Quiche

Hello my lovelies!

Happy weekend to you. 

We have a day of showers today.  What a good day for catching up with some baking. 

On a similar day during the week I baked a quiche.  I believe a gal needs a good quiche recipe in her arsenal and this is mine.  You may have your own tried and tested  recipe  but I thought I’d share this one with you as it’s super easy ... especially if you cheat fast-track and buy the base!

A quiche is an easy meal to rustle up quickly for a summer’s lunch and is perfect for a pot luck contribution. 

It’s maybe something you’d like to make this weekend; it’s a lovely summer’s day dish and usually all the ingredients are to hand.  

It’s equally good hot or cold, though I prefer it the second day cold as it feels truly summery eating it  cold with a nice side salad.  And this recipe makes a quiche for 4-6 people, depending on how ravenous you are feeling, so this quiche does us for several days. 

Quiche Lorainne

Ingredients 

Pastry:

150 gr sifted flour

Pinch of salt

75 gr cold butter, cut in small cubes

About 50-60 ml really cold water

NB: for speed you may prefer to use ready-made pastry or flan base. 

Filling:

80 gr bacon, cut in small pieces *

4 eggs, whisked and seasoned with salt and pepper

300 ml double cream or creme fraiche

120 gr grated cheese -  Gruyere, Emmental, nature cheddar, something with a bit of bite

Chopped herbs or parsley if desired

Cherry tomatoes, halved

* For a vegetarian option, substitute the bacon with soft-fried onions and maybe extra cheese 

Notes:

You will need a 20cm flan loose bottom flan tin, greased.

I use a food processor for the pastry for speed, but honestly it doesn’t take much longer to make pastry by hand and the process can be quite calming and therapeutic. 

Method

Preheat the over to 180c. 

Make the pastry case. 

 Mix the first three ingredients in a food processor until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs, about 30 seconds.  Trickle in the water till the mix balls together.  It will be quite sticky at this stage so place the ball in a floured covered bowl and leave in the fridge for minimum  30 minutes whilst you prepare the other ingredients.

(You may prefer to use ready-made pastry; if so, ignore all of the above.)

Roll out on a floured board and line it on the greased flan tin. 

Prick the pastry base with a fork. 

(Don’t bother about finely trimming the edges, the pastry shrinks when cooking and I prefer a “rustic” edge as that proves it’s homemade!)

Blind bake for about 10 minutes then leave to cool.

(Or forget about all of this and just buy a ready-made tart base!)

Make the filling. 

Dot the bacon evenly around the pastry case. 

Whisk the cream/creme fraiche into the whisked eggs, the stir in the cheese and any herbs.

Pour carefully on to the pastry base, to leave the bacon evenly dispersed. 

Dot the halved tomatoes on top the filling.

Bake until golden brown on top, about 35-45 minutes. 

Serve with a crisp salad.

Enjoy!

A la perchoine, 

Mary x. 

Ginger Cake That Hits The Spot

Hi my lovelies!

Pre-retirement I imagined my new at-home life would include creative days in the kitchen.  Blissfully enjoyable baking days when I would don an apron maybe once or twice a week to create cakes, cookies and bread in the kitchen.  All the things I had little time for making whilst working. 

That dream was soon shattered when I discovered that The Photographer didn’t actually om like cake that much.  He liked fruit cake though.  I do not like fruitcake.

Although this may not seem like a match made in heaven, on reflection I could have become a dab hand at making fruit cakes and not put on a single pound, but where’s the fun in that?

So, I largely gave up baking cake.

But this week I thought heck, I’ll give it another go and if it doesn’t hit the spot with him, I can always farm it out to more appreciate households. 

Well, I chanced upon this ginger cake recipe in my Linda McCartney cookbook and Bingo!!

Turns out I’d been baking the wrong cakes!

TP DOES like more than just fruit cake, and ginger cake is one that’s hitting the spot.

So much so that he ate two slices of cake on one day.  Unprecedented.  

I would describe this as a “manly” cake, no fancy icings and thus not too sweet. 

I’ve always loved McVities ginger cake and this has the taste of it without its density. 

