Roasted Vegetable and Crispy Bacon Quiche

“The Quiche, one of the most versatile and easy ways to smash out a tasty treat, and much easier than you think.”

First, make the Short Crust Pastry

I like to think of it as the ¼, 1, 2 ,4 short crust pastry recipe. Makes it easy to remember the quantities…

You’ll need:

• ¼ teaspoon salt,
• 100 grams of butter cut into cubes,
• 200 grams of flour,
• 4 tablespoons of cold water

Put the salt, butter and flour into a mixing bowl. Crumble the butter into the flour until you the flour reaches a consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the cold water, and cut through with a knife to form a dough. Knead for 1 – 2mins until smooth. Don’t work the dough too much or it will be chewy and oily.  Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, roast off the vegetables and the bacon.

• 1 small eggplant
• 2 medium courgettes
• 1 medium sized onion
• fresh herbs
• 4 rashers of bacon

Slice 1 small eggplant, 2 medium courgettes and 1 onion into thin slices. Coat in olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and fresh herbs (I used thyme). Slap them on the grill with the bacon, and cook until the bacon is crispy, and the vegetables are nicely roasted and not too moist. This is important: If you don’t roast off the vegetables properly, you stand the chance of the quiche becoming a bit soggy. Set aside the vegetables and bacon.

Wipe the inside of your quiche dish with butter (not too much – there’s butter in the pastry that will help to make it non-stick. Roll out the short crust pastry and put into the quiche dish. Press the pastry against the sides so that it is about ½ a centimeter thick all round. Don’t worry if the pastry reaches right up the side of the quiche dish – you can cut it off after baking.  Put some baking paper on top of the pastry and fill with baking beans. This will help the pastry to keep it shape, and blind bake at 200 degrees Celcius for 15 minutes, then remove the baking paper and bake for a further 5 minutes until the pastry  just starts to colour.

Now, make the egg custard. Lightly whisk  together 4 eggs and 100 ml of cream. Season with salt and pepper. Break up the bacon and cube the roasted vegetables, add them to the egg custard and pour into the quiche dish. Top off with small blocks of cheddar, feta, a couple of sliced baby tomatoes and a few thyme leaves.

Bake at 180 degrees Ceclius for 15-20 minutes, checking occasionally. The quiche is done when it no longer wobbles.

TO CHECK – simple pick up the quiche dish (using oven mitts) and wobble it. If the egg custard wobbles around – it needs a bit longer.

Thats it!

Enjoy.

“So versatile that once you’ve got the hang of the basic quiche, the world becomes your proverbial oyster.”