Friday, May 29, 2009

Bacon Brocolli Mushroom Quiche


I still vividly remember the first ever time I tasted quiche. It was year 10 food tech lesson, we were making mini quiches - tiny tiny ones baked in mini muffin moulds. We used ready-made Pampas shortcrust pastry, and the filling was simply milk, egg, cheddar and bacon bits. I was initially a bit skeptic about some custardy-looking filling in a pastry shell. But I was blown away after I popped one of those in my mouth. It was really tasty, even if its just a simplified Quiche Lorraine with bacon bits.


Yesterday, it was Dragon Boat Festival for us Chinese people, and as a public holiday, we had a day off school. I wanted to bake, of course! But something savoury. Initially I had planned to make this quiche for lunch...but I slept way over and ended up waking at 11am instead of 9. So this became our afternoon tea instead. This is the second time I've made a proper quiche before, and also the first time with milk only (i.e. no cream), but surprisingly the filling was still creamy, and filled with broccoli, bacon, mushroom, onion and Gruyere - it was delicious (and lower in fat, and healthy too, with the veggies added)! My mum, sister and I finished a whole 23-cm tart in 15 minutes flat!


The recipe was from Use Real Butter (one of my favourite food blogs - especially the extemely detailed posts for Chinese food, Kaweah and the stunning scenery photos of the Rockies!). But then I realised I didn't have shortening at home, so I switched to a shortcrust pastry recipe from BBC Good Food instead. I rolled out the pastry very thinly, because I'm scared of uncooked soggy crusts. I also baked it in one 23-cm tart and one 17-cm dish.

I took the small one (in the white dish) for lunch today, reheated in the microwave - still yummy! Pictured above are my friends snagging bits of my quiche haha. I was suprised that the pastry didn't go soggy though. Much better than the boring canteen lunch boxes (they almost dish up the same stuff everyday...I much prefer homemade food nowadays).

Quiche

Shortcrust Pastry Shell
Adapted from BBC Good Food

175g plain flour
80g cold butter , cut into pieces
1 egg yolk
5 tsp cold water
Pinch salt

1. Processor Method: put the flour, butter, egg yolk and 4 tsp cold water into a food processor. Using the pulse button, process until the mix binds.
Hand Method: Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, work/rub the butter into the flour until it dissapears - it should resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Make a well int the centre, sprinkle in the salt and add the yolk and water. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, gently mix until a ball of dough forms.
2. Tip the pastry onto a lightly floured surface, gather into a smooth ball, then roll out as thinly as you can.
3. Line a 23 x 2.5cm loose-bottomed, fluted flan tin, easing the pastry into the base (I also lined a 17-cm dish with the pastry). Trim the pastry edges with scissors (save any trimmings) so it sits slightly above the tin (if it shrinks, it shouldn't now go below the level of the tin).
4.Press the pastry into the flutes, lightly prick the base with a fork, then chill for 10 mins. Put a baking sheet in the oven and heat oven to 180 C
.
5. Line pastry case with foil, shiny side down, fill with dry beans and bake on the hot sheet for 15 mins. Remove foil and beans and bake for 4-5 mins more until the pastry is pale golden. If you notice any small holes or cracks, patch up with pastry trimmings. You can make up to this point a day ahead.


Filling
Adapted from Use Real Butter

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 medium onion, minced and sautéed
5 white button mushrooms, sliced and sautéed
1/2 head broccoli, chopped and blanched
1 cup gruyère, shredded
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt

Reduce oven to 160 C. In a large bowl, stir together the eggs, milk, onion, bacon, broccoli, mushrooms, and salt. In a separate bowl, reserve 2 tbsp of the cheese and toss the remaining cheese and flour together. Add the cheese to the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour into pie crust, sprinkle on the reserved cheese and bake 35-40 minutes (Mine only took 30minutes). Let quiche rest out of the oven for 15 minutes before serving (As Jen says, resting prevents any oozing of filling)

8 Responses to “Bacon Brocolli Mushroom Quiche”

audreyt said...

hahahah i saw your link from msn so i decided to click :)
Woahhhh!! ho ho mei and ho pro ahh!!
& its bacon Bacon BACON!! :D

Wendy said...

Re: Audrey
Hahaha thank you for commenting on my (sad little) blog :)

Rosmarina said...

I like your photos.
So do you have to stay at school in the afternoon too?? Aaaaah... Too much school :P I'm happy to finish school forever in july :DDDDD
This quiche sounds interesting... ^_^
(ros)marina

Wendy said...

Re: Marina
Thank you! Yes, we do have to stay at school in the afternoon, school hours are 8:10 to 3:25 here. I'm graduating from high school next year :)

Elissa said...

Wow Wendy, your photographs are really stunning. The second and third photos are my favorite.
I happen to love quiche too and anything with bacon is a winner in my world! :)
(PS Congrats on finishing your IB tests... testing season was brutal this year!)

Wendy said...

Re: Elissa
Thank you! Yes yes, bacon rocks my world too!
Actually, I haven't done my finals yet - mine are next year, I just did internal exams at school, which was quite brutal too...considering the lack of time we had to revise (two weeks of exams with lessons at the same time))

Ruth said...

OMG I'M IN THAT PICTURE HAHHAAH

OMG I'M IN YOUR BLOG (kinda)

OMG I AM SO HONORED. :)

Ernest Moretti said...

Oh that looks so good! it looks delicious. Nice post! Love the picture and the combination in this quiche looks fantastic! My mother-in-law loves broccoli quiche and my mom loves mushrooms and I love bacon in my quiche… I’m so making this recipe for mothers day and mmmmm, bacon! I am very happy to visit your site. thank you for posting and sharing it.

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