Anne's Kitchen What's cooking?!

Right oh. This weekend my friend Elmira came to stay with me. Before coming over, she called and said: “Anne, let’s have a proper girl’s weekend! No sightseeing, no Oxford Street, but hanging out at home and baking and cooking.”

Alright! That’s quite something, considering she travelled all the way from Luxembourg to come and eat with me! So, I came up with endless things to make and bake: macarons, hot cross buns, a passion fruit tart, risotto, quiche, well you get the picture! I spent ages daydreaming about what to make for and with Elmira. Every day I changed my mind on what to make.

But as the weekend finally came round, all the good and great plans were thrown out of the window! Can you believe it?! We ended up on Oxford street and ate Pizza on the go!

Ok, day one, Thursday, was still honourable: I made a lovely asparagus risotto with parma ham croustillants on top (and damn me, I was too hungry and excited to eat, I didn’t take any picture of it. Will have to re-make that recipe soon!). But from Friday it all went downhill.. Not that we didn’t eat well. Oh no, on the contrary! Friday night was spent stuffing ourselves with Persian delights at a little Iranian place in Hammersmith. Followed by blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and bacon at home in the morning, Pizza on Portobello Market in the afternoon, fast forward to the next morning (and a lot of beers in between), we had a hangover breakfast at a cool new place on Exmouth Market… Met up with Verena later and sat in lovely Café Boheme for some more drinks and nibbles… My gawd, putting that into writing makes me realize there must be something wrong with us! Can humans really devour that much?!

Well anyway, come Sunday evening we were so stuffed that neither Elmira or me could eat another bite, let alone make this wonderful quiche I had planned on preparing all weekend…

The Big Brother of all Quiches: Butternut Squash and Bacon

So Elmira, this one’s for you! I’m so sorry you couldn’t eat it when you were here, but I promise to make this quiche for you next time! Up until then, feed your eyes with these pics and dream about the smell that filled the flat (including my dryig laundry that now smells of quiche – sorry workmates, I’ll air them before coming to the office)

Butternut Squash and Bacon Quiche

Serves a lot of hungry people (or let’s say 7-8)

Base:
180g white flour
180g wholemeal flour
150g butter
1 egg
a few splashes of water
salt

Filling:
1 smallish butternut squash (think the length of a toddler’s arm – hmm, that doesn’t help, does it? Ok, let’s say about 700g, or 1kg when it’s whole)
1 tbsp rosemary
1 red onion
1 onion
240g smoked bacon
200g feta (or however much is in a packet)
2 eggs
100 ml double cream (or normal cream)
100g grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 180°

Make the dough: cut the cold butter into little cubes and mix with the egg and flours, salt. Mix it with a handmixer until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then, start kneading it fairly quickly so it doesn’t get warm. You will need to add a bit of water since the dough is really crumbly. Once you get a ball out of it, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Over to the butternut squash. Peel it, deseed it and dice it. Put the dice into a roasting tin, splash some olive oil, salt and the rosemary on it. Bake in the oven until it is fairly soft but still with a crunch to it (about 15-20 mins).

Meanwhile, chop the onions and fry in olive oil until transluscent.

Make the flan: in a bowl mix the 2 eggs, the cream and parmesan, season with salt and pepper and add a bit of water or white wine to make it a bit less dense. Not much, about half a little glass.

Now it’s time to take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out. Mine was still fairly crumbly (but I used about 300g of wholemeal flour since I had run out of normal flour, so it shouldn’t be too bad for you). Flour your surface and roll out, and transfer into your quiche base (which you have greased before if your tin needs it, mine didn’t since it’s non-stick). Don’t worry if the dough breaks or doesn’t fit exactly. Nothing you can’t amend with another little piece of dough that you mold to fit. Think of it as play-do!

Now sprinkle your onions over the base. Top with butternut squash, bacon and crumble the feta over it all. Then, pour the flan mix over it all.

Bake for about 45 mins in the oven and serve with a fresh green salad.