We’re almost there. The tree is up (hopefully), some of the presents are ordered. Maybe some are wrapped. I’m hoping you at the very least have partaken in a little glass of mulled wine with a mince pie chaser by now. READ MORE
There’s nothing I like more than a recipe that only uses one pot. It feels like a winner before it’s even served. Less washing up, less tidying and less clutter by the stove and sink. One pot meals have my vote every time. READ MORE
There’s probably nothing I love more than the combination of some form of crispy potato with a perfectly cooked fried egg. Perhaps it’s a throwback from childhood when egg and chips was a ‘treat’ meal. READ MORE
How’s January going? Busy? Cold? A little bit, ahem, all over the place? Same here. I always feel that as a family we plod through January in a fug of minor disorganisation, sleep walking our way back to normality after all the stodgy delights and late nights of yuletide. So culinary shortcuts, albeit delicious healthy ones, are very much part of my January plan to get us all back into the swing of things. READ MORE
I love an oven baked quiche as much as the next person but sometimes I have neither the time nor the inclination for making pastry. This recipe is a nifty way to get that quiche flavour; the carby hit usually provided by the pastry, instead offered by the egg soaked bread.
I read a blog about a very large family in the US. I daren’t tell you who they are. I can’t link to it in case the blogger loses her temper and contacts me. I know for a fact she does that kind of thing. She’s THAT fearless. I bet she approaches teenagers in the park and asks them to stop smoking and swearing too. I am utterly fascinated by her. She has over 10 children, cooks from scratch every day and always seems so patient in her blog posts. The perfect Mum. Much like the one in Topsy & Tim.
Don’t even get me started about Topsy and Tim’s Mum. If you haven’t seen this programme check Cbeebies out. T & Ts Mum is perfect. She never shouts, hugs her children when they break her vase, plays fun games like dens when the rest of the house is going to rack and ruin, plus she always smiles at her husband when he arrives home rather than asking where he’s been or why he’s late or if he picked up a bottle of wine on the way home because it really has been one of those days. And she’s thin. Oh and she never checks Facebook on her phone when the kids are about. I hate her.
Anyway, this other Mum, the blogger one. It can’t be true can it? Her patience and general Zen like state. No one is that nice. Imagine 10 kids! Imagine the amount of abandoned socks, the volume of plastic plates that never properly dry in the dishwasher and thus make double the work and have to be dried AGAIN on the rack. Imagine the amount of times she has said ‘do not lick your brother’s arm’ or similar. She must be on the gin every night. Either that or she’s a liar. Maybe the blog is an alternative reality for her. A fictitious diary of the mother she wants to be. Oh I do hope so. She makes me feel inadequate.
Anyway, here’s a really lovely quiche recipe. It’s not that hard, but if it’s a bottle of wine day then maybe buy the pastry.
Lots more recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, with The Book People, at Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose (where it’s book of the month) and many smaller outlets.
One year ago: Oaty peanut butter cookies and Stuffed picnic loaf and Melting meringue kisses
Two years ago: Halloumi, bean and asparagus salad and Lemon & coriander turkey burger or Birthday cake for a princess of prince
Three years ago: Honeyed apples in sweet almond pastry and Lemon cupcakes or Rye bread
Four years ago: Salmon and sweet potato fishcakes and Victoria sponge cake and Carrot fritters
Salmon and asparagus quiche
Ingredients
To make the pastry using a stand mixer, use the flat beater to make the flour and butter into breadcrumbs at a low speed. Add black pepper and then on speed 1 add icy cold water until the pastry JUST comes together. Or to make the pastry by hand, rub the fat in to the flour, add pepper and then add icy cold water until the pastry just comes together using a blunt knife to full together. Pat into a flat circle shape, wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.
Line a 23cm quiche tin with a loose bottom with the pastry, rolling to about 3mm thick, using a little extra flour for rolling. Trim the edges (roll a rolling pin over the top for a quick way to do this) and chill or freeze if possible for another 30 minutes. Then pop greaseproof paper into the shell, fill with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake in a preheated 200C/Gas 6 oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the beans and paper and bake for another 10 minutes until the bottom of the pastry shell is fully cooked. Remove from the oven.
Place the salmon onto the pastry shell then take the asparagus and break off at the bottom of the stems – you’re aiming to let the asparagus naturally break at the point where the asparagus stops being delicious and crisp and starts being woody. Chuck the woody bits away and keep the crisp asparagus stems with the feathery tops. Whisk together the eggs and cream, pour over the salmon then place the asparagus over the top. Lastly grate the cheese over the top and bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown and well set. Leave to cool on a wire rack or serve warm.
Is quiche not the perfect, universal crowd pleaser? It seems whenever I make it for a gathering it’s Hoovered up way before everything else. I think it satisfies the angel and devil in all of us. Egg rich protein guaranteed to fill us up until the next available meal slot, combined with decadent cheese and cream. All wrapped up in shortcrust pastry, which let’s face it, is just a very large savoury biscuit with useful handle type edges to halt any spillages. I just love the stuff and this one is full of spinach – something I like a lot raw in salads, but even more when smothered in cream and grated nutmeg.
One year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs
Two years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits
Three years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread
Florentine quiche
Ingredients:
I developed this recipe at the request of someone who wanted to know how much ready made pastry to use for quiche. If you prefer to make your own then please follow the pastry recipe here. It’s actually very easy and I have to say I don’t buy pastry these days, other than the puff variety.
