Yellow Courgette Turmeric Quiche

With the weather being so poor over the weekend, I found myself in the kitchen making the most of homegrown vegetable.  

I have made a Courgette Blueberry Cake made with the blueberries I picked last week and another Yellow Courgette Quiche. 

This Yellow Courgette Quiche must be the winner as the most yellowist quiche that I have ever made.  It was enhanced further with a teaspoon of turmeric. Pretty loud. 

We have had  the quiche over three days, served either with new potatoes and homegrown beans or just homegrown salad. 

Vegetarian Scotch Egg

I've mentioned before that my darling husband gets excited when I speculate that I may make some vegetarian Scotch eggs. 

Well there are no plans to make some this Easter weekend, I am just taking the opportunity to share some that I made some time last year, but never got round to sharing.

I think the reason I never shared these was because I never got round to taking a photograph of them when they had been deep fried and served.  

Still here they are...ready to get their golden colouring and crisp coating. 

Have a good and restful Easter Weekend.

Other Vegetarian Scotch Egg recipes
Vegetarian Jerk Spiced Scotch Egg (2014)
Beetroot Scotch Egg (2013)
Welsh Glamorgan Eggs (2013)

The Vegetarian Scotch Egg (2009)
Chocolate Scotch Eggs  

Garlic Portobello Mushrooms and Eggs

Another dish that I made this over the festive season - Baked Garlic Portobello Mushrooms with Eggs. 

A fancy brunch of sorts as we had more time to spend in the kitchen

This one is a sharing plate, a bit romantic don't you think ?!  

Of course you can make this in individual dishes.

It was inspired by a recipe for Wild Mushrooms such as chanterelles, and trompettes and Eggs that I saw in Kaukasis by Olio Hercules, I must admit I even mimicked the presentation which was also part of the appeal!

Its essentially garlic and mushrooms, in this case Portobello mushrooms roasted in the oven with olive oil and butter with some eggs baked in the oven for 5 - 10 minutes until set to our liking and finished off with red pepper flakes and parsley.  

Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata bites

I made these Black Chickpea and Sweet Potato frittata Bites over the festive period. 

I had some friends coming over for a few hours, so wanted to make some light bites and nibbles for them which included these Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata, which was sliced into bite size pieces.  Its both sweet and savoury.  You can see the studded black chickpeas and orange sweet potato chunks with a flicker of red here and there from a red pepper.  It was nice to nibble. 

As usual, I made way too much of this Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata bites. I wanted to give some to my guests to take home, but they were on their way somewhere else, so I ended up giving it to D to take into work the following day for his lunch at work.  He very much enjoyed it.  

I would like to add this is perhaps one of the easiest recipes to veganize by substituting the eggs for chickpea flour.  In fact, I may do that one day. 

By the way have you noticed that the food on my blog this week has been mostly burnished brown colours?!  

Burnt Green Cauliflower Quiche

Despite the name, this is not a Burnt Green Cauliflower Quiche. I have only used the word 'burnt' here as a descriptive to draw attention to the golden colouring on top.  

Perhaps I should have called it Autumn Green Cauliflower Quiche instead, as the colours in this quiche are reflective of the autumnal trees around me, but then that would me getting all poetic or pretentious - depending on your view - so I stick with Burnt Green Cauliflower Quiche as some of the cauliflower florets peeking out of the quiche are tinged a little from over baking. 

This Quiche was made with a whole head of Green Cauliflower - If you haven't seen what a green cauliflower looks like, then please click here to see it in the raw.   

The photograph of the Quiche was taken a day after it was made, so the glossy topping had muted overnight in the fridge.  Still as anyone who knows, Quiche is good to eat hot, warm or cold. 

I am sharing a slice of Burnt Green Cauliflower Quiche with The VegHog who is hosting #EatYourGreens this month.  There is plenty of time to join in, so please do.   

Green Cauliflower Quiche  
Serves 8 as an accompaniment 
Adapted and based on this recipe.
Ingredients
Blind baked shortcrust pastry lining a 8 - 9 inch fluted tin
1 medium cauliflower (green, purple or ordinary), broken into florets 

250ml milk or double cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoons grainy mustard
100g cheddar cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper to taste

Method 

For the cauliflower: steam until tender but still with a bit of bite, then drain and allow to cool.

In a bowl, pour the double cream, then whisk in the eggs, mustard and season to taste. 
Set aside
Carefully and evenly spread on the shortcrust pastry.
place the steamed cauliflower over the blind baked shortcrust pastry.
Pour over the creamy egg mustard mixture.
Then evenly scatter over the grated cheese.
Bake gas mark 4/180oc for 40 - 45 minutes or until golden. 
Allow to cool, before serving. 

Savoury Cherry Tomato Clafoutis with Coriander and Cumin

The red food phase continues.

