Mushroom and Pasta Quiche

If you have never made a quiche before, it’s time you try! I’m sure that by now you have mastered the art of making the perfect puff pastry. Now all you got to do is fill it with whatever you like, top it with cheese and bake it!

Mushrooms go beautifully with spinach and ricotta cheese, but that is a very common combination of ingredients. So mine is a bit different in that, it also has some cooked pasta in it, making it a whole meal. I have used whole wheat pasta, but use whatever you have at home. I use white wine to flavour many of my recipes, including this one, but spare it if you would prefer to. For non-mushroom lovers, try aubergine and olives with mozzarella cheese or mashed potatoes and tarragon/sage with cheddar.

Serves: 6 pieces

Preparation time: 30min

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 min

Ingredients

For the puff pastry

1 cup flour

25 g salted butter

¼ tsp salt

Sour cream/fresh cream as per requirement (about ¼ cup)

Others: Baking tin, parchment paper, blind weights (kidney beans or any other)

For the filling

Mushrooms, chopped medium

1 red onion, halved and sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped medium

1 garlic pod, roasted as described in the bench notes below

½ cup white wine

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1tbsp salted butter

½ tsp red chilli flakes

Ground black pepper

A pinch of nutmeg powder

Any pasta cooked as per instructions on the pack

1 cup grated cheese (any cheese will do)

1 egg, whisked

¼ cup fresh cream/ full cream milk

A pinch of sugar

Salt to taste

Method

Make the puff pastry as mentioned in the recipe that I have already posted. After blind baking, remove the puff pastry from the oven and allow to stand on the platform till you make the filling.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Heat butter in a wide non-stick saucepan. Add the roasted garlic. Add a sprig of rosemary. Allow the garlic to brown. Add 1 tsp olive oil. To this add the chopped onions and sauté till they caramelize. Add the chopped mushrooms. Add salt to taste. Stir well. Deglaze the saucepan with white wine, and simmer for 2 min. Now add the chopped yellow bell pepper, ground black pepper, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of nutmeg, red chilli flakes, and salt to taste (if necessary). Remove from flame. Let cool for 5 min. Now add the cooked pasta, half the grated cheese, one whisked egg and cream. Stir till all ingredients are well combined. Ladle the filling into the puff pastry shell and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30min, making sure the cheese has melted and browned.

Allow to cool for 5 min. Remove the quiche from the baking tray, slice and serve warm.

Bench notes

For recipe on how to make puff pastry see here.

Roasted garlic: Take a whole garlic pod (do not peel); smear it with a mixture of olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, and some fresh thyme. Roast in a preheated oven at 180°C for 15-20 or until browned and soft from within. Remove peel and crush with the back of a spoon to make a rough paste.

Kesari Bhath (Habba oota or Festival Food)

Indian festivals and Indian weddings are all about the food. There’s a multitude of mouth-watering, finger-licking delicacies prepared to offer to the Gods at our festivals. Families come together on days like these to flavour a taste of simple Indian cooking. Traditional food which, sadly, is going so ‘out of fashion’ is the food that really satiates the soul. Sadly, my generation has lost touch with what constitutes the core of every Indian home. It’s literally what we are made of- our traditional cuisine.

Most of us are so consumed by learning how to make pizzas, pastas, cakes and puddings for our loved ones, that we have neither time nor energy left to experiment with those simple spices tucked away in mom’s Pandora box...remember the conglomeration of spices she packed, sealed, labelled and sent when you got married and didn’t know crap about cooking? It’s time you start using them.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I believe that we must all remain true to our genes. My husband will definitely appreciate a continental meal once in a while, but will be sure to say ‘You are the best wife in the world’ when I make him a simple rice-rasam-palya or masala dosa-coconut chutney meal. And I’m sure that’s what aloo paranthas or rajma-chawal do for husbands from North India. Eat what you grew up loving, and life will feel so much more real and gratifying.

So I decided to add some simple recipes I’ve learnt from my mum and grand mum, those that take me back to where I belong. The first, being this one.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30min

Cooking time: 15min

Ingredients

2 cups steamed rice (spread out to cool on a plate, so the grains don’t clump together)

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

5-6 cloves

5-6 green cardamom, peeled and ground

10-15 saffron strands soaked in 2tbsp warm milk

2 tbsp homemade ghee

Fistful of nuts, chopped: almonds, pistachios, cashew nuts, raisins

A pinch of nutmeg powder

Method
Heat ghee in a wide non-stick saucepan. Add cloves and nutmeg powder. Add the steamed rice and granulated sugar. Simmer and cook till the sugar melts and the mixture is dry yet sticky. Add the chopped nuts, ground cardamom and saffron strings. Stir for a minute on low flame. Add 1tsp of ghee and stir. Remove from flame and serve warm.