You’ll need a 23cm quiche tin with a loose bottom. Roll the pastry to about 3mm thick with a well-floured rolling pin and transfer carefully over the tin. Trim the edges (roll a rolling pin over the top for a quick way to do this) and chill or freeze if possible for another 30 minutes. Then pop greaseproof paper into the shell, fill with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake in a preheated 200C/Gas 6 oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the beans and paper and bake for another 10 minutes until the bottom of the pastry shell is fully cooked.
Meanwhile wilt the spinach by either cooking in a saucepan with 2 tbsp water until wilted and reduced in size, or zapping in the microwave still in the bag, pierced a few times, for 2 minutes. Whatever method you use, squeeze well afterwards to remove as much moisture as possible – I use a sieve and the back of a wooden spoon. Once cooled, finely chop the spinach, use a fork to whisk with the eggs, cream, cheese, pepper and nutmeg and pour into the shell. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown and well set. Serve warm or cold with whatever you fancy, I like salad or jacket potatoes.
Potato and vegetables fried up and served with a poached egg on to? Oh yes please. This is the kind of dish that manages to straddle winter comfort food and light summer suppers. For me the beauty is in the ultra crisp rosti next to the oozing yolk. And of course this uses up leftovers and for a lady like me who hates waste that’s music to my ears. If poaching eggs is something you’ve had problems with in the past do try my cheat’s poached eggs.
Ingredients:
Grate 400g of cooked potato into a bowl, add to that 150g of cooked carrot strips and 100g of cooked parsnip strips. Add a quarter of a pack of fresh chopped chives, some freshly ground black pepper just to season it and mix it all up. Add a beaten egg to the vegetables. Use damp hands to help the rosti mixture not to stick to you and to make really good shape patties. Scoop out one eighth of the mixture, just squash together, wash your hands and then pop 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a non-stick pan. Fry these now for 2-3 minutes on each side, until they’re really crisp and golden.
Boil a large saucepan of water and add a teaspoon of white wine vinegar. Crack one of your eggs into a ramekin dish; the reason for doing this is when you drop the egg into that simmering water it’s going to stay in one place where as if you crack it from up high it’s more likely to spread out. Simmer for 3 minutes for a perfectly poached egg. Serve the rosti with the poached egg on top, lots of black pepper and more fresh chives.
Making fresh pasta is a bit like crafting with kids. You think it’ll be too much of a pain in the backside, probably messy and so you either don’t do it or let someone else do it for you. Then when you take the plunge and have a go you realise that it’s not that messy and the smiles are more than worth the effort.
This is a very bog standard recipe that you can adapt however you so wish…. add herbs, spinach, tomato paste, pepper, spices etc. The world is your pasta oyster.
All comments gratefully received. Here are some Eastery recipes you might like too as it’s that time of year:
One year ago: Mini Simnel cupcakes and Chocolate orange easter spiced fudge and Eastery two tone cupcakes and Easter apostles scone loaf
Two years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Hot cross biscotti
Fresh pasta
Makes enough for 2 -3 generous servings
Ingredients:
I’m not going to lie, I don’t make pasta by hand. I am time poor and very greedy so if I want fresh pasta which is oh so much better than the dried stuff (in my opinion and my 4 year olds too) I use my stand mixer with the pasta attachment. (It’s a Kitchen Aid for those who might ask.)
I use the flat beater to beat all the ingredients together, then once combined use the dough hook to knead for about 7 -8 minutes at speed 4. I pop the cover onto the mixer when I do this as the dough can get quite feisty. Then I wrap it in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 1 hour to relax.
Once suitably relaxed I push the pasta into the Kitchenaid Short Pasta Maker and then cut the pieces off as dictated by my sons using the wire part of the attachment – I put a clean tea towel underneath to catch the pasta treasure and then use it to chuck the lot into a pan of salted boiling water once we’ve made enough. Takes 3 -4 minutes to cook and is adored by all who eat it.
My smaller son is more impatient and prefers short stubby bits of pasta and the older one likes to watch the pasta pushing through the press and so we have longer snake like pasta. Every man or child to their own pasta preference.
P.S. To dry the pasta leave it overnight, not touching each other, on a clean tea towel then bag up in the morning. Makes an excellent birthday gift for a friend. Or just nice to have in the cupboard. Pic is fresh pasta dried and bagged in case you’re wondering.
I bucked the trend as a student. I spent the first year of proper student halls life being the designated driver and cooking from scratch. Odd I know. No AfterShock chasers or donor kebabs for me.
I was just so incredibly excited to have a kitchen to call my own (well mine and 20 others) and a budget for food. Second year was spent in a house of 7 people where myself and one of the other greedy inhabitants used to regularly peel a bag of potatoes the size of a small toddler. We’d boil them, mash them to within an inch of their lives and finish with scalded milk, salted butter and lashings of black pepper. Whilst all 7 of us ate well through this devotion, our portion control was a little suspect. I now know that when you need a break mid meal it might be time to put the cutlery down, defeated.
This frittata recipe is great. It’s easy, economical and nutritious. Plus it doesn’t need lots of fancy equipment so it’s perfect for students who I believe are starting their new terms about now. Serves 4 people or two with a great breakfast the day after. There’s even a little video to watch of me making this with the rather lovely, polite and handsome Ed:
Ingredients:
Holly Bell 