Today I share with you a Savoury Cherry Tomato Clafoutis - I made this on Sunday after teasing D all summer that it would be the first dish I would make with his homegrown tomatoes, it wasn't though.

Traditional clafoutis is a sweet batter dessert made with black cherries, this savoury version is adapted from a cookbook and I have had it bookmarked for a long long time.  The original recipe uses basil, but of course I had to inject my own into it with spices and stronger herbs.

I made two versions, one basil (above) and the other coriander, chili and cumin  - you can see from the difference between the two if you look closer. 

Don't they look fancy in the gratin dishes?!.  I got the gratin dishes for the vegetarian café and sadly don't get used much these days as they are tucked away in boxes, so it was nice to bring them out and make the dish a bit more fancy.

The clafouti had puffed up wonderfully like a soufflé, but then fell back down whilst D was taking these photographs (see the golden sides).  It is one of the most delicious dishes I have had for a long while.

Tondo di Piacenza Zucchini Potato Frittata

This Zucchini Frittata is made with  Courgette Tondo di Piacenza - a round  globe variety from the garden plot.

You can see some  harvested Courgette Tondo di Piacenza  in the photograph below.  I used my mandolin to slice them thinly, so the finished Zucchini Frittata looked a little more impressive and pleasing to the eyes before it was sliced into triangles and shared. 

This may look like an ordinary Zucchini Frittata but it is very flavoursome, as it has been magically transformed by a generous sprinkling of Outback Spirit Tasmanian Pepper Salt that I got sent by fellow blogger Johanna who lives in Australian.  The Outback Spirit Tasmanian Peppercorn Salt really enhanced the Zucchini frittata slice making it super tasty. 

Australian style Savoury Zucchini Slice

The joy of food blogging is you will find some like minded people who share recipes that truly inspire you that you really want to recreate at home.  It is one of the reasons I continue to blog.

This Australian Zucchini Slice recipe comes from Johanna who blogs over at Green Gourmet Giraffe.  Apparently it is one of the most popular recipes in Australia and may have been brought to Australia in the 1950s by an Italian migrant. Whatever its background, Zucchini Slice also happens to be one of Johanna's childhood favourites and its a recipe that I have had bookmarked since 2012 to make.  

Johanna actually has two Australian Zucchini Slice recipe, a vegetarian version made with facon bacon and a vegan version made with chickpea flour and tofu bacon. I did not have any facon bacon either home made or shop bought, though I could have made some over the weekend, but was impatient and the courgette harvest pile from the garden was mounting higher and higher each day. Plus what to make for dinner.

So instead I tried to mimic the smoky facon 'bacon' flavours with liquid smoke and smoked paprika, but the balance was not quite right as these additional flavours did not come through strong, still it made for a tasty side - very tasty in fact as D said it was delicious. Its savoury, light from the courgettes and rich in flavour from the cheese. 

One of my favourite vegetarian food writers Celia Brooks in her World Vegetarian Classics section of Australasia also shares a recipe for Zucchini Slice and writes' its a classic from  Australian Women's Weekly, an institution of great home cooking championed by generations of housewives'. 

Five Egg Cups

We don't celebrate Easter in our home, no reason - we just don't.  We rarely purchase or eat chocolate shaped eggs, other than those that are shared in the workplace.  But we do occasionally eat free range eggs.  

This Friday I thought I would share some egg cups in my home.  Now before I do, I must say, neither of us really do dippy eggs, but I do like kitchenalia and many of these egg cups were picked up mostly for aesthetic reasons, than for functional reasons. 

First up, these farm animals shaped egg cups - hen, sheep and pig.  I did also have a cow, but it's head fell off and there was a crack in the cup itself so it was lobbed.

Next I picked up these old fashioned egg cup holders from a charity shop with my mother in law a couple of years back when I moved back to Wales.  They weren't in great condition when I brought them home, and they are sadly deteriorating, but I do like them.

Supernatural Green Quiche with Spirulina Shortcrust

Nothing supernatural about this quiche, its really just a Broccoli Quiche on a green pastry base. 

The shortcrust pasty is naturally dyed green with the addition of spirulina powder to the dough; and the eggy filling.  Well I steamed some broccoli and blitzed half of it with the milk, then poured it into a bowl and whisked it with the eggs and poured it over the pastry case that had been lined with the remaining broccoli heads and doused with some Welsh cheddar cheese. 

At one point during the cooking process, I actually panicked and thought the quiche was not going to set but fortunately it did.  This Broccoli quiche was packed with lots of flavours.  Even the spirulina powder in the shortcrust pastry imparted its sea earth flavours.  Its just a shame the photograph here doesn't pick up the green in pastry, though I must admit it is a little scorched here and there.  Here's a song by the Jamaican Reggae Band The Dread & Terrible called 'Spirulina'. 

