Fennel, Shallot and Goats Cheese Quiche

I've just had a request for a quiche recipe for a midsummer's picnic. June and July are a great time for fennel, shallots and green beans. Fingers crossed these nudelicious vegetables are ripe-pickings in the shops in Montreal where my friend's now living.

This quiche is really jam-packed with flavour. It's best complimented by more fresh crunchy vegetables. I recommend chopping a quick green one at least, with lots of sweet tomatoes and a minimum of one spring onion. Better yet, step it up with a Green Bean and Walnut salad (see post).

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees

Pastry Case
See post on 'Oat Pastry' and consider using poppy seeds, in place of sesame seeds (they are a lighter, more fragrant seed). Half the pastry recipe is sufficient for this quantity of filling, but if you want it to be stress-free, make the full batch and use the remaining dough for another recipe.



Fennel and Shallots

Reduce these for 15 minutes:

• 2 heads of fennel (cut into rings)
• 300g shallots (peeled, and quartered)

Then add the following and cook for a further 5 minutes, then set aside:

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Egg mixture

Whisk the following, then set aside:

• 4 eggs
• 250g goats/soya yoghurt (equivalent 1 cup)
• any feathery tops of fennel left over (finely chopped)
• lots of fresh dill (finely chopped, the whole lot)
• lots of fresh thyme (finely chopped, leaves only)

Cut some soft or crumbly goats cheese into small rounds, and set aside. 50g should be plenty for flavour without decreasing the overall healthiness of this quiche.

Assembling and baking your quiche

Alternate the vegetable and egg mixtures, allowing the egg to seep down to the bottom. Top it off with the pieces of goats cheese.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes. It's ready when you can shoogle the pan and it doesn't ripple on top, and when you insert a knife and it doesn't come out eggy. Bon appetit.

Spanakopita (Spinach and Feta Pie)

Admittedly, this is a Northern European version of the amazing Greek dish. It follows the hard and fast rules of including spinach and feta, but otherwise is just my version. I love the original dish and this comes close enough for me.

Spanakopita to me is always best served in filo triangles. Although I tried admirably hard to make them into pasties for my packed lunch tomorrow, the pastry just won't stretch to that function. So if you're using 'oat pastry', consider this an open pie. If you can eat wheat and fancy a real treat (sorry fellow non-wheaters, but I can't not tell them) don't bother with my pastry. Ready-made filo is so easy to roll out and is a wonderful flaky texture. Just be sure to remember it is a treat and not nutritious: filo means not a wholegrain in sight so therefore low GI. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Pastry Case
See 'Oat Pastry' post. You need half the quantity.

Filling
Put all these in a bowl and mix them up:

• 250g spinach (wilted, drained and roughly chopped)
• 250g mushrooms (sliced and lightly sauteed in olive oil until soft)
• 1 shallot or a couple spring onions (chopped finely)
• 100g feta (cubed small)
• fresh parsley (chopped, although coriander is just as tasty)
• fresh dill (chopped)
• 1 egg (whisked)

Assembly and Baking
Pretty much as you'd imagine, you fill the cases. You could add a wee bit of extra feta on top so it looks better presentation-wise, but this may be a detail too far. Tonight I just felt like it.

Bake for 20 minutes and let cool. Serve with salad, salad and more salad.

Against the Grain's choc chip & hazelnut cookies

I found some excellent chocolate chip and hazelnut cookies when on the Bridges the other day. They are made by Against the Grain, and stocked at Mcleish's. They are a bit pricey at £2.89, but oh so good.

Wait until you read the list of things they are free from: wheat, gluten, dairy, eggs, aritifical preservatives/ flavourings/ colourings and added salt. My only ongoing disappointment with most packaged foods is that they do include palm oil. Oh well, you can't win 'em all, kid.

They are delicious, refined and most suitable for an adult palate. It's not that children won't like them, but for the price, they are a treat. They are delicately-flavoured, mildly crunchy biscuits that would be complimented by either tea or coffee. They may just be subtle enough to not drown out a herbal tea, but I have ye to try this combo.

I say these are biscuits rather than cookies. For me, a biscuit has more crunch (rather than moist squidgieness) and is more subtle (less sweet and vanilla-toned). It doesn't matter either way, except if you are expecting one and get the other. These are very tastelicious.