Ginger Cake

Ingredients

4 oz/115 gr butter

4 oz/115 gr sugar

1 egg, beaten

8 oz/225 gr self raising flour 

1/2 tspn cinnamon

2 tspn ground ginger

1/4 tspn grated/ground nutmeg 

4 fl oz/125 ml milk

2 tbspn black treacle

Method 

Preheat over to 180c/325F/gas mark 3.

Line or grease and flour a 2lb loaf tin.

Cream the butter and sugar.

Beat the egg into the mixture, a little at a time.

Mix all the dry ingredients together then add to the mixture. 

Gradually mix in the milk to create a smooth thick batter. 

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a knife or skewer comes out clean. 

Cool on a rack, then ...

Enjoy!

And here’s the book that has converted TP to cake lover. 

It’s filled with plain and simple recipes and I’ve dipped into this book so much over the years. 

This book is on my Desert Island Cookbook list.  Should there ever be such a variation on this long-running radio programme and should I be considered a celebrity worthy of being invited.  

If those two unlikely events should align themselves in the heavens then I will be ready with my list and good to go.

Meantime, Happy Baking!

A la perchoine,

Mary x. 

A Taste of Summer

OMG.
I’ve had an instant taste of summer in the midst of winter.

Fried tomatoes on toast.  Just like my gran used to make.

For the full story please follow the link to my 2016 post
sunny-summer-breakfast
It’s a good read, I’ve just read it and thought “Did I write that?!”.

I had a lot of baby tomatoes left over from Christmas  entertaining.  Yesterday I threw some into a prawn curry I made.  This morning I threw another pack in the frying pan for breakfast.  

And BINGO!!!

Bringing a touch of summer to a grey cold January day couldn’t be easier. 

Half the baby tomatoes.

Fry in butter (Guernsey butter if you want to max out on flavor).

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and fry slowly until the tomatoes go mushy and start to caramalise.

Towards the end of cooking grab a finger full of brown sugar, sprinkle over and mix around a bit.

Serve on buttered toast and wait for the explosion of taste from that first bite of this simple but oh so delicious breakfast.

I am still floating on cloud nine with the memory of it as I slurp back my mid-morning coffee. 

Summer on a plate!

This is good, honest and simple fare.   Made with a few ingredients we all have lurking in the house.  And it’s quick.  What more convincing do you need?  Try it today!


A la perchoine,
Mary x.

A Twist on Traditional

It’s Christmas Eve Eve!

How did that happen?  One minute I was celebrating my birthday mid November, and today I’m in a panic, circling wagons on Christmas preps - have I forgotten something?  

Well, it’s certainly not K E V I N !!!

I had some bonus hours with the grandkiddos recently so I immediately said, hey let’s watch Home Alone! I absolutely never tire of that film and it never fails to get me feeling christmassy.  You too?

This got me feeling christmassy too.  Icing my cake.

I had the cake soaking up regular drizzles of brandy but had no idea how I was going to decorate it this year. 

Then on Sunday morning up popped a friend on Insta with a modern snowball design. 

I knew in an Insta instant that this was “the one”.

So I sent TP to Waitrose for fondant icing and gold lustre spray.  I’d not used either before.

 but they are the ultimate doddle!

I changed the design a little to “make it my own”.  I added a floor of fondant icing - an excuse for more sugar - and scattered the snowballs messily around to create the idea that the naughty elf on the shelf has had one gigantic snowball fight on my cake with his mates!

It’s more “official” theme is cascading snow piled with snowballs dusted with the gold lustre of the afternoon December sun.  That’s my take on it anyway.  

And I’m sooo happy with this simple, modern decoration which was such fun to put together.

Do you like this modern design?

How have you iced your cake?

Maybe you don’t do Christmas cakes?

I’ve made jule logs some years but they don’t keep so long.  This baby can keep for weeks, but I have the feeling it’s not going to last that long in our household!

Wishing you a merry Christmas Eve Eve!

A la perchoine,

Mary x.

The Pout Cooks ... Onion Tarte Tatin

Hi my lovelies, hope you’re having a lovely weekend.

We’ve had a stormy weekend and I’ve been pretty much holed up indoors and my mind has been straying to comfort food.  So I’m inspired today to share with you a little video (4 mins worth) of some oh so tasty and oohhhh so comforting food I made recently.

