Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Mini quiche


Greetings! Whaddya know? Another post!! I've been home this past week, so there has been a bit more cooking and experimenting going on, and when there's cooking there are blog posts!!

Today, I decided I wanted to make The Boy some mini quiches for him to take to work for lunch or reheat to have as breakfast during the week. He's been having a lot of cereal and I thought I'd break it up for him a bit. Something different for a change.

I saw this recipe for the mini quiches on Facebook (don't we pretty much see everything on Facebook these days?) and decided to save it. Finally pulled it out today to make.

Here's the original recipe

Ingredients:
  • Spring onion as required
  • Chopped tomatoes as required
  • Onion as required
  • Cheese as required
  • Green Capsicum
  • Fresh coriander
  • You can add chicken or other lean meats, spinach, ricotta cheese, bacon, and lots more as per your taste.
  • Eggs x 6 - beaten with 2 tbsp milk, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
  • Preheat oven at 200°C
  • Grease your mini muffin tin
  • Add vegetables of your choice along with cheese (if you choose), pour beaten egg mixture on it.
  • Place muffin pan on the center rack of a preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are light brown, puffy, and the eggs are set.
  • Let muffins cool for a few minutes before removing from the muffin pan or cups. Loosen gently with knife if they seem to be sticking. Eat immediately or let cool completely and store in plastic bag in refrigerator or freezer. The Egg Muffins can be reheated in the microwave.


As you can see the recipe only asks for 6 eggs. That's not a lot of eggs. I was using muffin tins rather than mini muffin tins, so I got 6 mini quiches to a pan and I made 2 pans, 12 mini quiches. My muffin tins are individually quite large and it surprised me but each muffin well took 2 eggs. I started off the batch with only making up 6 eggs and quickly found that 6 eggs got me 3 mini quiches. I ended up using 24 eggs to make 12 mini quiches. I tell you this because you may have to adjust the number of eggs you use depending on the well size of your muffin tins.

Note: if you use mini muffin tins, your mini quiches will come out bite size.

For fillings, I got quite creative and frugal as well, rummaging through my fridge to see what I had. I ended up with quiches that had:

  • Ham bits, tomato & feta (I was trying to use up some feta)
  • Ham bits, tomato & cheddar (I ran out of feta)
  • Mushrooms, green capsicum & feta
  • Mushroom, tomato & feta (I ran out of green capsicum)

You can pretty much put in whatever filling you want.

I also used thickened cream rather than milk. The cream just gives it a slightly richer texture but milk is just fine too.

I gave the muffin tin a good spray of cooking oil before putting the ingredients in. Worked a treat. The mini muffins slipped right out. No muss, no fuss.

I'm delighted with the results. Already The Boy is saying he wants to have them for breakfast tomorrow rather than waiting till next week when he goes to work on Monday. We're heading to a wine and vineyard masterclass for the day and we've been told to bring full stomachs to soak up the alcohol we will be tasting. :-)

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It's super simple.

Let me know if you decide to make this. I'd love to see your results. Post a picture and tag me on Instagram or Twitter. :-)


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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Stovetop pizza


Yes, I admit, it has been a very long time since I've written a food post. Shame on me! The reason? Since December of last year, we have been hopping between the city and The House in the country.

Originally, we were in a service apartment and did a little bit of basic cooking, but it was difficult what with me not being in my own kitchen, with all my own spices, tools and equipment.

Then we moved into a small, basement apartment (it was cheaper!) and this one has NO kitchen. I have a small electric hot plate that I use occasionally for soup and ramen noodles, and that's it. There has been no cooking in that apartment.

We're home for the week and I'm living it up by cooking up a storm.

I found this recipe on how to cook a pizza on the stovetop on Facebook and thought I'd try it. I always love an easy way to make the dough for pizza.


Here's the recipe for the pizza:

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup self raising flour
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 2/3 cup warm water
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon dry yeast
  • Pizza toppings

Instructions:
  • In a large flat based, vertical sides fry pan, mix base ingredients all together and level out in pan
  • Top with toppings - tomato sauce, cheese, etc.
  • Cover with lid or tin foil (if you don't have a lid) for 5 minutes, with vents shut. Cook on medium heat
  • After 5 minutes, open vents or put slits in the tin foil to vent it, cook for another 12 minutes
  • After 12 minutes, take it off the heat
  • Turn grill on high and put pan under the grill for 5 minutes to brown the tops of the cheese (the cheese melts and gets gooey but doesn't brown in the pan)
  • Once the cheese has browned, remove from grill, leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then slice and serve
  • Enjoy

I learned a few things about making this pizza and I thought I'd share it with you:

  • It's as tasty as you want to make it, cos you can pretty much put whatever toppings you like on it.
  • You can put the toppings right to the edge and it cooks without spilling over because of the sides of the pan. Very nice. I like that a lot.
  • The original recipe says 10 minutes vented, I did 12. I think it cooked it better. Also, if you put a lot of cheese (which I did!) it may take longer to melt all the cheese.
  • The original recipe doesn't say anything about putting the pizza under the grill to brown the cheese, that's something I like to do.
  • The pizza tastes more like a deep dish pizza in texture rather than a thin crust pizza but I liked it.
  • The video (see below) recommends you buy their pan, but seriously, the pan is over $200. I made do with my own non stick pan.
  • The video doesn't say, but you want to cook on medium heat.
  • Do not heat the pan prior to mixing ingredients. Do not mix ingredients over heat. Mix ingredients first, then put it on heat.
Will I make this again? Yes, I will. I liked it a lot. I particularly like the idea of making my own dough in a no fuss kind of way.

If you don't want to follow the written recipe above, you can also watch the Facebook video:



Let me know if you decide to make this pizza. I'd love to know how you did. Post a picture and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Twitter to I can see what you made.


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