Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Goats Cheese Tart

The chicks have gone back to school and the house seems very quiet without them. However it was nice to get our dining table back!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables and whenever it's in season I make a concerted effort to eat as much as possible. After seeing David at Book The Cook's Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sheep's Cheese Tart I decided to have a go at making my own version using some of the leftover goat's cheese from the Mother's Day Feast.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Goats Cheese Tart
Serves 4

9-inch baked shortcrust pastry base (do a Delia and cheat with a ready-made one or make your own)
3 eggs
200ml milk
50g goats cheese, broken into small chunks.
handful of small purple sprouting broccoli florets
a couple of twists of black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Whisk together eggs, milk and pepper.

2) Sprinkle broccoli florets and goats cheese over the base then pour egg mix over. Bake for 30-40 until golden. Allow to cool for 10 min before eating.

Bacon & Mushroom Quiche

Continuing our theme of not-so-healthy dinners, I made a bacon & mushroom quiche for tea tonight. I admit I cheated slightly with the pastry. I can make really short pastry which is great for mince pies, but not so good with quiche so I picked up some ready made pastry in the shops. I've never really "baked blind" before and I forgot that pastry does sometimes shrink, but I managed to fit nearly all of the egg mix in. However I forgot that our oven is on a slight slant and the egg mix tipped out of the back of the pie and into the oven. Oh well!

Bacon and mushroom quiche
serves 4

pre-cooked pastry base
3 rashers of bacon, cut into pieces
5 mushrooms
3 eggs
100ml double cream
100ml milk
handful of grated mature cheddar
seasoning

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Fry bacon and mushrooms until cooked. Sprinkle pastry base with cheese then bacon & mushroom

2) Whisk eggs, milk and cream together then season. Pour egg mix in base. Cook on a baking tray in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Asparagus & Ricotta Tart

As part of Handbags recipe challenge I made a delicious Asparagus & Ricotta tart that was far nicer than I was expecting!

Asparagus & Ricotta Tart

1 ready-made pastry base (You can make your own, but I'm crap at pastry)
200ml whole milk
4 spears of asparagus
70g ricotta
2 eggs
mint

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Beat together eggs and milk. Season with salt & pepper.

2) Pour egg mix into tart base. Arrange spears of asparagus in tart. Dollop over teaspoons of ricotta and sprinkle with mint.

3) bake for 25-30 min until set and slightly golden. Leave to cool for at least 10 min before serving.

Watercress, Feta & Pesto Quiche

Every couple of weeks I get a craving for quiche. Tonight I decided to use up the feta & eggs in the fridge so made a watercress, feta & pesto quiche, crushed new potatoes with (local) asparagus. I've never had watercress before, but really liked it. With a quiche you can essentially use any "filling" ingredients you want. When we're feeling unhealthy I make it with mushrooms, cheese, bacon and single cream or tomato sauce and sausages.

Watercress, feta & pesto quiche

1 plain pastry base (I'm rubbish at pastry and buy a ready made base)

3 eggs

100ml milk

1 bag of watercress, wilted

2 tsp of pesto

big handful of feta cubes

salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 160oc. Spread pesto on base, then sprinkle on feta. Wilt watercress in a pan, cool and squeeze out excess water then spread this over the feta.

2. Whisk egg, milk plus seasoning and pour into base. Don't overfill, I learnt this the hard way once when I opened the oven to find burnt quiche mix all over the bottom of the oven.

3. Bake for 30-40 till golden. Let it cool for 10 min before serving.

Crushed new potatoes

New potatoes

olive oil

seasoning

mint

1. Boil potatoes for around 10 minutes. Drain and spread out on a baking tray, lightly crush with fork/masher. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on seasoning. Bake for about 25 min.