Salmon Quiche

Three things came together to make this quiche possible : a bag of salmon that I was in a hurry to finish, a bag of dirt cheap onions which I did not know what to do with it, frozen pastry puff.

Last week, I made 2 mini quiches which I would not pay myself to eat. The egg custard was so thick that the custard could not make its way around the quiche filling. My lack of planning meant I ran out of baking paper and I baked blind with nothing on it and effectively created a quiche shell that was like a crispy biscuit. Hubby was supportive enough to help finish the 2 mini quiches.

Fast forward a week. With the lessons learnt, I took pains to correct my earlier mistakes. Even with a ready to bake shortcrust, I still took 5 hours to assemble everything with a horrifying mountain of bowls and pans to wash. 

Nevertheless, don't try, won't know. I declare the quiche a success. 

I made 2 quiches, one a round 7 inch quiche, another a 10 x 4 inch quiche. I wanted a savory salmon and a lemon tart but 3 hours into the project, the work got tedious and I ditched the idea and made 2 quiches with the same ingredients.

So here was what I did. Takes about 5 hours including washing up, so give yourself plenty of time before the feast.

Base :

7 inch round quiche pan, removable base and 10 x 4 inch tart pan, removable base. Grease both pans. Set aside.

2 premade frozen pastry crusts.

Baking paper

Ceramic weights

Filling:

1 piece of salmon, about palm size

8 medium size onions, skinned and thinly sliced

1 bowl of button mushroom, thinly sliced

1 fistful of smoked bacon

Custard:

250ml cooking cream

3 eggs beaten with a pinch of salt

Cheese:

Any cheese such as cheddar, sliced

Method:

Preparing the crust:

Remove the shortcrust with a flat knife. Leave it on a clean worktop to soften until just malleable to work with, about 10 minutes (it was 35C outside the house).

When ready, carefully transfer the shortcrust to the prepared trays. Form the shell carefully. Trim off overhang. Prick holes. Put back to the fridge to chill.

At this point, I must explain my process. The process was a serial one instead of a parallel process. The pastry was done for the round tray then sent back to chill. Then I repeated the procedure for the other rectangular tray.

Par-bake the quiche base:

Preheat the oven to 180C. When oven is ready, take one of the tray with prepared crust out.

Line the pastry with baking paper. Pour the weights on the paper.

Bake at 180C for 15mins.

Lift the paper with weights. Prick the quiche base with a fork. This prevents puffing.

Return the 'naked' quiche back to the oven. 

Continue to bake at 180C for 5 minutes.

Remove the quiche pan. Prick holes and press down any puffy parts of the pastry. Leave to cool.

Repeat for the other quiche with its prepared pastry.

Quiche filling:

Meanwhile, cook the salmon until just cooked. Flake with a fork. Drain and reserve.

Fry the onions, mushrooms, bacon in flavoured oil. I used garlic oil (from Donki). Use any oil you fancy.

When onions are translucent and mushroom wilted, add salmon flakes. Season with salt.

Cook at medium high heat to reduce the moisture in the salmon mix. Reserve.

Custard:

In a saucepan, add 250 ml of cooking cream.

Heat until the cream starts to steam. DO NOT let the cream boil.

Turn off the heat.

Whisk in the eggs, whisking to incorporate eggs and cream. Season to taste.

The goal is to get the consistency (nappé) that coats the base of a spoon.

Reserve.

Assembly:

Preheat the oven to 180C.

'Pave' the par-baked crust with cheese.

Gently transfer the salmon mushroom onion mix on the cheese. The mix should be level with the edge of the tray.

Pour the custard into the filled quiche.

Bake at 180C for 25 minutes or until center of the quiche is just cooked.

To serve:

Cool sufficiently before removing the quiche from the pan.

Serve with waldorf or anything tart to go with the richness of the quiche.

It is a labor of love. But I assure you it is worth it.

Baked fish with miso and bacon , millet medley

I have begun buying whole fish from Sheng Shiong because they are offering to gut, cut and pack the fish in convenience packs for freezing. I no longer need to 'prep' the fish and make a mess in my kitchen. What's not to like?

Batang was their catch of the day. Besides making fish porridge, I decided to do something more fancy because I had more time at hand today.

With some miso  and a lone lime in the fridge, I decided on a Japanese fusion theme.

For 2:

Fish:

Ingredients: 4 pieces of white fish fillet / miso / lime zest / 4 bacon strips / honey / olive oil

The fish was skinned (better to use a sharp knife) and scored. I slathered miso all over the fillet, esp into the cut portion of the fish fillet. Then I grated some lime zest and mummified the fish with a stip of smoked bacon. 

I applied a decent layer of honey to balance the salt in the fillet package.

For the final touch, I drizzled some olive oil over the wrapped fillet.