It’s quick and easy to make and I’ll list the ingredients above the clip.  

I saw it on Jamie’s Meat-free telly prog and was instantly inspired to try it out. 

But a word of warning - a frying pan handle straight out of the oven is HOT, burning hot.  And it stays  🔥  for at least ten minutes after coming out of the oven.  I know this ... NOW. 

I’m not used to putting a frying pan in the oven (It’s a modern cheffy thing) and when the pan was out and sitting on the hob, I kept instinctively grabbing the handle, screaming (read swearing, badly!), running my hand under the cold tap for several minutes, then back to repeat the whole process again and again.  You’d think pain association would have been lodged in my brain after the first episode.  But no. It was Kitchen Groundhog Day. 

Several hours later and having watched a whole episode of Antiques Roadshow with my only relief from the pain being having my hand wrapped around an ice-filled glass (no room for gin, it was PACKED!), I worked it out that sleeping was going to be a challenge.

We had no burn treatment in the house.  I looked to TP for help and he came up with a cream he uses for dry skin.  I read the deets before using it (of course) and saw that one of the skin conditions it treats is inflammation and my skin certainly was flamin’ hot!  So I applied it.  Minutes later the burning pain disappeared.   I’m not a doctor and I’m not advising you to use this stuff yourself on burns  (and on reflection maybe I should have popped up to A&E) and perhaps it shouldn’t be used like that - but I was desperate and it sure as heck worked for me 👍.

Doublebase gel from Derma Laboratories.  I can’t find it on Amazon.

Oh gawd, I meant this to be a quick post and here I am rambling on again - this always happens when I’m chatting to you guys!!

Anyway, let’s draw a line under this one and with my lesson painfully learned, here are the ingredients for this very yummy ....

Onion Tarte Tatin

Ingredients 

(You can be quite casual towards the ingredients as this type of dish doesn’t require any chemistry so the list is not prescriptive - just look on everything as approximate, and adjust to your preference)

About 50 gr butter

Mix of herbs, fresh or dried (I used an Italian seasoning mix)

Brown sugar (quantity in video, I can’t remember how much!)

Garlic, fresh or granules 

4 tbspn cider vinegar

100 ml water (Which I omitted in the pic above)

4 medium onions, halved

Here’s how you put it together.

Again: The burns are NOT optional, please be very careful with that handle!

I served simply with tomato and avocado and a crumbling of goats cheese.  Yummy.

Straight out of the oven.  Flip it over onto a plate, carefully but quickly.

Enjoy!

A la perchoine, 

Mary x. 

Gluten-free Chocolate Brownie

How YOU doin’, my lovelies?

Are you feeling you’re surging head-long into autumn 🍂 already?

Fancy some comfort food today?

Well look no further than here, peeps.  Easy peasy chocolate brownies are heading your way!

I’m enjoying spending time with visiting family at the moment.  I was thinking about what to make for tea for when the travelers arrived from various airports and because of varying dietary needs I settled on jacket potatoes 🥔 and a help yourself buffet of toppings, mostly vegan.

So far so good.  Simple fare. Comfort food.  Perfect for autumn 🍂.
(I’ve found those leaves and I’m not afraid to use them!)

Ok, so what’s for pud? Well, one of the travelers was arriving on her birthday and a birthday gal’s got to have a 🎂, right?  Well again dietary requirements led, (and quite simply my huge love for them) which immediately led me to gluten free, dairy free but definitely NOT taste free chocolate brownies.  

I searched my blog for my recipe.  I found the saga of my disaster diabetic birthday cake (READ ABOUT MY DISASTER OF A CAKE HERE!!) but all it yielded on brownies was a promise of the recipe a year ago on THIS POST HERE.  So keeping to my promise, albeit a little after the event, here’s my recipe for “the best brownies I’ve ever tasted “.  Not my words, but those of the birthday girl. 

