A buttery pastry base, silky egg custard and sharp seasoning will take your quiche from amateur to high-tea status.

Getting a high-tea quiche right comes down to three things: a buttery pastry base, a silky egg custard and sharp seasoning. We build it from the base up and finish it off with three fabulous flavour combos.  

All about the base 

You have a choice: go for a Cheddar pastry if you’re big on flavour, or the rough puff pastry if you’re after supreme texture. Pick one and follow the recipe to make the perfect quiche base.  

Ingredients 

For the cheddar pastry

200g flour 
200g cold butter, grated 
100g Cheddar, grated
Salt 

For the rough puff pastry

250g flour 
½ tsp salt 
250g cold butter, cubed 
1 cup ice water 

Method

1. If you’re making the Cheddar pastry, place ingredients into a bowl and work together using your fingertips until a dough forms, about 5 minutes. 
2. If you’re making the rough puff pastry, add ingredients to a bowl and work together with your fingertips. Add a little water at a time until it comes together. (Don’t work the dough too much, though: you still want there to be small pieces of butter throughout).
3. Roll pastry out into a disc, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. 
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease your tart tin. 
5. Roll out chilled pastry to a disc that’s a few centimetres larger than your tin. 
6. Gently place over tin and work into the base and sides, allowing the excess dough to hang over edges. Refrigerate for another 15 minutes. 
7. Prick base with a fork and use a serrated knife to remove excess dough. 
8. Cover base with a piece of baking paper and weigh down with dried beans or rice. This is called ‘blind baking’.
9. Blind bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden and cooked. Remove paper and beans.

 Also read: Chicken, corn and chive mini quiches

Quiche combos 

Now that you’ve se led on the best base (tough choice, we know!), it’s time to fill it with some fresh ingredients wrapped in a silky, eggy custard. If you went with the Cheddar pastry, try the quiche Lorraine. For the rough puff, go to the mushroom, spinach and feta quiche. If store-bought was the best choice for you, then you’ll really be smiling: you get to make fig and Brie tartlets. 

For the quiche lorraine

1. Bake a portion of Cheddar pastry in a 25cm round fluted tart tin. 
2. Toss together ½ packet (100g) cooked and chopped streaky bacon with ½ thinly sliced onion, 100g grated Gruyère or Cheddar and a pinch of ground nutmeg. 
3. Add ingredients to your cooled pastry case. 
4. For the egg custard, combine 1 ½ cups cream, 3 well-beaten eggs, salt and milled black pepper. Pour into pastry base until just touching the rim. 
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 180°C until the middle of the quiche wobbles slightly. 
6. Cool for 15 minutes then slice and serve scattered with sliced spring onion and fresh rocket.

For the mushroom, spinach and feta quiche

1. Bake one portion of rough puff pastry in a 21x21cm square fluted tart tin.
2. Toss together ½ punnet (125g) sliced white mushrooms, 1 cup trimmed and chopped Swiss chard, 3 sliced spring onions and 2 discs crumbled feta.
3. Add to your cooled pasty case. 
4. For the egg custard, combine 1 ½ cups cream, 3 well-beaten eggs, salt and milled black pepper. Pour into pastry base until rim. 
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 180°C until the middle of the quiche wobbles slightly. 
6. Cool for 15 minutes, slice into squares and serve.

For the sweet & salty fig and brie tartlets

1. Unfold 1 roll (500g) store-bought phyllo pastry and cut into quarters to form squares. 
2. Brush four squares of pastry with melted butter, place on top of one another and fi t into an 8cm round tartlet tin. Repeat with 7 more tins to make 8 tartlets in total. You can also use a muffin tin. 
3. Blind bake pastry for 10 minutes and then allow to cool. 
4. For the egg custard, combine 1 ½ cups cream, 3 well-beaten eggs, salt and milled black pepper. Fill each tart ¾ to the top.
5. Slice 6 preserved figs and 125g Brie. Divide between tartlets. 
6. Season and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C until set. 
7. Serve drizzled with honey and scattered with fresh rocket. 

Words: Sjaan van der Ploeg

Photography: Zhann Solomons

The post Getting a high-tea quiche right appeared first on MyKitchen.

