern celebrity chefs, was named "Chef of the Century" by America's leading cooking school on Wednesday.

Frenchman Paul Bocuse, credited as the father of modern "Nouvelle Cuisine" and the first of his kind of international TV celebrity chefs, was named "Chef of the Century" by America's leading cooking school on Wednesday. The Culinary Institute of America named Bocuse the top chef of the 20th century, citing the 85-year-old's legendary career in which he transformed both food on plates and the lives of the people who cooked.

"He is one of the greatest, most significant chefs of all time," Tim Ryan, president of the institute said at an event with Bocuse in New York prior to the awards ceremony on Wednesday evening. Ryan said Bocuse led the movement in the 1960s and '70s in France that became known as "Nouvelle Cuisine" – The New Cooking Style, and was typified by experimentation, new care over presentation and attention to fresh ingredients.

He also brought cooks out of the anonymity of the kitchen and into the media, becoming the first celebrity chef of the modern era.

The term ‘nouvelle cuisine’ has been used many times in the history of French cuisine and in the 1890s even the cooking of Georges Auguste Escoffier was described with the term.

The Michelin Guide elevated Bocuse and his Lyon restaurant ‘L'Auberge’ to its top three-star rating in 1965 and has maintained him there ever since – the all-time record for longevity in that status. “While other cooks gallop after fads – orientalist cuisine, or fusion, or molecular or whatever next – Bocuse, they say, keeps the faith”. Considered a French icon, Bocuse, has said that the secret of success in the kitchen is simple food, simple ingredients and simple cooking. Here is a link to L'Auberge Restaurant Menu.

“You can not forget the good ingredients. If there are not good ingredients, there is no good cooking," he said at the New York event, adding: "There is no great or small cooking -- there is only good."

His impact on gastronomy has been described as “indelible”. But as for his role in inventing "Nouvelle Cuisine," Bocuse is less than eager to accept the honour, saying the term was a media invention and the cooking was not  "some incredible revolution."

The ‘Formula’ that defined Nouvelle Cuisine was based around 10 characteristics of this new style of cooking. The ten characteristics identified were:

• A rejection of over complicating the dish.
• Cooking-times for most fish, seafood, game birds, veal, green vegetables and pâtés were greatly reduced in an attempt to preserve the natural flavours. Steaming food became a new trend.
• The dishes were made with the freshest possible ingredients.
• Large menus were abandoned in favour of shorter menus.
• Strong marinades were no longer used to mask the true flavours of meat and game.
• They stopped using heavy sauces thickened with flour-based roux, in favour of seasoning their dishes with fresh herbs, high quality butter, lemon juice, and vinegar.
• They used traditional & regional dishes for inspiration.
• New techniques and modern equipment were embraced. Bocuse even used microwave ovens.
• The chefs paid close attention to the dietary needs of their guests through their dishes.
• The chefs were extremely inventive and created new combinations and pairings.

 By the middle of the 1980’s many chefs began returning to the classical style of cooking, although much of the lighter presentations and new techniques of Nouvelle Cuisine remain to this day.

Known for his humorous approach to the hard work of being a globe-trotting chef, Bocuse once joked: "Nouvelle Cuisine was nothing on the plate, but everything on the bill.”

He was not alone in this particular line of thought!

Don’t forget to feed the fish at the bottom of this post!

zack

References:

Yahoo.com

Wikipedia.com