Gluten free Chocolate Brownies 

Ingredients 

2 oz dark chocolate 

3 1/2 oz butter (I used dairy free butter as one diner was dairy-free)

7 oz caster sugar (fortunately none were diabetic!)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tspn vanilla extract 

3 oz ground almonds

2 tspn baking powder 

Pinch of salt

4 oz chopped walnuts

Tip: To conserve my effort and the planet’s energy, I make up two and pop one in the freezer, sectioned up and split into smaller batches.  This works well with the choc, walnuts and ground almonds as doubling the quantities uses up the whole bar/bag so there are no niggly little bits left in the cupboard!

Makes 16 pieces 

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c/350F/gas mark 4.

Line an 8” square tin with baking paper or grease well with butter.

Melt the choc in a bowl over a saucepan of rolling-boil water. 

Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy and light yellow. then beat in the eggs gradually, followed by the vanilla and melted choc.

Stir in the ground almonds, salt and baking powder then fold in the walnuts. 

Spread in the baking tin and bake for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the speed of your oven.

Note:  I usually check with a sharp knife after 30 minutes, and often pop back in for another five or so minutes. 

However long you bake. the knife tip should come out dry when baked sufficiently. 

Note:  if baking two cakes on separate shelves as I do, then set your timer to switch their shelf positioning after 20 minutes 

Cool and then decorate if required before cutting carefully into 16 pieces (2 inch squares), or cut in larger pieces of you're feeling truly naughty 😉 (which I was on this occasion !)

I sometimes decorate with just a dusting of icing sugar, but a birthday brownie calls for a bit of a white chocolate drizzle eh?  

And as on this occasion we had something to celebrate.

So I added birthday 🎂 candles of course!

Enjoy!

I hope you can see beyond the very basic photographs - I was too concerned 😧 about eating this deliciousness to think about staging my cake!

A la perchoine,

Mary x.

Cousin Chris’s Chicken Pie

I recently shared my quickie recipe for Chicken Sundae, which you can find HERE.

Here’s what you can do with the rest of your roasted chicken.

When I was last in Sussex one of my cousin's invited us round for supper and served a super-yummy chicken pie.  I asked how she'd made it and she talked me briefly through the ingredients and process.  She had me itching to try it and I made it a few days later with fresh chicken - I've since come up with an even easier way to make it using roasted chicken so that's how i present it here today.

I’ve tended to be put off making chicken pies because they can be a bit of a faff.  This one isn’t.  I think its USP is not having to make a “proper” sauce to bind the filling,   This pie's "sauce" uses a few ingredients mixed together and dolloped on top the filling ingredients.  

So simple.  In fact, so simple is it that I’ve made the pie several times since I first tried it at my cousin’s house back in June.  Well, I’ve had to do the testing of the recipe for you, eh, and if I’ve got to eat rather a lot of chicken pie along the way, then that is no hardship!

Cousin Chris’s Chicken Pie 

Ingredients

(This pie is not chemistry cooking, so you decide your own quanties)

Filling:

Cooked chicken (my preference), shredded or chopped roughly

Vegetables: onions and your choice of veg, mushrooms, leeks etc

Chopped fresh herbs you have to hand, e.g. basil, oregano, tarragon

Seasoning

Topping: 

250gr tub mascarpone

Grated parmesan, to taste

about 1 heaped tspn plain flour plain

Seasoning

Pastry:

Shortcrust pastry to cover your chosen our pie dish

milk or beaten egg to glaze, if desired

Method

Make pastry (or buy ready made)

Cover with cling film (Saran  wrap?) and leave to chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes (makes it easier to roll out).

Meanwhile, make the filling.

Place ingredients in oven proof dish.

Top with fresh herbs.

Mix topping.

Place in clumps over the filling (you may prefer to add the herbs at this stage - your call!).

Take pastry out of fridge and take out of cling film covering.  Roll out on floured board to a size to cover and seal your pie dish.

Cover the our dish with rolled out pastry.  Crimp to seal edges.  Prick.  Glaze.  Bake at 180c for 30-40 depending on whether you're using fresh or cooked chicken and the ferocity of your oven.

Enjoy!

Having a souschef can save time!

Such simply constructed comfort food.  What's not to enjoy?  Well, apart from my little video of the making of this yumminess.

Please watch and enjoy that too!

A la perchoine, 

Mary x.

