I keep saying that I want to do more savoury dishes on this blog. And it's not like I have not been trying my hand at different stuff. I have and with reasonable success, if I might add. My problem comes with the photography. More often than not, I try something new for dinner and by the time, the dishes are ready, all trace of natural light is gone. With the best of natural light, I struggle with my photography, so you can well imagine that my nascent photography skills are virtually non-existent when it comes to shooting at night.
And because of that, I have lost out on so many interesting and surprisingly easy, savoury posts. Since my photography skills are a long way off, I thought I'd just take the bull by its horn. So, here's the plan. I'll put up the savoury posts, you'll excuse the dodgy photography with even dodgier lighting, with the hope and prayer that somewhere down the line I get the hang of it. Till then, we promise not to judge each other!! Deal!
For all the theatrics, I did manage a few rays of natural light for this post but it didn't seem to help the photographs!! Indulge me, once again!!
So, for today's dinner, we have mushroom quiches and to go along with it, a simple apple and potato salad with a garlic vinaigrette.
The issue with a quiche for a week night is always the pastry. Make it ahead like I did over the weekend and then the quiche hardly takes any time. I roasted the mushrooms before making the filling as that helps release the juices in advance rather than when the quiche is being baked. Else, you will land up with soggy pastry and that's no fun! I have gone with smaller tartlets but you can make it as one big quiche
The salad is made with vegetables that you will almost always find in your kitchen. The garlic vinaigrette is a favourite here at home and if you are fond of garlic, I think you'll approve too!
The pastry, a regular on the blog, was beautifully flaky and the filling was creamy, herby and mushroomy. A lot of my friends do not necessarily like the overtly eggy flavour in quiches. None of that over here. I have used only one egg and been very generous with the filling.
The salad is the perfect accompaniment to these quiches. It is fresh and light and a beautiful counter to the quiche. To be fair to the quiches, they were not heavy and claggy at all but the salad does help freshen up things. The garlic vinaigrette provides the necessary zing that my Indian palate will always appreciate. As summer approaches, the salad would make a delightful meal all by itself.
What's cooking for dinner in your kitchen??
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Mushroom Quiches
Makes 3 x 10-cm tarts or one x 6-inch tart
Ingredients:
For the pastry (You can make the pastry in advance)
- 1/2 + 1/8 cup plain flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut in pieces
- 1/8 cup ice cold water
For the savoury filling
- 200 gms button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2-3 teaspoons mixed herbs chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons grated cheese
- 1 egg
- 100 mls cream
- salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
- For the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in just enough water to bind the mixture. Gather the pastry into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 20-30 minutes. (This can be made much in advance)
- After 30 minutes, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to the pie dish and trim the edge to leave a 1/2 inch overhang.
- Refrigerate the pie shell for another 20 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C.
- After at least 20 minutes, remove the pastry. Prick the case all over the fork. Line with greaseproof paper/foil and fill with baking beans. (I use old rice/beans). Bake for 15 -20minutes. Remove the paper and beans and continue baking, until golden, 8-10 more.
- Remove the pie cases and leave to cool and prepare the mushrooms.
- In a roasting pan, put the button mushrooms and sliced onions. Drizzle with oil and cover the tray with aluminium foil. Roast in the pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- Drain any excess juice from the mushrooms and keep aside the juices.
- Once the mushrooms are removed, lower the oven temp to 170 deg C.
- To the mushroom and onion mixture, add chopped herbs, garlic and grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
- Beat the egg. With a pastry brush, lightly brush the inside of the pastry shell with a tiny amount of the egg mixture. This will seal the pie cases and prevent them from getting soggy when the filling is put.
- Beat the egg with the cream in a separate bowl. If you would like, you can add a teaspoon or two of the mushroom juices. Keep the bowl aside.
- Pour half of the egg-cream mixture equally into the pie shells.
- Spread the mushroom mixture equally among the pie shells. Then pour over the remaining cream/egg mixture.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30minutes, until the mixture is set.
- Remove from the oven and cool before serving.
Recipe source: Tarla Dalal. Serves 2.
Ingredients:
- 1 apple, cored and cut into cubes
- 2 boiled potatoes, cut into cubes
- 1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced and cut into cubes
- 1 head lettuce
- 1 green capsicum, cut into cubes
- 3 tablespoons salad oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (if you don't have white wine vinegar, you can regular white vinegar)
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- Mix all the ingredients in a jar, cover and shake vigorously to blend. Keep aside while you prepare the salad.
- Wash and trim the lettuce. Allow to drain and tear the leaves.
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl.
- Surround the salad with lettuce leaves.
- Chill.
- Just before serving, pour the dressing on top. Toss and serve.
Awesome recipe!!! Loved it!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nandita!! and really simple.. the salad with the garlic vinaigrette is a real winner!
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