Portrait of a recipe

Christine Wells’ novel The Juliet Code is set in wartime France, a period when everyone was on rations and food was hard to come by. It also features a picnic.

So after cracking our heads we settled upon a quiche because you can make quiche out of just about any leftovers you have in the fridge (which is great when you are short of food), it’s French, and it’s perfect for a picnic.

In wartime, people would have to make their own puff pastry if they could source the butter, but we are doing the cheat’s version and using store bought, although a rough puff could work if you are looking to test out your skills on the shorter version.

Quiche is ever so easy, uses five or six eggs for a standard flan dish, and then it’s up to you what you put in it. The trick is to whisk all the ingredients in with the eggs before pouring the mixture into the baking dish.

Enjoy!

Ingredients
  • Oil, butter or lard for sauteeing

  • 6 eggs

  • Salt and pepper

  • 3 rashers of bacon (or less) chopped and set aside rinds

  • Thyme

  • Any vegetables in the fridge in small quantities, such as mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicum, leek or onion.

  • Herbs

  • Parmesan

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease a standard flan dish.

Line the flan dish with a slice of frozen puff pastry.

Place weights on pastry and blind bake for 15 minutes (you can skip this step if you wish).

Melt butter in fry pan.

Remove rinds from bacon and sizzle for extra flavour.

Chop bacon.

Remove rinds and add bacon and thyme.

Remove bacon and place on absorbent paper.

Sautee vegetables in the same pan (starting will allums) for about five minutes.

Crack six eggs into a large bowl and add salt and pepper.

Tip vegetables and bacon into egg mixture and mix well.

Add herbs of choice (parsley goes well with all of the above)

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and extra herbs.

Place in oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until set.

Some people like to add cream or milk to their quiche but never add water as it won’t bind properly, giving a poor but edible outcome.

Image Credit: Ellen Forsyth