Against the grain make three other types of biscuits which I have yet to try: Almond Cookies, Ginger Crunches and Berry Delicious. I look forward to reviewing these too, all in the name of keeping blog readers informed, of course.

http://www.againstthegrainfoods.com/

Warm Green Bean and Walnut Salad

This is very simple and tastes quite decadent. Another vegetable triumph. Hooray!


Steam 250g of green beans (topped and tailed) for 4 minutes. No need for a special steamer, you can use a sieve over a pan of boiling water- just make sure you have a lid that fits so you lose as little steam as possible.


Whisk together:

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard

Once beans are done, pop them in a bowl and cover with the dressing.

In the meantime, dry roast 50g walnuts in a frying pan until they start giving off a stronger walnutty smell. Give the beans and vinegarette a turn, then put these on top. Cover with clingfilm if you'd like to keep them warm, although they are equally pleasing cold.

Oat Pastry

Although there are plenty of recipes for wheat-free pastry in cook books, many use mostly refined flours and butter or margarine to get the light texture we're used to in shops and restaurants. Although these tastes and feels great, it certainly isn't going to give sustained energy and is not likely to survive a trip as a packed lunch.

This pastry once baked is crunchy and doesn't crumble too much (warning: it is not flaky so don't be disappointed when it's not). It's full of flavour, a bit nutty and functional. It even passes the test of someone who doesn't really like pastry and normally leaves bits on the side. So here goes...

Mix/blast in processor:

• 125g brown rice flour
• 100g maize flour/maize meal
• 100g oats
• 25g ground almonds
• 25g sesame seeds or poppy seeds

Whisk in a separate bowl:

• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 egg
• 6 tbsp water

Gently stir/pulse the wet ingredients into the dry, adding further tbsps of water one by one, until the mixture forms clumps then starts to stick together without being too goopey (I needed a further 4 tbsps).

Roll the pastry out under clingfilm as this helps it stick together, and not stick to you (thank you, Lucinda, for this top tip). Roll out as thinly as you can while still feeling confident you can get it into the tin without it breaking. At last rolling, this quantity of pastry gave me cases for one 9" pan and three individual 3"pans. I've also managed two 9"ers, although this certainly makes you work up a sweat.

Although I'm a fan of cutting corners, make sure you blind bake the pastry (200 degrees, 10 minutes weighed down with a thin layer of uncooked beans/rice on greaseproof paper, and then 15 minutes without). Take it out and let it cool. You now have a good pastry case in which to pop your fillings and make a nudelicious tart or quiche.

Why? This morning I lazily spronged holes in a rising air-bubble as I blind baked the case without it being weighted. The result? The filling seeped out of the case and created a souffle-effect on the outside of one of my tarts. Not particularly attractive and was kind of a weird texture in your mouth. Although still edible, it wasn't worth cutting a 10 minute corner on.

Cornbread

There are many things to love about cornbread. I love the texture. It's more granular and filling than a sponge, and is traditionally is served in a large wedge alongside your main course. It's also a hybrid savoury-sweet. The first time my niece and nephew were given a piece, they couldn't believe their luck that they were being served cake for their dinner. And bottom line, I love the colour: it looks like it's full of sunshine.

The following recipe was once wheat- and cow's dairy- laden. In its original form, I have no doubt that it was sublime as it was the result of a long search from a close friend who had made it her quest to find the perfect cornbread recipe. Kindly she let me have a look and make some alterations.

Cornbread

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease either a round cake tin or a 9" by 5" bread tin.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl:

• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup cornflour
• 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup polenta or cornmeal
• 3/4 cup dried fruit, such as blueberries, cranberries or tart cherries (optional)

In a smaller bowl, whisk the wet ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk (goats or soya)
• 1/3 cup rapeseed oil (often sold as 'vegetable oil' in shops)
• 1/4 cup honey

Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet. Stir until moistened throughout. The mixture will appear a bit lumpy, but that's ok: it's better not to overstir, and the lumps should even out in the baking anyway.

Pop in the oven for approximately 45 minutes. You can test for readiness in a couple of ways. It's done when 1) you pierce it with a knife and it comes out clean and/or 2) when you press in the centre, it springs back up again. If you find it's brown on top but still a bit wet, simply press a sheet of tin foil lightly around the top of the pan. This will keep it moist while stopping it from burning.

The cornbread stays fresh for two days, so enjoy eating it as it is at first. On day 3, rather than eating it in its less than sublime natural form, add some heat: put it in the toaster (turn the toaster on its side at the end to coax it out if you fear it may all apart) then spread on some marmalade. It's nudelicious for two more days.