Lobster, Revisited

Hello maties!
Just a quickie from me today but a longie for you - I've just been reading Joanne's comment on my previous crab sarnie post and realised I have never shared with you my all-time favourite recipe, Crab Fettucine.  Well I'm going to have to address that p.d.q.  and, oh heck, I'm going to have to eat it in the process.  What sacrifices I make for YOU!!

So whilst flipping through old posts for a non-existent crab recipe, I stumbled upon this old post (FIND IT HERE) and I'm excited to repeat it here today because,
1.  Its focus is probably my favourite 3-course summer meal EVER (all sooo easy) and,
2.  The synchronicity is uncanny, it tells me that we were clearing the old sheds three years ago almost to the day and the new She-Shed build started yesterday.  It took me a while to replace my Leaning Sheds Of Poutland but I got there, eventually!


Now, please wade through my vintage post, get to the domestic goddess the recipes), and try this for yourself - and if you're not a lover of seafood the lobster can easily be replaced with cooked chicken.



My Post From 28 July 2016, Repeated

Hi peeps, thanks for popping in.  It's been all go here today, what with the shed project, shopping and taking His Royal Fluffiness for his pamper session (a grooming at the local vets).

And then, maybe because I was thinking about sunny days and eating al fresco, maybe I was thinking about the friends I made this meal for here, but anyway, I suddenly remembered I promised you some recipes and I hadn't delivered!  And I'm sorry about that.  So I swiftly got on the case.

Now this is a variation on a meal that I usually turn out at least once during the summer months.  Because it's so simple.  It's inspired by a souvenir cook book I picked up when visiting the Newport mansions on Rhode Island.  What an experience!  Allow at least a day to visit just a few of the many mansions available to view.

Anyway, back to the plot.  The food. 

I've strayed from the recipes and format over the years but I do love the concept. 

An extremely easy meal involving little cooking, a bit of preparation and almost all is done in advance.

And that's really the beauty of this tried-and-tested menu.  When your guests arrive, you look (and feel!) calm and collected.  You can enjoy drinks out on the patio with them, at some stage you drift away from your prosecco to pop into the house to fling a few elements together ...

But you serve a meal that is perfect for a summer's evening, that is a doddle to make yet looks and tastes so professional that you cannot fail to impress your guests.  Whilst relaxing and enjoying their wonderful company.

You just cannot go wrong with this menu!  So please, please, give it a go.

Requirements: prepping in advance; a calm, sunny evening; invite people you love.

Recipes serve approx. 6; warning - you may have leftovers :-)



Herby Goats Cheese Dip

Ingredients

1 roll-pack goats cheese

about half pack cream cheese with herbs

squirt of lemon juice

finely chopped fresh thyme and rosemary, or to taste or to what you have to hand

olive oil

A little salt and pepper if required

Perhaps just a spoon-tip of wholegrain mustard

Method

Mash goats cheese with herby cream cheese, quantities to taste but the ratio I used was roughly equal quantities.

Blend in chopped herbs, a spritz of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil.

Add a small amount of salt, pepper and/or mustard if required but be light of touch, keep the flavour delicate and predominantly that of the cheese.

Serve

Place in a glass bowl; I just love those little Ikea +365 glass dishes, on the left, so useful, so elegantly simple.

 Serve with bruschetta, bread sticks, oat cakes - whatever takes your fancy.  And I recommend it served with chilled prosecco out on the patio! 



Chilled Lobster Tarragon

Ingredients

2 medium-sized cooked lobsters, cut in bite-sized pieces
(I get mine cooked and shelled from our local Crab Cabin, hope you have something similar near you)

A couple of squirts of fresh lemon juice

2 ribs of celery, very finely chopped

4 spring onions, trimmed lightly top and bottom, chopped

3/4 cup full-fat mayonnaise

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon

sea salt or plain salt and freshly ground pepper, to tase

6 outer leaves from Little Gem lettuce

lemon cut in 6 wedges

Method

Combine the lobster, juice, spring onions and celery in a bowl.

Mix the mayo and tarragon with seasoning then add the lobster mix.

Place in a covered container and pop in the fridge for a few hours.

