If you haven’t had QUICHE before, it is time to remedy that situation.Quiche is a savory, open-faced pastry crust with a filling of meat, seafood,vegetables and topped withsavory custard with cheese. Quiche can be served hot or cold. It is part of French cuisine but is also popular in other countries, particularly as party food. Quiche is an especially good dish for a Sunday brunch or other gathering. You make it the day ahead, slice it just before serving, and then pass out the plates. This fool-proof recipe has yet to disappoint.

Baking was never my strength and I would find excuse to avoid this…until I cam across this beautiful blog called zestysouthindiankitchen.com by Swathi  who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. According to her, Baking a Homemade bread, cake, cookies will give us the best outcome. However in order to achieve the perfect recipe, techniques is required.  You can check her recipes at zestysouthindiankitchen.com.

This month challenge was suggested by Arthy Shama  ofCook with Arthy shama,make sure to check link for some amazing recipes.

Ingredients

150 grams of all purpose flour
½ tsp of salt
85 grams of butter, cut into tiny cubes
1 to 11/2 tbsp of cold water

Steps

  1. First, cut the butter into tiny cubes and refrigerate them.   In a dry bowl, combine flour and salt.  Mix them.  Add in butter cubes and rub through the butter so that it is dispersed in flour.
  2. Now add in cold water, little by little.  Slowly, start combining the dough along with water. After a while a soft dough should be formed.  The dough when pinched should hold its shape when pressed, and not fall together.  This is an passing test for an crust dough.
  3. Cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum of two hours or overnight.  This will help in moisture getting evenly distributed throughout the dough.  I have kept the dough in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
  4. Remove the dough from refrigerator and let them sit under room temperature for 15-20 minutes.  Either you can roll them into an 9’’ circle by dusting the surface with flour, or by sandwiching them in between two baking sheets.
  5. After rolling, remove the baking sheet and turn the silicon mat upside down over the greased pie pan. Adjust the dough and press them down the pie pan, so that they cover the base and sides.
  6. Prick them throughout the base and sides with a fork.  Pricking will help in non-raising of the dough during baking.   Refrigerate this set up for fifteen to twenty minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven for 200 degree Celsius.
  7. After refrigeration, cover them with baking sheet and add some dried pulses.  These weights push down the crust and prevents uneven rising. Bake these for twenty minutes, later on remove the beans and sheet and bake for another fifteen minutes till the base turns brown.  You should be able to see the crust has left the edges of the ring.  Now our crust is ready for filling .

Ingredients

Chicken Green Peas Keema
300 gms Chicken Mince
½ cup green peas
1 large onion finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbspn of oil
½ tsp of chilly powder
1 tbsp of coriander  powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
to taste Salt
For the custard
200 ml amul fresh cream
1 large egg
½ tsp of chilly powder
½ tsp of pepper
to taste Salt
For Toppings
50 grams of cheese/ paneer
Let’s learn how to do it:

Steps

  1. Marinate the chicken mince with salt and turmeric and a 1 tsp of oil and keep aside  for 20 minutes.
  2. In a pan, heat oil and saute onions till they turn brown.  Add ginger and garlic paste.  Saute for another two minutes or till the raw smell of the paste goes away.  Finally add chicken mince.
  3. The mince will leave out its stock.  Saute and cook till the water content is evaporated.  Add all the spices and the green peas.  Be careful not to add too much of salt, since we are also going to add cheese here.  So, add salt, according to the content of the fillings. Cook till all the water evaporates and the chicken is perfectly cooked.
  4. The reason for cooking beforehand is to get an dry filling, if we use uncooked filling, they may leak out their stock during baking, leaving an soggy quiche.
  5. Keep the filling aside to cool.
  6. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
  7. For the custard,  Separate the liquid contents from the Amul cream pack and use the cream part.
  8. In an large bowl,  add ½ cup of  amul cream, one large egg, chilly powder and salt.  Whisk them, till they are completely dissolved.
  • For assembling quiche, take the baked pie crust, spread the base with few grated cheese.  Here I have used the normal Paneer I had at home.

Spread the chicken keema filling throughout the surface.

Now pour our custard into the quiche.

Finally sprinkle rest of the cheese into the quiche.

Bake them in oven for 25 minutes or till the filling is firm.  TheChicken quiche was light, fluffy and tasted delicious.

Sending this recipe to the Baking Partners ….October Challenge..Quiche

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