Vegetable Quiche - for A Sweet Punch Series

Time for the special Sweet Punch series post  - and this time around it comes in a delicious and savory 11 inch round package - a package filled with gorgeous veggies and baked to a perfection! A savory tart treat that needs its own spot with flood lights in the front window of the best bakery in town!

Quiche..pronounced as kee-sh sounds fancy of course but when you get to the bones of it - its a simple, satisfying, quick to fix dish. And the filling options are only limited to what you can come up with. Make it any which way you want. Thanks to Ria for choosing this as the feature for the month.

Here is the original recipe provided by the Sweet Punch team. I have modified this recipe a little bit. The given recipe is for a 8 inch tart pan. I was using a 11 inch tart pan. Hence, the difference in quantities. 

GOLDEN ONION QUICHE

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

Maida -200g

Butter (frozen) -100g (preferably unsalted)

Baking powder-1/4 tsp

Salt-to taste

Beaten egg-1

Ice cold water-as required ( which will be a few drops)

• Sieve maida ,salt and baking powder together. Grate in the butter and mix it with the flour with your fingertips till it resembles coarse sand.
• Add in the beaten egg and water and gather it into a soft dough.
• Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and lift it up carefully and line the tin that you will be baking it in.If it breaks up and you need to do a patch work, big deal! It wouldn't be seen outside! ;)
• Which ever tin you are using, make sure the dough comes a little way up the sides, so that it can hold the filling in. 
• If you are in doubt, see this.

Filling:

Boiled and shredded chicken-1/2 c ( you can substitute it for paneer or other veggies of your choice)

Onion-250 g ,chopped

Milk-1 c

Cheese-100g (cheddar will work fine)

Beaten eggs-3

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil- as needed.

• Heat oil and slightly fry the chicken/paneer til it is golden brown. Add in the onions and fry till onions have caramelised.
• Switch off the flame. 
• Add milk, cheese, beaten eggs, salt and pepper and mix well.
• Pour into the pastry case and bake for 25 mins or till golden brown .

Let it cool in the tin completely . Serve it in wedges.

I took my liberties and chose my favorite veggies for my meal. The more I cook, the more I want my meal to be colorful. It looks pretty, sure, but also gives me a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside when I see colors. I'm a girl that loves colors and you all probably know it by now. If someone asks me - how'd you like your meal - my answer would be "Colorful". True. As I write this, I'm thinking of the foods that are grey in color - and I can't come up with anything - you guys know any of that stuff? Hmm..I'm intrigued now.

Ok - I'm getting into serious banter mode and maybe I should stop now coz there is a long enough post already today - and lots of pictures as usual. I think clicking on the camera button makes me feel good - or else I wouldn't do it this much!!

Moving on to the Quiche. Here's what we'll have in our hands by the end of this post!

Like it? Let's see how its done now!

Wash and chop your favorite veggies. I have broccoli, zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, mushroom and spinach here.

Quick saute each of the veggies separately for about 30 seconds each in high heat. This heat softens them a little and also brings out a ton of flavor from each veggie.

As you saute them, keep adding it all together in a mixing bowl. Finally when all the veggies are in here - add a couple of pinches of salt and some pepper to this bright beautiful mix. Set this aside and move on to make the base. If that's not colorful, what is? Thank you Mother Nature for all the color you gave us!

I'm using a 11-inch tart pan and hence modified the quantities provided by the sweet punch team. Also, I skipped adding the egg to make the base. It does come out great without eggs too.

Take 2 cup of all purpose flour or maida. Add 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt to the flour. Sieve all together into a mixing bowl.

Next, take about 1 cup of butter. I took a little less than half a block of butter (like on the left). While its still frozen, cut into thin strips (like in the middle) and then fine chop the thin strips into small bits (like on the right). I can just feel the calories coming..they're climbing up my arms now and are going to jump and settle on my hips! LOL!

