Bacon Peas Mushroom Quiche

For Easter lunch last Sunday, I decided to make a quiche.This was, believe it or not, my first time baking a savoury tart. I have, in the past, made quite a few frangipane tarts and what else. This was certainly in my to-do list. I'm glad I chose to make it on this particular feast day because we all enjoyed ourselves.

For my filling, I went for bacon, peas and mushrooms. I made my shortcrust pastry from scratched the night before. I believe what makes a good tart is most importantly the pastry- I want a nice light, crumbly and melt-in-the-mouth texture. For this I always follow the rules of thumb- 1 part butter, 2 parts flour and a couple drops of ice-cold water. This time I also added an egg yolk, since I had in on hand. I firstly blind-baked my tart shell. I then cooked my filling and prepared my egg-cream custard (3 eggs and 200 ml cream). Once the pastry is baked, I laid my cooled filling and poured the cream mix over. To finish off my tart, I grated some cheddar cheese and put it in the oven until I have a nice golden brown surface. This was definitely tasty and suited for a perfect lunch. You should, of course, pair the tart slice with some greens or salad, to balance it all out. 

Happy Weekend. It's been sunny so far- great weather!

Creamy pasta with brocoli and onion rings

It is winter and sometimes you feel like eating something warm and crispy. This is when the idea of making some deep-fried onion rings popped in my mind. This is easier to cook than I thought. I love the crunchy texture and the soft cooked onion in the middle. This is to definitely try.

ONION RINGS RECIPE

Ingredients:
1 large onion, sliced about 1cm thick

For the batter-
1/2  cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1tsp dried parsley
1tsp garlic powder
1tsp paprika
1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or panko)

Vegetable oil, for frying

Method:
1. Separate the onion rings from the sliced onions and dust with cornstarch. Make sure all the rings are well coated.
2. Prepare the batter by mixing all the batter ingredients. Whisk until there is no lumps.
3.As in a production line, place each onion rings in the wet batter, drain excess batter and then mix in with the breadcrumbs.
4. Heat oil, and make sure it is hot before frying the onions in batches for about 3 minutes or until golden and crispy.

 

These accompanied my bacon and mushroom pasta, and broccoli.

 

 

 

To finish off this indulgent dinner, we have, of course, some fruits - oranges, apples and kiwis.

Homemade pizza

Homemade pizza. Yes I finally made my own pizza and by this I essentially mean making the dough (which is super easy I might add). My fillings include capsicum, button mushrooms, bacon, sundried tomatoes and obviously cheese. The base was slightly crunchy the way it's meant to be and all the ingredients matched perfectly together. Making your own pizza at home is really worth it, not only you control your toppings but you can make it healthier. Use fresh ingredients and season to your liking.

 

Pizza night

...or rather pizza time. More pictures of pizzas home made and take-away.
One advice if you are making your own pizza using the pre-made bases: use tomato paste on your pizza base, you do not want your base to absorb too much liquid. If your ingredients contain too much liquid, then the base will be soggy (which I'm sure you don't want). Also be creative.

Salmon pizza with sundried tomatoes, olives, green capsicum and button mushroom toppings

Same as above but with spinach leaves

Pizza with bacon, feta cheese, mushroom, capsicum and sundried tomatoes

As above with cherry tomatoes minus bacon

 

Pizza from Dominos: Godfather, Hawaiian and Supreme

Pasta carbonara

Omigosh. 100th post. Wow. Just realised this. *cheers*

Back to posting, I reckon that this week has been on really simple and quick dishes. I will continue on this trend with an easy carbonara plate. Mind me, I used thick cream instead of the readily made sauce in the jars. So basically cook onion, garlic and your bacon. Bacon flavour is just so nice. Then add the mushroom, and vegetables (I used grated zucchini to make this a more complete dish). After this add the cream. Season with pepper and salt and parsley. Pour onto your cooked pasta and mix to coat. Serve with parmesan cheese.

 

Bacon Zucchina Pasta bake and Pumpkin Gratin

Last week, I was high and pumped on baking. I decided to make a pasta bake and pumpkin gratin. It seems like zucchini and pumpkin are in season. I can see them everywhere, in  markets and supermarket, which is great because you can create so many dishes with those nice vegetables. As a side note, I finally decided I like eating pumpkin and zucchini. Believe me or not I was not a great 'veggie-eater' before. I had the strangest thought that I would never taste pumpkin because it looks eww to me (seriously).  Anyway gone is this thought. Now I realise what I have been missing. I like that sweet taste and softness when cooked. I like zucchini, they have that great flavour and goes so well with anything.

So I decided to make that pasta bake using the recipe from healthyfoodguide.com.. I used spiral macaroni. I top it with cheddar cheese and bits of feta cheese. Surprisingly I ended up with two dish instead of one, which I am not to complain about because it was really yummy, cheesy and creamy. A definite like.

My pumpkin gratin was good. The only hiccup was that I did not let the pumpkin tender enough. So my gratin  ended having little chunks of pumpkin.

Pre-oven, not yet topped with cheese

Baked :)