Crab and Camembert Quiche for Dianne

Dianne has asked me for the crab and camembert tarts so here it is. This receipe is from  the Womens Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook.

The ingredients are for 6 x 10cm  flan tins, but I use the same flour and double the filling, and make it in a scone tray. Then cut it into squares.. It can be eaten hot, or cold

Pastry:
2 cups plain flour, 1/4 teasp. baking powder; pinch salt; 150g (5oz) butter, 1 egg yolk, 1 teasp lemon juice, 1 tablespoon water.

Filling
150G can camembert cheese  ( or 2 of these for scone tray)
150g can crab ( 2 for scone tray)
4 shallots
4 eggs (5 eggs for scone tray)
3/4 cup cream
2 tab sour cream
salt, pepper

Pastry:

Sift dry ingrediens into bowl, rub in butter until mixture resembles dry breadcrumbs.  Mix to a firm dough with lightly beaten egg yolk, lemon juice and water.  I rested the pastry in the fridge for 3/4 hour) Then turn pastry on to li9ghtly floured surface, knead lightly.  Divide into 6 equal portions.  Roll each portion out thinly to fit base and sides of the flan tins, or roll out to fit scone tray.

Filling: slice cheese thinly.  Sprinkle drained crab over base of quiche, top with sliced cheese. Sprinkle the finely chopped shallots over the top of the cheese.

Beat eggs together lightly, combine with cream, sour cream, salt and pepper.   Pour carefully into  small quiches or large quiche.

Bake in moderately hot oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to moderate, cook further 15 to 20 minutes for small quiches, until filling is set, but I cooked it longer in the scone tray until I was sure the pastry was cooked and the filling set.

I have put in brackets the amounts I use if I am making it into a scone tray.  If you are fortunate enough to have fresh crab meat, it would be even better.  I used to be able to get very good canned crab, but all I could buy this time did not seem like real crab to me, but there was a crab flavour.

Sausage Rolls and longer days needed

Sausage Rolls anyone

The more I  get into the computer and trying to learn to use the software,  the less time I seem to have to do everything and my brain is suffering even more...so took time off for some cooking.

Yesterday I made my version of Minestrone Soup....a big  pan of it and now the soup is all in containers and  in the freezer.  We had some  for lunch  and it is yummy...although every time I make it, it tastes different...probably because I make it out of my head and just throw in this and that so it varies a lot.  

Today it was sausage rolls.  DH just loves them.  We have a good  local butcher whose sausage mince is not fatty and because I use lots of fresh herbs, fresh breadcrumbs, eggs, garlic dash of tomato sauce they are sort of healthy....I say sort of because I do use the frozen puff pastry which could be full of naughty stuff (not game to look at the package) but one balances the other.

Because of the herbs (Oregano, basil, thyme, parsely and sometimes rosemary) there is no need to add salt, and there would be plenty in the pastry already.  I have to ration out the sausage rolls  because we would just keep eating and eating.  To make the batch I use 2kg of pork sausage mince (definitely dont buy minced pork) and l packet plus 2 more layers of the pastry.  But this could depend on the amounts you put into the rolls.  Whatever you do dont try to economise by buying the Home Brands of pastry...it is not nice.

If I have any pastry over I thaw out some fruit and make a pie.

Cooking was a nice respite from the computer, although I have dashed in and looked at a couple of things that came to mind while I was waiting for things to ...thaw...cook.  

I did lose/forget a website I wanted to give to someone but eventually remembered it...so not all is lost.  I have sent out an S.O.S. to see if anyone can find my lost brain....just post it on a note on your computer if you do...I will come across it when I am lurking round the Net.

Now where are this weeks Tast stitch directions I printed out this morning?

I

Food Day in the Kitchen

Why did I not get stressed with the computer? I wonder if it could have something to do with the aroma of the soups which were simmering on the stove. I had been very busy while waiting for the downloads..... having brekky, tidying up and preparing the soups. ....Gee I think I am tired after reading all that!

One pot of roast pumpkin soup, and the other of sweet potato and coriander - two of our favourite soups. I had roasted and prepared the pumpkin the night before while cooking dinner. They have turned out nice and thick and quite yummy so guess what we are having for lunch for the next couple of days.

I do think that soup needs to be the type that can be eaten with a fork if necessary....well not really that thick but you get the idea. I don't like thin soups. The aroma of something lovely cooking in the kitchen gives a marvellous feeling to a home.

Can't remember when I last ate tin or packet soup...oh yes I can....that awful artificial stuff at the hospital.

Somewhere among all that I'd had my shower and dressed ready for the shopping. Since by this time the soups were finished, decided that was a good time to get out and do our errands in town, leaving the damn computer to its own devices....

Our butcher, who is in another nearby town in the opposite direction, had phoned late Wednesday afternoon to say our side of yearling was ready to collect on Thursday as well, so after returning home to stash the groceries and have a quick early lunch, off we went again.

We have been dealing with this butcher for six years and have never had a bit of tough steak. His beef is from his own farm and is grass fed and beautiful. It is much cheaper to buy our meat this way, and is so convenient always having meat in the freezer. What with supplementing it with fish and chicken and other meals, the side lasts us almost twelve months. DH always helps me with the packing and stacking which is a big job and very messy to say the least.

By this time the soups were cold, so I blended and packed them as well. Now the freezer is full of good stuff again. With my supplies of Ham and Pea soup already there, I now have enough soups to last through the winter. Although still need to do the beef and vege soup from the stock I will make from the bones that came with the meat.

The freezer in the top of the shed fridge is full as well, so come wind and rain and blizzards, we are prepared for anything and certainly won't go hungry.

sausage rolls and salmon mini quiches

After all the kaffuffel with my computers, I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be making sausage rolls and had thawed 2kg of pork sausage mince ready. So while I was waiting for the puff pastry to thaw I went out to the garden and picked some herbs...thyme, oregano, sage, basil, parsley, washed and chopped it (about 2 handfulls in that amount of mince) and threw it into the mince together with 2 eggs, a dash of tomato sauce, and a very finely chopped red onion.

Mixed it all together, and after they were cooked remembered I had left out the fresh breadcrumbs....not to worry they still taste good. Because I suffer from Menieres I use very little salt since it seems to be a trigger and there is enough salt in the pastry anyway. The herbs give all the flavour you need without being too spicy.

There are twice as many as this. I freeze them and then double bag them in amounts suitable for 2.

As it turned out I had one sheet (already thawed) of the puff pastry and since I hate throwing good stuff out, cut it into squares and put them into the muffin pan holes. Then I opened a med small tin of salmon and mixed the juice, bones all together and spooned it evenly into the pastry topped with chopped spring onion and some broken up slices of cheese. Next I beat one egg with a fork and poured in some cream (about 1/4 cup or a dash more or less (cant get too fat) and baked them in the oven. A really easy and quick lunch for unexpected visitors served with a salad.

They are our yummy lunch today. Know they are yummy because we snuck one for a nibble.