To cook, I baked it in my mini pan, in a preheated oven at 200C for 15 minutes. When done, I left it to rest for 5 minutes or so.

Millet medley:

Ingredients : 1 cup millet / 2.5 cups water / handful of finely chopped ham / finely chopped carrots / half a handful of raisins / 1 strip of sundried tomato ( or anything you fancy )

Toast the millet on a heated pot for a couple of minutes, swirling the pot to prevent the millet from burning.

Add water, chopped vegetables.

Bring pot to a boil. Reduce heat immediately to a gentle simmer. 

Cook covered for 20 minutes.

Fluff it with a fork.

Let the millet medley sit ,covered, for another 10 minutes.

Assembly:

Transfer 2 - 3 scopes of the millet to each pan of cooked fish. 

Squeeze the rest of the lime over the fish and millet.

Serve immediately

Keto almond brownie

If you are craving for brownie and thinking keto, this recipe is it. You only need a food processor to speed things up. 

The brownie is almost fudgy but not dense to the palate. I think I have hit a golden brownie formula.

Credits, with minor adjustments: thebigmansworld fudgy brownie #thebigmansworld 

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter

1/2 cup baking choc chips ( no added sugar type)

1 cup almond meal

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of Himalayan pink salt

1/2 cup monk fruit sugar (Crystal type)

3 eggs

Method:

Preheat an oven to 180C. Prepare an aluminum tray, 8 by 8 inch. Greasing is not needed if aluminum tray is used.

In a pot, over gentle or the lowest heat, melt butter and choc chips. 

Turn off the heat when butter is 1/2 melted. Cover. The residual heat will melt the butter and choc chips nicely. 

In a bowl, combine almond, cocoa, baking powder, salt, sugar.

In a food processor, process eggs. The eggs do not froth, which is fine.

Add the butter-choc mix in a steady stream over the eggs. Whisk.

Add the dry mix. Mix until it is homogeneous.

Pour the batter into the tray. Smoothen the surface to allow even baking.

Bake the brownie in the preheated oven at 180C for 14 minutes.

Leave the brownie in the oven, door closed. The residual heat will continue to firm up the center part of the tray of brownie without overcooking it.

Cool. Cut to size.

Brownie is said to keep for 7 days in the fridge or frozen. I did not manage to proof this because it was eaten by the 2nd day.

 

Keto (almost) chocolate bar

 

Sensory overload here: crispy, sweet, rich, bitter

This is not totally a keto bar, considering the dried fruits. To make it fully keto, use 3 cups of whatever nuts (best toasted) you fancy.

I am rather surprised at the richness of each small bite. The teeth sinks easily into the chocolate and the nuts gives a delightful crunch. Stay with crispy and light nuts, such as pecans, walnuts, almond slivers; avoid dense nuts.

Due to the high fat content, the choc does not travel well. Next time I will omit the coconut butter to give it a dryer mixture so that it does not melt in my hands. For this decadent batch, I am eating the pieces with a pair of chopsticks.

Credits: Adapted from  thebigmansworld

Ingredients:

1.5 cups unsweetened baking chocolate. I chose the one with the highest fat content in the store.

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 cup peanut butter (I had a regular sweetened peanut butter, which is not ideal)

1 cup toasted pecans

1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

3/4 cup almond meal

1/4 cup dried cranberries

3 sachets of monkfruit sugar

1/8 tbsp salt

Method:

Prepare a lined pan.

Combine chocolate, oil, butter in a pan.

Heat over low heat until mixture is fluid and combined.

Stir in nuts, almond meal, fruits, sugar, salt.

Pour the mixture on the lined pan. Leave to cool.

Firm the chocolate in the freezer.

Cut to small pieces when chocolate has hardened. 

Chocolate has high fat content and melts easily. Keep the remainder in the freezer.

Coconut flour pancakes

Waffles as toast, minus the wheat flour

This recipe was made using a waffle maker because it is non stick and does away with the frying pan that I hate to use.

It turns out pretty well, considering that there isn’t a speck of wheat flour to hold it together. The eggs are the binder and the waffle tastes gorgeously eggy to the last bite.

Adapted from here

Ingredients:

WET:

8 eggs

2 cups coconut milk (I use the trim Ayam brand suntan)

1 Tbsp coconut oil/butter

DRY:

4 Tbsp coconut sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp himalayan salt

1 cup coconut flour

Preheat a waffle maker.

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and wet ingredients in a bigger bowl.

Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with wet ingredients and stir. The flours does not look like much but thickens considerably when it gets stirred.

Using a measuring cup with spout, pour the batter onto the waffle iron.

Cook uncovered until waffle surface starts to dry/cook.

Cover the waffle iron. Cook until waffle browns.

Use a skewer and lift the waffle out of the waffle maker. I put them on racks so that the waffles continue to ‘dry out’

Eat it fresh or freeze it to lock in the freshness.