Add these bits to the flour mixture. A good quantity of proportion is to have a 1:1/2 of flour and butter. It is a lot of butter -yes. So make it to share with your big family or call some friends and you have one slice of this. I was good and shared some quiche with my neighbor too!

Give the flour and butter a good few pulses in the food processor. If you don't have one of these, just use your fingertips and incorporate the butter in the flour.

Just to add a little flavor, I added about 1 tsp of dried oregano to the flour mixture.

You will get little sand lumps with just the butter and flour. Just don't start digging.

Now, here's a trick I learned to use while making pastry bases. Instead of using just cold water to make the dough, use ice bits or really crushed fine ice. This miraculously provides a very soft flaky texture. And I do swear by it. If you are going to add 2 tbsp of water - make it 1 tbsp of just ice and 1 tbsp of water from the crushed ice.

I added most of the ice and then added a few drops of the melted ice to the dough. You'll start seeing the big dough ball getting done and leaving the sides of the processor. Time to stop.

That is perfect consistency - the dough is just about together and united.

Take out all the dough from the processor. Roll up together into a ball and cover with plastic wrap and send this to the ice box for about 20 mins. That helps the dough to kind of settle down and then it heeds your orders while rolling out.

In another mixing bowl, add 1 cup of milk. Cold from the fridge is fine.

Then, take 3 eggs in a separate bowl and whisk together.

Mix the eggs with the milk and whisk together once.

Next - time to say cheese..

Grate up some fresh cheddar cheese. I just had to put this picture. I know its now really useful but what the heck... I'm paying for space and will consider this a fringe benefit! LOL!

We'll need about 1 cup of cheddar cheese.

Mix it with the milk and egg mixture. Everyone take a long hard look at this picture below. Right after this, my 1 cup measuring spoon broke into two! The handle just snapped off - don't even ask me how coz I have no clue. But I sure did not stand on it! I'm sad - but there's always a silver lining. Gadget shopping - here I come.

Now for a little extra kick..just because I always have the unceasing need for some. Some dry red chilli flakes. You feel the love yet?

Whisk up everything well. Add a pinch of salt to taste. Add some pepper too if you want more heat.

Now pull that dough out of the fridge and place it on a well floured surface.

And then call the little kid in your house to take a picture of you rolling it out with both hands! Thank you baby...you took 10 mins to take this picture - but its all worth it!

Roll it out so that you have about an inch and a half extra from the tart pan's base. Remember these need to go on the sides up to the edge. Get a tart pan with a removable bottom - perfect way to get the whole pie outside without breakage.

Gently lift the rolled out dough and place over the pan.

Crimp at the edges and just take pinch away all the extra. You see all the extra stuff out on the side - don't waste this dough - I'll tell you what to use it for exactly - a perfect little chocolate tart. I will post that soon so you can drool at what I drooled tonnes on! That was of course the perfect end to dinner that day!

You can also 'blind bake' this before adding the filling. To do that, just cut a circle of parchment paper and put it in the center. Then, add some light weights like hard beans or little kitchen pellets on top and bake until the dough is golden. What this does is that the dough does not moisten as much once the filling is added. And blind baking provides a much more crisper dough.

Fill the base with the sauteed veggies. I can just eat this like that now - but I'll be decent this time.

And then pour the egg milk mixture on top of the veggies. You can also mix the veggies and the wet mixture and then pour it out. I have no logical reasoning as to why you have to make it my way. So, do it anyway you like. One thing though if you do it my way. The cheese does stay a little on the top -which is not a bad thing - and at the end of it it looks like a pizza quiche. Not bad right?

Move the whole pan to the oven preheated at 350F. Bake for about 30 mins or until you feel the crust is done. You can also put a toothpick at the center and make sure there are no more wet spots.

And its done now!

Does that look colorful or what?

And look at the crust - perfectly done. And super flaky and soft. I so believe the secret is in the crushed ice and cold butter.

Someone could not wait.

There's a slice for you.

And how could I go without showing you my latest cake stand find or rather quiche stand for now! Love is in the air..

Enjoy. Peace Out!