It’s almost summer time again. The time of year where you never feel
like cooked food, and you definitely don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen when you could be enjoying the sun. This is why I think quiche is
the perfect summer dish. Its light and you can serve it hot or cold. You can
keep it in the fridge and just add salad to complete the meal.
Quiche is versatile, you can add almost any combination and it will
still taste divine! My favourite combo’s are spinach and feta, and butternut
and chicken.
Today I want to share my Butternut and chicken recipe.
You’ll need to start with the crust. They say woman are better pastry
chefs, because their hands are colder :).
Cold is indeed the trick to a light and flaky pastry. Try to have all your
ingredients as cold as possible.
Butternut and Chicken Quiche
Pastry - You will need:
220g Cake Flour
Pinch of salt
180g Room temperature Butter
1 egg yolk
Cold water
Sift flour and salt, and the butter. Gently rub the butter unto the
flour using your fingertips, don’t overwork it.
Add the egg yolk and just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Shape
into a ball and wrap your pastry in cling wrap and leave in the fridge to chill
for at least half an hour.
Again the key is not to over work the pastry, and to keep it chilled.
Now is the time you can start
cooking the butternut and chicken for the filling.
Take the pastry out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured
surface.
Lightly flour the pastry and gently start to roll the pastry out.
It should be about 5mm thick, and big enough to fit a 24cm pie dish.
Place it in a dish, prick it with a fork and bake blind, (this means
put some wax paper over your pastry and fill the dish with some beans or rice,
it will help to keep the pastry’s shape) for 10 minutes in a 200 degrees
Celsius oven.
Uncover the pastry and bake for another 7 minutes.
Your pastry is now ready to be filled with yummy ingredients.
Filling - You will need:
200g of cooked butternut,
2 Cooked chicken breasts flaked,
Some mushrooms thinly sliced,
1 fried onion,
Some chives, salt and pepper,
3 eggs + the left over egg white used in the pastry,
400ml of low fat Milk
Start by placing the fried onion all over the bottom of the pastry. Now
layer the butternut, chives and chicken. Make sure that there’s an even spread
of ingredients.
Now mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour this mixture
over the filling ingredients.
Now bake the quiche in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 30min or until
golden brown.
The quiche will need to cool slightly; this will just help it set
better.
There you have it, a basic quiche recipe. You can now make your own
combination by replacing the butternut and chicken with your own ingredients,
add more spices, try different things. You can even replace some of the milk
with cream for a richer quiche.
Have fun!
