Quick & easy bacon and broccoli quiche

Serves 4 - 6

For the filling:

4 rashers bacon

1 cup broccoli

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch of cayenne pepper

For the crust:

1 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 ice water

1) Cut the broccoli into florets and steam or boil them for about 5 minutes till it's tender but not fully cooked.

2) While it's steaming, fry the bacon till it's just cooked but not crispy.

3) In a bowl, combine the bacon, broccoli, cheese, milk, cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne pepper.

4) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

5) In a separate bowl, measure one cup of flour and mix in 1/2 teaspoon of salt with a fork.

6) Pour 1/4 cup of olive oil in a measuring cup and another 1/4 cup of ice water into the same measuring cup. Beat with a whisk till it's thick. 

7) Pour in the oil and water mixture into the flour and mix till it forms a dough.

8) Press it out onto a 9 inch pie pan and pour in the filling.

9) Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until the egg mixture is cooked (skewer or knife should come out clean)

10) Serve hot or cold. 

Eurasian Curry Debal (Curry Devil)

Serves 6

For the meat:
About 1.5 kg of chicken (I used legs and thighs, about 10 pieces)
Splash of soy sauce
Few pinches of finely ground white pepper

For the paste:
Grind together -
100g shallots (Comes to about 10 - 12)
200g big onions (About 2-3)
100g ginger (About 4 inch knob)
150g fresh red chilies, deseededAbout 8 - 10)
50g dried red chilies, cut and soaked for 20 minutes in hot water, deseeded *

For the stew:
5 tablespoons oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1.5 inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic
1.5kg chicken, marinated with 4 tablespoons light soy and 2 tablespoons pepper for 20 mins
200g bacon bones **
10g mustard seeds, roughly pounded
½ tablespoon salt
½ tablespoon chicken stock powder
2 potatoes, peeled and quartered
10 chicken cocktail sausages
700ml water
1/2 head of cabbage, roughly chopped
1 cucumber peeled, seeds removed and cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoon vinegar

To garnish:
A few chili padi
Sprigs of coriander leaves

Watch the video recipe here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znk2uC0U40k 

1. Marinade the chicken in soy sauce and finely ground white pepper for at least 20 minutes.

2. Soak 50g dried chilies in hot water for 20 minutes.

3. Grind together all the ground ingredients of shallots, onions, ginger, dried and fresh red chilies. You may want to chop them up roughly. I put mine in the food processor and blitzed for about 5 minutes.

4. Lightly pound the mustard seeds.

5. Heat oil and fry the garlic, onions and ginger till browned.

6. Add the chicken and bacon bones and continue frying till the chicken changes colour.

7. Add the ground paste, mustard seeds, salt and chicken stock.

8. Wait for the oil to rise.

9. Add the potatoes, cocktail sausages and water.

10. Boil till the potatoes are cooked and the curry thickens.

11. In the meantime, cut the cabbage and cucumber.

12. Add the cabbage, cucumber and vinegar.

13. Garnish with chili padi and coriander leaves. Serve with steamed rice.


* I used small dried chilies which I think is hotter, and I didn't remove the seeds. I was being daring as I thought we could handle the heat but it was a little too spicy. If you love it hot, leave the seeds and use the small ones. If not, use the bigger dried red chilies which are milder, and remove the seeds to keep spice levels low. 

** I couldn't find any so I used smoked bacon belly instead. 

This recipe is adapted from Robin's Eurasian Recipes. I was inspired to cook it after having dinner at Quentin's Eurasian Restaurant at the Eurasian Community House and wrote a little blog about it after. The book is written by the father of the chef of Quentin's. I can't stress how amazing the food there is and I'm so glad I live just five minutes away!

I didn't change too much of the original recipe, except that I added garlic to the list of aromatics, and as mentioned above, I was a little too bold with my dried chilies. I also couldn't find bacon bones, so I used smoked bacon belly instead. I also reduced the amount of cabbage - the original called for 400g, but maybe my cabbage is too heavy?? And reduced the tablespoons of vinegar from 5 to 2.

3 out of 5 adults in my house could take the heat of this and enjoyed it (me included), one couldn't put it to his mouth, the other could only manage one serving. 

The sauce itself is amazing and I reckon it could even be substituted as a vegetarian dish - just replace the chicken stock powder with vegetable stock, and use hard vegetables like pumpkin in place of meat. 

Mini pork pies

Makes 6

Pork filling:
 350g pork shoulder (including fat), or combination of pork shoulder and fresh sausage meat to make 350g (you can use all sausage meat if you like)
 110g back bacon rashers, derinded

2 garlic cloves, crushed

 1 sprig fresh thyme with leaves removed
 salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper

Optional: 2-3 anchovy fillets, chopped, with 1/2-1 teaspoon of anchovy oil

Hot-water crust pastry:
 450g plain white flour, plus a little extra for dusting
 a pinch of salt
 50 ml milk
 50 ml water
 150g butter

Glaze:
 1 large egg yolk

Equipment:
1 jumbo 6-cup muffin tin

1. If using pork shoulder, coarsely chop in a food processor or hand chop with a knife into 1cm cubes or smaller but don't mince.

2. Combine all the other filling ingredients and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

3. Measure flour and salt for the crust into a mixing bowl.

4. Cut butter into cubes. Add milk and water into a saucepan, and add the butter. Place the pan over gentle heat. When butter has melted, turn up the heat to bring it up to a boil. As soon as it does, pour it over the flour and mix with a wooden spoon till it forms a dough.

5. Turn the dough out on a work surface to bring it altogether. Take 2/3 of the dough and divide it into 6 parts. Roll each part into 6 balls and place 1 in each of the muffin tin.

6. Press each ball onto the base and up the sides of the cup to the top. The pastry may tear but don't worry, just fix it by pressing some more pastry on the tear. This pastry is very easy to work with, so if there's a mistake, don't panic! Treat it like play dough.

7. Spoon equal amount of pork filling into each of the cups.

8. Sprinkle more flour on the surface and roll out the remaining pastry and cut out 6 rounds for the lids.

9. Paint each of the edges of the lids with beaten egg yolk, and over turn it onto the muffin cups. Use a fork and press to seal the egg-yolked edges onto the top of the pies.

10. You can use any left over pastry to make decorations. Glaze the tops using the rest of the egg and make a 1 centimetre steam hole in each pie.

11. Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes on middle shelf. After 30 minutes, remove the baking sheet from oven.

12. Remove the pies from the muffin tin carefully using a knife and oven gloves, and place directly onto the hot baking sheet.

13. Place it back onto the oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the pies are golden brown.

14. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve hot or leave in fridge for a cold lunch.

* This is adapted from Delia Smith's recipe. I've simplified it a little with the ingredients. Omitted the anchovy essence, allspice, sage and mace. I mostly have thyme in my kitchen so that's why I used it in this recipe. You can really use anything you like or have! In this recipe I have doubled the pastry measurements from Delia's original recipe as I didn't find there was enough.