Salmon & Broccoli Quiche

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What sort of things do you like to eat at this time of year?

On Saturday the weather  was such that we could get out and get a few jobs done in the garden.  We usually intend to get out there for a couple of hours but once you get started on a job you then tend to find another and before you know it its 2 O'clock already.

Because I know that this inevitably happens every time we plan  'Jobs for the weekend' as Monty Don would say, I try and plan our evening meal before we get started. I do like making a quiche as its so simple to prepare and easy to make, both of which are good in my view. The last thing I want to do after a hard slog in the garden is to stare into the abyss that is our fridge and come up with some culinary delight when in reality all I want to do is get a shower PJ's on and rest my weary bones in front of the tv.  I've shared with you previously my potato pastry as it goes with any type of quiche you care to make.  If you've not tried making the potato pastry before then you can find the details here and its certainly worth a try even if you consider yourself the worst pastry cook known to man as its a lot more forgiving with the starch from the potato and doesn't rip and up to now I've not found that you can over work it like short crust pastry.

As we  were having mashed potato with our meal on Friday evening it meant that I could add in an extra potato and make my pastry and store in the fridge over night so that I could bake the quiche on Saturday.

For the filling I use:

2 cooked fillets of salmon, I steam mine and leave on a plate to go cold
Head of broccoli cut into sprigs and boiled and drained and put to one side.
4oz/115g grated cheddar cheese
300mls double cream
3 eggs


Once the pastry has been put into a loose bottom quiche tin and left to rest in the fridge for at least  30 minutes then you're ready to add the filling.  Remember not to trim the excess pastry at this stage as its likely to drop a bit once you add the filling and will then shrink further when its baked in the oven, this is another life lesson learned over the years.

Preheat the oven to 180 at the same time placing a baking sheet in the oven so that it gets hot at the same time as the oven. This helps to cook the bottom of your pastry as soon as it goes in the oven as there is no pre-cooking.

whilst  your oven is getting  hot remove the pastry from the fridge so that it comes up to room temperature especially if its been in the fridge overnight.

spread the grated cheese evenly around the bottom of the pastry case.

Remove any skin from your fillets and pull the flesh of the fillets into chunks and put in the bottom of the pastry case.

Add the sprigs of broccoli leaving a space between it and the fish for the cream mixture.

In a jug add 300mls of double cream and 3 eggs and mix together.

Pour the cream mixture around and over the salmon and broccoli

At this stage I trim off any excess pastry.  I use my rolling pin as the quiche tin I have has a serrated edge so makes it easier to remove the excess pastry.  Some people prefer to use a knife.

I also like to grate a little  nutmeg over the top of the filling before it goes in the oven but this is optional its not to everyone's taste.

Once the oven is hot I place the quiche onto the hot baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and the mixture is just set.  Once out of the oven I leave it in the quiche tin for 5 minutes before removing from the tin.  Removing from the tin can be no mean feat as many will know if you have ever tried. I discovered this week that if I put my mortar (the bowl to a pestle and mortar I can never remember which is which) on the worktop, because its made of marble it doesn't move, I then place the quiche tin on the top and gently tap the sides of the quiche tin until it comes away from the sides of the quiche and eventually drops leaving the quiche happily sitting on the bottom of the quiche tin.  I'm sure you will all have some sort of kitchen implement that will serve the same purpose and some much more obscure than mine.  I've also used a tin of baked beans,  the top of a kilner jar and even the biscuit tin but having recently discovered the mortar works I will be sticking with this from now on.

The best thing about this quiche is that its just as delicious hot as it is cold.  In fact its the one quiche I prefer served warm with salad and new potatoes and there's usually enough left over that I can take to work for my lunch if we don't finish it off the next day that is.

I think food can be a great icebreaker and facilitator for communication. For the most part we eat  al-desko in the office as so often happens in a busy working environment. But occasionally we pick a day and we will stop and have a proper lunch break, this does not happen very often and so we will push the boat out a little bit  and one of us will bring drinks (non-alcoholic of course), one will bring the main, one will bring salad and one will bring a desert and we sit like civilised people and eat and drink and converse, you would be amazed what you will discover about colleagues. One wanted to learn to crochet and we have now fulfilled that dream. These days have become known as our ladies that lunch days and  we must be due one soon and I'm thinking that this little quiche might just fit the bill as my contribution next time.

Mx