I am sharing this recipe with 'Eat Your Greens' which I am hosting this month and my new Co-Host The Veg Hog;  and Cook Once Eat Twice hosted by Searching for Spice.

My Big Fat Persian Kuku

Happy Valentines dear readers.  

I've made Persian Kuku many times before, for those of you unfamiliar with it - click on this link to learn more.   Kuku's are a Persian omelette and what I present to you is not exactly one - though it did start of originally as a Kuku .  I should have made it in a wide frying pan, but I wanted to get all fancy for Valentines day and made it in a silicone heart shaped mould.  

This Persian Kuku puffed up like a aerated blow up bed, then settled down quite calmly.  Once it was unmoulded, the top was a blanket of beetroot red.  

It looked fabulous and sliced wonderfully.  I have to say it tasted pretty marvellous too.  D loved it as it contained two of his favourite vegetables - beetroot and cauliflower.  I'd almost describe it as a cross between Spanish Tortilla and Frittata, but its neither - so I call it a big fat Persian Kuku.  or affectionately Chubby Kuku.

Oven Baked Za'atar Tomato and Potato Frittata

Long day at work, so I will share something else that was made in the oven the weekend - Za'atar Tomato and Potato Frittata or Tortilla.   

Sliced, this Frittata is good for a picnic, BBQ or buffet food.

This one is made with potatoes, juicy plum tomatoes and then binded with eggs, doused generously with za'atar and then baked in the oven until set.  Its good either at room temperature or cold. We had some left over and took it into work for lunch. 

Beetroot Leaf Kookoo Kuku

I was first introduced to Kuku (pronounced KooKoo) by the lovely Celia Brooks in one of her vegetarian cookbooks.  KuKu is a type of Persian omelette traditionally made with soft herbs, walnuts and barberries with the addition of baking powder as a raising agent.  I don't like omelette's, never have something about the wobbly texture just doesn't agree with me.  But I do like frittatas and Spanish style tortillas; and Kuku is similar in that it is set and can be sliced into delicious slithers.

I don't have masses of fresh soft herbs in my garden at the moment, so used some fresh beetroot leaves.  Some of you will remember my Savoury Beetroot Loaf wrapped in Beetroot Leaves and beetroot leaf Pakoras aka Beetroot Bhaji's , but this time I wanted to do something else with them and was reminded of Kuku. 

The bloke at the Fruit Machine, a cool name for a grocery van in the High Street where I work, said the beetroot had only been harvested early that morning.  As a vegetable grower, I totally believe him, you could see the freshness of the leafy greens and the perky red lace stems.  

You can eat this whatever time of day you wish, but we had it for lunch when we went to Weston Super Mare at the weekend with a couple of  over-excited nephews.  I served slices of this Kuku in a pitta pocket.  I handed one over to my youngest of nephew, his response when I asked 'do you like it? ' (by the way, this is the same nephew who tried the vegan Cocoa cookies and declared it 'to cocoa!) .He wrinkled his little nose and said, so not to upset or offend me, 'it's okay'.  I smiled at him.  Beetroot Leaf is not to some grown up adult tastes, forget about teens.  He preferred the pasta salad. We though, liked the Beetroot Leaf Kuku and would certainly have it again. 

Homegrown Zucchini and Cherry Tomato Quiche

Not the most original recipe, but I am delighted with these individual Courgette aka Zucchini and Cherry Tomato Quiches as they made my first lot of homegrown tomatoes in years. 

We did enjoy some of the cherry tomatoes au naturale and popped them into our mouths - bursting with full flavour and so sweet and juicy.

Some of you will know that I harvested my first courgette last week; and two more stripey green specimens this weekend.  Expect a number of courgette recipes the next two months, but I kick off with these little Quiches that would also be perfect for a picnic basket.

Tamale for Breakfast with Eggs Over Easy

I make Mexican Style Tamale Pies every other month and it is perhaps my favourite weekend brunch or morning breakfast.  I often describe it as a Mexican Shepherds Pie, the bottom is made from soy mince, borlotti or pinto beans and mixed peppers and spices, and in place of the mashed potato, we have polenta.  It is utterly delicious and comforting.

I usually eat this Polenta Pie on its own with sometimes a dollop of Sriracha sauce, but then there are weekends when I want a little bit extra on my plate, I will serve it with a fried free range egg - done over easy, where the rich yolk serves as the sauce.  By the way the above breakfast plate belongs to D, I can only eat one Tamale - not D he has a much bigger appetite than me.

I am sharing these Tamale Pies with Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simply Eggcellent: Breakfast  Challenge: How Do you Like Your Eggs in The Morning.

Individual Mint Flecked Green Quiches

I made this so called Mint Flecked Green Quiche a couple of weeks back when D was bringing home asparagus bundles.  I had a few ideas as to what to do with the asparagus, but D requested quiche, as its not something I make that often.  

