Onion Quiche

How to make an Onion Quiche

Shortbread pastry dough crust for Quiche

1 1/2 cup self-rising flour
1 stick butter
a little cold water to make it all stick together (approximately 5 tablespoons)

First, resist the urge to go out and buy some instant pie crust dough. Also, the Sainsburys on Stamford Hill doesn't really sell any, and technically this whole baking challenge is about making everything from scratch. So pull yourself together and mix the softened butter and flour together. Roll the unyielding dough with your hands until it becomes a softer dough that you can roll out and flatten on the table. I used a cup to flatten it. Lay the rolled dough over a cake tin with a base which can be easily separated (you'll thank yourself for doing this later) and press it in with your fingers to form a base. Bake at 250 degrees C for about 10 minutes (a blind bake might help the quiche hold its contents better and ensures the crust will be cooked all through). It should just slightly brown and harden so it will hold the wet quiche filling better later. That's what I imagine in my head anyway. Do most people blind bake their pastry shells in advance? I have no idea. Did I mention this was the first time I tried to make a pie/quiche thing? I'm actually surprised it looks pie/quiche-like! Are any of you still reading this stream-of-consciousness-recipe?

Onion Quiche Filling

3 large onions, finely sliced
5 large chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
2 eggs
Half a courgette
Mozzarella Cheese
Half cup of milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Fry onions, mushrooms, peppers, and anything else you have in the fridge until soft and caramelized brown. Allow this to cool slightly before you add it to a big bowl of beaten eggs and milk and cheese. I'm just saying that you probably should let it cool because I am imagining that if you added the fried ingredients in while it was super hot you would scramble the eggs. Anyway. Surprisingly, this made just enough filling to fill my quiche. SHOCK! SURPRISE! This recipe is a combination of coincidence (the ingredients i could get) and also a mashup with an onion tart, which I also wanted to make but didn't. So if you are into the more eggy and cheesy sort of quiches then maybe you would reduce the filling and add more of eggs and milk/cream. Finally before it goes into the oven, scatter more mozzarella over the top and decorate with courgette slices.

Throw in a preheated oven of MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE for 15 minutes, then turn it down to about 200 deg for about 30-45 min. You might want to cover it with tin foil or another baking tray in order to prevent the top from burning too quickly as you let the rest of the gooey quiche bits inside cook. I'm not very sure what the correct cooking time should be but you should be fine if you just check it every ten minutes.