Mini Quiche Recipe

Quiche is one of our favourite quick and rich bake for dinner. I had never eaten quiche before when I saw Anna Olsen making it on AFC. Needless to say the mere look of it shouts 'eat me'! And the rest is history.

After googling for the easiest possible recipe I managed to recreate my own here as on my old blog post. I have always used my own short cut, that is the ready made prata for the base. And recently as I discovered the magical world of frozen puff pastry, life is not the same anymore.

On the quest to provide bite sized snacks and also something to pack for hubby's breakfast for the next day, I got inspired to make mini quiche using the muffin tray. 

This is before I discovered the proper way of cutting the puff pastry to fit the muffin tray. Therefore I kind of did a shoddy job in cutting the pastry in (ugly) squares and fitting them into the tray.

This is really simple and fast to prepare. Firstly sautee bacon till golden, add chopped onion n mushroom n sautee till done. Set aside. For the custard batter, mix 1.5 cup of milk with two eggs. Add salt n black pepper n mix. Set the pastry squares (or circles if you can make them) on the muffin tin. Put the sauteed filling on the base of the pastry cups. Pour the milk mixture over till 80% of the cup. Sprinkle grated cheese oven n bake at 180C for 20-25mins.

This recipe yields 12 mini bites. However I gotta warn you. They finish fast!

Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Shepherd's pie is one of those casserole dishes that you can make for dinner and it can be pretty balanced meal with those vegetables in it. It is also great for kids, some mashed potatoes, vegetables and some chicken, what else can they ask for?

In my case this also provides a good variety in our weekly menu as hubby is the type who wants to be surprised with different dishes each time. And being a potato and meat lover, this is just perfect for him.

The chicken filling is made with tomato pasta sauce base, and as I have discovered, this tomato base works damn well when cooked with a splash of red wine, or two! The alcohol just evaporates away leaving nice sweet taste to complement the savoury dish!

You need:

2 pieces of chicken breast, cubed, and marinated for tender soft pieces
1 cup of diced vegetables (celery, peas, corn, carrot, tomato)
1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup of tomato pasta sauce
1/4 cup of red wine
1/4 cup of water
some worcesterchire sauce
some spring onion, chopped long
some mixed herbs
4 large potatoes
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp milk
grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes till soft. Mash with 1tbsp butter, milk and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Sautee the onion with the remaining butter. Add in the marinated chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Add in the diced vegetable and stir fry for a few minutes more.
3. Add in red wine, water and tomato sauce. Let it simmer at medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Season with mixed herb, salt and pepper.
4. Once done, set it into the baking dish. Spread spring onion over it.
5. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the chicken layer, and you can use the fork to draw lines for some finishing touch. Bake in the oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes, till the potato layer starts to brown.

You can used minced chicken instead of cubed, but I was just too lazy to use the machine to mince it, hence cubed worked just fine as well! Other meats such as minced lamb or pork would work fine as well. You do not need spring onion if you don't have it. I always go through this phase of obedient ingredient (ala Roger Mooking) and I get into the groove and tend to use it in every dish possible. Spring onion it is right now, and I am loving it!

Its kinda embarrassing but as you can see I have been using my cake baking dish for my pie. The good news is I have bought a new and proper casserole baking dish, so watch out you netizens, I am gonna attack with more casserole dishes soon!

Chicken Pie Recipe

I am not so much into making crust for pie on my own yet. Since I was relying on the frozen puff pastry, I just opted to make a no crust chicken pie, with the puff pastry topping, something like a chicken pot pie.

Initially I set out to make 2 pies, chicken and vegetable separately, each in a 25x15cm baking dish. But the amount of chicken I prepared turned out to be quite a lot. So I mixed some of the vegetables into the chicken pie filling and made both pies with chicken and vegetable filling. You could reduce or increase the amount of vegetables as you like. You could even make it solely with vegetables only.

While preparing the chicken for this pie, I learnt an important tip to cook the chicken cubes as soft as tofu. I had asked around with mummies on the FB group, and finally put it to use, and see its effect with my own eyes, or rather taste buds.

Since I did not have any chicken stock for the pie filling, I cooked the chicken cubes in some amount of water, which will also double up as stock for the filling later.

The recipe makes for one pie in a 25x15cm baking dish:

You Need:

1 piece of chicken breast, cubed
some diced celery
some diced red pepper
cauliflower and broccoli florets
some spring onion cut into long pieces
some diced shiitake mushrooms
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
1 tbsp corn flour
100ml or 1/2 cup milk
100ml or 1/2 cup water
2tsp butter
Some oil
Some worcestershire sauce
Puff pastry rolled out enough to cover the baking dish
Some beaten egg for egg wash
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken cubes in garlic and ginger paste, mixed with some corn flour for 30 to 60mins.

2) Once marination done, sautee the marinated chicken with 1 tsp butter. I used my HCP. Add the water and let it simmer cook for 10-15mins. Strain the chicken cubes from the stock and set both aside.

3)  Using the same or different pan, heat some oil. Add the remaining butter and sautee the onion. As it browns, add in all the vegetables (except spring onion) to sautee. Season with salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce. Add in the stock and let it simmer for about 5 to 10 mins.

4) Add in the cooked chicken and milk. Let it cook at low heat till it thickens. Once done let it cool while you roll the puff pastry.

5) Pour the filling into the baking dish and sprinkle the spring onion. Then cover with the puff pastry, pressing the sides to seal on the rim of the baking dish. Poke some holes on the top of pastry with a fork. Brush with some egg wash.

6) Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-30 mins, or till the pastry turns golden brown.

So my pie topping is a little shoddy, but now I will take note to roll it out a bit larger because as it cooks it shrinks a little bit. You can also crimp the sides using a fork or your fingers for more crunch. I did crimp it too, but apparently not good enough!

As for the chicken cubes, no doubt it turned out awesomely soft to the bite, just like tofu!

Happy trying!

Bacon Quiche Recipe

Its been a week since I posted the quiche pictures that I made, and I have been wanting to post the recipe for it but thanks to my hectic lifestyle and busy schedule (read motherhood), I can hardly get a moment to myself, let alone blogging.

So there it is, the recipe. Before I get into the details of the recipe, let me remind you that I sort of cheated a bit on the pie crust. Since this was my first ever attempt on making a quiche, I did not want to take any chances, and decided to use ready made roti prata with onions as the base. You can most definitely use the plain ones, but the onion type brought and extra aroma and taste into the pie.

Ingredients:

Some bacon, chopped
1-2 onion, chopped
Some shitake mushroom, chopped
1.5 cup of milk
2 eggs
1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated
4 pieces of roti prata
Some butter

Steps:

1. In a non stick pan, fry the chopped bacon without oil. Once done take it out and set aside.

2. In the same pan, fry the onion and mushroon together till aromatic, and set aside.

3. In a bowl, whisk the milk and eggs together.

4. Butter the pie dish. Toast the prata till light brown in a non stick pan with little butter. Leave it light brown as it will further cook in the oven later.

5. Arrange the prata on the pie dish such a way that you have the sides covered as well.

6. Sprinkle the fried ingredients on the prata. Next layer it with the cheddar cheese.

7. Pour the milk and eggs combination over the pie dish. If you want you can add another layer of cheese.

8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-30mins.

You can also replace the bacon with other types of meat, or omit it out altogether.