Well with it being Summer and all that, how can I refuse a dish that can be portable too, especially when you make them in individual pastry cases. 

D complimented that he could really taste the asparagus.  The peas were dotted here and there like green marbles and the mint, minced to its dear life - flecking the golden cheesy creamy topping. I personally found the Quiche incredibly rich and actually struggled to eat a whole one, even though it was served with a side of salad.

You could make this with any other green vegetable, but as asparagus and mint are in season, I chose to go with the flow. 

Green Harissa Poached Eggs with Aubergines

After the success with the Turmeric Butter Beans dish, I decided to make another egg dish, this time with my home-made green harissa.  

Oh yum, yum.  It was lush I tell you lush. 

I actually made this dish at the weekend for brunch, it seems more fitting somehow.  The aubergine is optional.  It adds a 'meaty' texture, but is not essential.  You can also add whatever bean you wish, I love chickpeas, but this time added some brown lentils to the dish. 

 

Laverbread, Samphire and Seaweed Flakes Also Known as 'Sea Vegetable' Quiche with Perl Las

One of the prettiest Quiches I have ever made.  Strewn with samphire spears, sprinkled with sea flakes and hidden under the pillowy creamy cheese softness, you will find a thin layer of Welsh laverbread on the still crisp pastry crust. 

When I went to Swansea Vegfest we also went to Swansea Market. Swansea Market is absolutely thriving.  There is a positive vibe and buzz in the air with the jostling and bustling  - not an empty stall in sight.  I brought back home some samphire known fondly as asparagus of the sea and some fresh laverbread (known in Wales as Welshman's Caviar); and some Perl Las cheese.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make with these ingredients as a recipe for 'Sea Vegetable' Quiche has been in the planning.  

At home I  also had some  Atlantic Kelp Organic Seaweed Flakes (see below), but I had to wait for the samphire and laverbread that are not so easy to come by, even though I live in the Welsh valleys, but travel a little closer to the coastline then you have may just be able to acquire some. And the decision to add Perl Las to the quiche was well rather poetic as Perl Las translates as Blue Pearl.  Perfect and a bit corny at the same time. 

The Sea Vegetable Quiche was absolutely lovely.  It tasted of the sea, you know that taste on your lips when you have been at the beach....but I have to add it is a bit of an acquired taste.  I think most people will not mind the salty samphire and the seaweed flakes, but the laverbread - well that is where it comes to personal taste.  I don't love laverbread, but I don't mind it now and again.  I have one little regret and that is not showing you a cut slice of this gorgeous quiche, as it was very pretty inside - flecked. 

Baby Sweetcorn, Peas and Mint Quiche

It is with some amusement I note that my past few blog posts have been rather yellow, and to add to that I have another rather yellow - bronze tinged Quiche to share.  The difference with these are that they are smaller, individual ones.  I think sometimes they just look just nicer on a plate.

I am not a fan of baby sweetcorn or cornlettes.  To me they resemble a plastic pretend decorative vegetable, only good to garnish a salad plate or such.  Frankly, I find them quite tasteless, but I will put my hand up and admit that I do sometimes add it to Thai Red Curry, and only because D doesn't mind them. I actually prefer the baby sweetcorns bigger sister: sweetcorn on the cob,  Sweetcorn with more crunch and sweetcorn with more juice and sweetcorn with more flavour. 

I had originally planned to make a Spring Green Vegetable Quiche, but then when I walked past a packet of baby sweetcorn, my mind was changed.  So what changed my mind? Another colour was required on the plate.  Once made, the sweetcorn retained its crunch and there was slight sweetness from the peas and a hint of mint. I am sharing this recipe with Lavender and Lovage for Cooking with Herbs  challenge.

Wye Valley Asparagus, Broad Beans and Mint Quiche

Lighter and brighter evenings call for light and easy to eat food.  

Over the next few days, various quiches, tarts and salads will be appearing on our plate. One of the first is this Wye Valley Asparagus, Caerphilly Broad Beans and homegrown mint. 

D is totally enjoying these leggy green spears whilst they are in season and taking advantage of when he sees it on offer, bringing some home by the bundle for me to work my culinary magic on and bring to the table.  But truth is there is not an awful lot you can do to asparagus.  I mean I don't want to mess with it too much, turning it into a soup or an asparagus hummus. 

Because of the asparagus short season, I really do think the best way to enjoy it is to simply blanch it and tuck in: dipping it into soft boiled eggs; stirred into a pasta dish or as a simple tart topping, maybe even in a risotto.  

Back to this home-made Asparagus, Broad Beans and Mint Quiche.  All the flavours were there.  The green grassy flavour of the asparagus, the burst of the fresh broad beans still in its skin and the mint was just right, not overpowering at all. The oozy eggy creamy cheesy filling was just right too, it had a little wobble which I liked; and more to my surprise this aspect remained - even on reheating.