To serve: place servings on to the lettuce leaves, with the lemon wedge to the side.

To Serve

Boiled new potatoes, local (as I used) or Jersey Royals and sugar snap peas.

Sugar Snap Peas

Ingredients

Sugar snap peas, about a pound (2 bags), washed and trimmed if necessary

Butter, I use Guernsey butter, of course, but use any rich local butter

Finely chopped chives and basil, or whatever you fancy

Method

Add sugar snaps to rolling boiling water for about a minute or so.  Drain and cool under cold running water.  Put to one side until ready to serve.

To serve, gently heat the butter in a pan (do not burn), add the sugar snaps and herbs and warm through.

Serve this dish with a chilled white - I served Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc on this occasion.  V nice.

Mixed Berry Tart

Ingredients

8 ounces mascarpone cheese, softened at room temperature

1/3 cup double cream, chilled

1/4 cup castor sugar

6 tartlet shells, I always get mine from M&S

You need roughly 1 cup each of washed & prepared fresh strawberries and blueberries (or other berries)

1/2 cup apricot jam

2 tablespoons water

Icing sugar, to dust

Method

Beat the cheese, cream and sugar together in a bowl until the usual stiff peaks form.  Divide between the tartlets. 

(Now I usually end up with extra mix, which I keep in the fridge and have with fresh fruit the next day)

Place the fruit on top the mascarpone mix, as artistically or not as your heart desires!

Combine the jam and water in a little saucepan.  Cook slowly until melted and smooth.

Brush over the top of each tart.

Cover and refrigerate until chilled, which at least 2 hours

To serve: dust with the icing sugar.

(Any left over tarts are super for breakfast the next morning.  Trust me!)

And if you are living in our British climate, retire to the sofas indoors for coffee.  (And a little chocolate :-). )  Because it will no doubt be getting a tad chilly by the time you've lingered over this wonderful meal.

And there you have it - a beautifully light summer's evening menu.  Do I make these recipes sound easy?  Well, that's 'cos they are!

I do hope you try out at least one of the recipes, dear reader.  You won't be disappointed.

Do you have any fave summer lunch/supper recipes to share?

Or menus that make entertaining so easy because they can be prepped well in advance?

I'd love to hear.

Happy Thursday to you all.

A la perchoine.

Saturday Sundae - Guernsey 🇬🇬 Crab

Happy Sunny Saturday, my lovelies.

Yes, summer is well and truly here and I’m throwing myself into summer life, good and proper.  With simple hot day pleasures.

Cliff walks.  Sea swims.  Garden time.  Day trips to neighbouring islands.  And eating crab.

Just in case I haven’t mentioned it before (and that really would surprise me!), Guernsey 🇬🇬 crab is the best.  The. Best.  I’ve tasted crab around the world and nothing compares.  Seriously, our crab beats all on texture, flavour, a hint of sweetness ...  

And if you don’t believe me, pop over here and try it for yourself!!!

#visitguernsey

So it is no surprise that my summer meal of preference is crab.  We always take a crab sandwich lunch to our neighbouring island  paradise, Herm, which we visited a few days ago, it’s a little tradition we’ve had going for some years.  And we had some crab left in the fridge and the day was hot so I came up with this little bit of summer magic - Guernsey 🇬🇬 Crab Sundae!

So simple, yet so yummy.  Putting the salad in sundae glasses brings the spirit of summer to the table, IMHO.  

Quite simply, this is how I put it together, for that is all it us, assembly.

Mix a dollop of mayo with fresh crab (Guernsey 🇬🇬 Chancre is my crab of choice, obvs).

Add a squeeze of lime juice.  Season lightly.

Mix in delicate ribbons of lettuce, finely chopped red onion and tomato (again, I recommend Guernsey 🇬🇬 toms).

Layer the salad mix in sundae glasses with chopped avocado and finely sliced red chilli.

Take out into the summer garden.  Fill pretty glasses with sparkling water, ice cubes and slices of lemon and lime.

Simple pleasures.

Mega taste.

Enjoy!

And here’s a taster of my day trip to paradise.  Setting off from Guernsey.

Pictures of paradise coming up soon on the blog. 

A la perchoine, 

Mary x.