Just as the festive budget pinch subsided, the Valentine’s gifts and offerings had their turn in making a dent in your wallet. Don’t let that hold you back from still enjoying the last bits of summer with friends and loved ones, and consider one of these affordable, fun options for your next gathering.

By Jana du Plessis

Take a hike (or a picnic)
Eating out doesn’t have to be associated with fancy restaurants and chef-prepared meals. There’s a charm and scrumptious taste to home-made meals and snacks. Pack a backpack with tasty sarmies, fruit and some chocolate trail mix for sustenance along a beach walk or mountain trail. Invite the family, bring the dogs (do check route and trail websites if pets are welcome) and make a day of it!

Bring and share
You know the saying ‘divide and conquer’? It works just as well when having friends over. Choose a DIY-friendly dish like hot dogs, burgers or pizza and ask each attendee to bring their favourite topping and drink. With you only having to provide the meat, rolls and hospitality of your home, it saves money both ways.

Host a high tea
Preparing a full meal for a bunch of people does not only take time and effort, it can quickly climb a costly ladder. If you’re feeling like company, but not the hefty price tag that comes along with having friends over for dinner, decide on a lighter offering instead. Put together a mini high tea with small sandwiches and a cupcake or two to munch on. Alternatively, mix a big bowl of punch and serve chips, pretzels and dip alongside it. Just take careful note of the eats you choose – snack-like things like cheese, preserves and biltong can be pretty pricey, so stick to cheaper options in the chip aisle.

The post Let me entertain you! appeared first on MyKitchen.

The One & Only’s themed high tea reminded me of the importance of one of the most basic kitchen staples.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Table Mountain basking in the glorious Cape Town sun, framed perfectly by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the One & Only’s Vista’s Lounge. It’s quite a sight you’re faced with as you drop down into the plush lounge and settle into one of the tub chairs. 

It wasn’t what I was looking at, though. 

I had my eyes on the high tea buffet table, the five-metre long table covered in varying heights of sweet and savoury delights. I needed to take a closer look, but from the smell, I could tell that the theme for this tea, Spice Route, was going to be a roaring success.  

The selection was pretty, well, spicy, with beautiful spices like cardamom, cinnamon, star anise and cloves incorporated into classic teatime treats, like baked cheesecake, milktart cupcakes, macarons, koeksisters, koesisters, chicken phyllo rolls and empanadas. The addition of one or two spices may seem like a simple act, but what it did to the flavours of a marshmallow (my favourite on the table; I may have gone back for 7) or macaron were anything but simple.

It got me thinking about how we could all be overlooking this simple, easy and affordable way of elevating our food everyday. Every. Day. So here’s my tired-and-tested list of a few things you should most definitely be adding some spice to…   

1. Best sides ready to steal the show

Plain rice? No man! Bland couscous? Never again! Jazz up a side dish easily by adding a few cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick and a clove or two to the pot of water when making your rice, quinoa or couscous.

2. Spinach even your kids will love

Spinach can be amazing, people! Sauté onion until tender, sprinkle with nutmeg, then drop in a few large handfuls of baby spinach leaves. Stir until wilted. (If you’re not shy of cream, stir through some at this point.)

3. The one ingredient lasagne and cannelloni can’t go without

A béchamel sauce (the white sauce made for a lasagne or cannelloni) needs nutmeg. It’s something my mother would do, and it’s something that has become a non-negotiable for me. It’s kind of like salt: it brings all the flavours of your dish together, in your mouth. 

4. Delicious cabbage (it’s possible!)

Cabbage is so affordable, easy to cook, low in calories and high in vitamin K, vitamin C and dietary fibre. BUT, it’s not always something we want to eat, is it? Well, try tossing some toasted cumin seeds through your wilted cabbage. Just try it.    

5. Cheeky chickpeas

Fry a chopped onion in oil, add a teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and cardamom, and stir for two minutes. Add a tin of drained and rinsed chickpeas and a tin of diced tomatoes. Simmer until chickpeas are tender. Boom. Dinner. 

6. Keep it clean

Spices can go off! They lose their pungency, so then you may as be adding some pretty bright-red, flavourless powder to your meals. Keep your spice rack organised. Here’s how.

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