Bench notes
I used ‘sona masuri’’ rice to make the ‘kesari bhath’. ‘Basmati’’ rice makes it dry and gives it an undesired dry and grainy texture. So it is advised that you use a variety of rice that doesn’t dry and separate too much on cooking. The rice once cooked should be soft and light. Use your discretion, depending on the variety of rice used.

You can replace half the granulated sugar with palm sugar (khajoor gud). This gives it a beautiful flavour and golden colour.

Classic Thandai

Thandai reminds everyone of one singular festival, and that is Holi, the festival of colours! This dry fruit and saffron drink often mixed with ‘bhang’ (an intoxicating drink prepared from the female cannabis plant); is also offered to Lord Shiva during the festival of ‘Mahashivaratri’.  For those who have read Amish’s Shiva Trilogy, I’m sure you can connect the ‘smoking up from the chillum’ parts of Shiva’s story to this Indian tradition!

Summers are almost incomplete without this ‘taste bhi, health bhi’ drink. My version is alcohol free, but, feel free to customize and offer thandai shots at your next bachelorette!

Green food colour is often added to make this drink look authentic, but I refrain from using any external colouring agent. If you think it necessary, please go ahead.

Serves: 2

Preparation time:  15 min (does not include soaking time)

Ingredients

Almonds 5 nos

Pistachios 4 nos (for garnishing)

Melon seeds 1 tsp

Poppy seeds ½ tsp

Saunf or fennel seeds ¼ tsp

Green cardamom 2 nos

Peppercorns 5 nos

Dried rose petals 4 nos

Cold water 200ml

Sugar 50g

Saffron strings 4

Cold milk 200ml

Rose water 1ml

Kewra water 1ml

Method

Soak all the dry nuts, spices and dried rose petals in 100ml of water. Let it soak for at least 2 hours.

Dissolve sugar and remaining water together. Soak saffron strings in 20ml of warm milk.

Grind soaked nuts, spices and dried rose petals to a fine paste. Add the paste to the cold milk. Now, add in the prepared water and sugar mixture.

Pass the prepared drink through a strainer. Add in the soaked saffron. Chill the drink in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Garnish with chopped nuts and serve chilled.

Nachos with mexican beans and hot salsa

I can eat, drink, sleep, and walk nachos. My friends will vouch for it. In fact, they are so exasperated with my nacho gluttony that they refuse to go out to a restaurant with me if I order any! And yet, I give them the sad puppy look as soon as I’ve scanned the restaurant menu and found my nachos. They gawk at the sight of them first, but after a while...everyone digs into the sour cream or the hot salsa.  And before you know it, everyone’s trying to lick the melted cheese off their fingers. It’s fate.

Without further ado, I present to you an easy to make Mexican bean mix, and hot salsa to go with your nachos...for the girl’s pyjama party, the stag game night or the kids’ weekend picnic...or just for the sake of simple indulgence!

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking time: 45 min (including time for the beans to cook)

Ingredients

For Mexican bean mix

Mexican kidney beans, soaked overnight, washed, rinsed and cooked with salt

1 onion, chopped fine

1 green bell pepper, chopped fine

Mexican spice mix (available at gourmet stores, try brand ‘keya’)

1 garlic whole, unpeeled

Fresh curly parsley, chopped fine

Red chilli flakes

Juice of half a lime

Ground black pepper

A pinch of sugar

Olive oil

Salt to taste

For garnish

1 yellow bell pepper, julienned

Nacho liquid cheese (I use ‘Go’ Nacho Cheese)

Fresh curly parsley, 1 sprig

Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Method
Roast a whole garlic (smashed up with the back of a knife) with olive oil, sea salt and some fresh thyme in a preheated oven at 200°C for 15 min. Remove, peel and use as required.

Heat some olive oil in a non-stick wide saucepan.  To this add the roasted garlic and onions; and sauté till well browned and caramelised. Now add the green bell pepper and stir for one minute. Add the cooked kidney beans. Season with salt, a pinch of sugar, pepper and red chilli flakes. Add the chopped parsley and the Mexican spice mix. Stir well; cover and allow the beans to soak in the flavours. Now partly mash the beans up and squeeze the juice of half a lime into the bean mix.

Serve up the nachos on a wide platter, layer with the bean mix, top it off with some nacho cheese and finally drizzle some extra virgin olive oil. Garnish with a sprig of parsley. Place in a microwave oven for 20 sec and serve warm with a hot salsa dip ( click to find my blog for this recipe). Make your own sour cream dip for a spicy and subtle mix.