An old recipe

Making a quiche requires quite many ingredients. First flour and butter for the dough, then eggs and milk or cream fir the egg base and finally something to put in: vegetables, bacon, fish, cheese… then it takes 30-40min to bake it to perfection. It’s not something you prepare and serve 20min after you’ve started cooking.

But one day, when I was rather young and staying at my best friend’s house, her mother made a quiche, or rather what in French we call a savory tart with minimum ingredients and cooking time: the mustard tart. Back in France many people buy ready-to-use rolled pie crust so this makes it even simpler, but here what is stunning is the baking time. Because there is no egg base, it is really short.

Unfortunately the original recipe is all about cheese, and this doesn’t work for A. so I barely cook mustard tarts, until the other day when I decided to replace his share of cheese by thinly sliced local sausages. He had his meat, I had my cheese and everyone was happy to have lunch ready in no time!!!

So if you want to try, here is the original recipe and my recipe:

Mustard tart (classic)

flour, butter, water for one pie crust
2 large and ripe tomatoes
2tbs of mustard
1-2 handful of grated emmental or gruyere cheese

Prepare the dough and roll for a 30cm low pie dish. Spread the mustard. Wash and thinly slice the tomatoes, sprinkle the cheese. Bake at 200deg until the cheese os melted and slightly golden. That’s it!!!

Mustard tart (meaty version half/half)

flour, butter, water for one pie crust
2 large and ripe tomatoes
2tbs of whole grain mustard (makes the whole milder)
1 handful of grated emmental or gruyere cheese
2-4 little sausages

Proceed exactly as above but just slice the sausages, sprinkle them on one half, and the cheese on the other. It is really that simple!!!

September 9, 2020

Romanesco

As you may have discovered along my posts and even more on Instagram, I am a big fan of all cruciferous vegetables. I couldn’t name my favorite!!

But when it comes to prepare romanesco cabbage I always feel sorry to crush the beautiful fractals. What’s the point of buying a romanesco to make a soup or a gratin out of it… a cauliflower would have been as good, even better as the color is nicer. So usually my romanesco end up boiled or steamed or slightly sautéed… but this week I was bored with this and wanted something that changes a bit. So I made a quiche with a special pie crust: very thin and crunchy, with garam masala and mustard seeds. The crunchiness was perfect with the softness of the baked romanesco just sliced and the egg flan. The slight spicy flavor of the crust was really nice and warming and we could still enjoyed the beautiful fractals.

One other thing I cooked then with the remaining half, was a soup… I could resist. I boiled the romanesco (but kept 2 slices for decor that I simply blanched to soften). Then crushed it with a fork… sorry beautiful fractals… Made a roux with a bit of butter and flower, then a bit if milk and then continued on with the cooking water. Once I obtained a light creamy texture I added the boiled cabbage and stirred well. Made some croutons and served.

What is your favorite romanesco recipe???

February 12, 2020

Quiche

I went to pick leekswith my neighbor in her garden. She grew plenty but doesn’t seem to eat as many as she has, so she gave me plenty. I also found some fresh salmon from Miyagi, that I am quite found about, so I decided to prepare a leek and salmon quiche. I revisited this classic quiche with a very simple twist. Indeed leek and salmon quiche, like leek and bacon or spinach and salmon are ultimate classic quiche recipes. They are all delicious but they sometimes need to be revisited with something new.

The something new was really simple. I prepared a brisé dough and rolled it on black sesame. Then grilled the salmon and blanched the leek and prepared the rest as usual. The result was a crispy dough and a golden top. Delicious to finish the weekend. Have a good week!!

April 21, 2019

White miso for the winter

There exists miso for each season and if red miso is for the summer, white miso is the one for the winter. I learned that at my cha-kaiseki cuisine classes a few years ago. And in an attempt to make some vegan pie crust I was tempted to replace butter by the creamy white miso, with a little addition of vegetal oil. The color is unchanged since the miso has almost the color of butter. The kneading is very easy, the rolling too, though it is more like olive oil base pie crust, it breaks easily, but it is easy to repair too!! I was worried it would be salty but it wasn’t (opening to not only savory quiches, but sweet pies and tart too) and it bakes in a very crispy manner. So the vegan pie crust with miso was perfect. Something I will use again for sure as it is sometimes easier to find miso than butter in Japan and the taste of miso was very mild rather that of olive oil.

As for the filling I used leek, spinach and broccoli with tofu and eggs. I haven’t found something to replace the eggs in the quiche yet… If you have ideas, I’ll be happy to try…

Miso pie crust (for a 20cm, thin crust)

– 150g of flour

– 5tbs of white miso

– 1tbs of vegetal oil

– 1tbs of water

Mix all the ingredients together. Roll and bake or fill and bake… that’s it!!!

January 15, 2019

Vegetables quiche

Every season has its delicious vegetables and every season has therefore a possibility of cooking quiches that is infinite. For this autumn or early winter version I used all the vegetables I love for their déclinaison of white to green: cauliflower, leek and spinach. Coupled with a rich pie crust made of soya bean flours, whole flour and wheat bran it gave the perfect balance of flavor and texture, and of colors.

Tell me about what you like on IG!

November 23, 2018

October craze

October is always a busy month… start of the new term and teaching again, hunting for the new students for the next spring, a few business trips usually, people visiting from Europe and the best season to enjoy outdoor and prepare the garden for the winter, so days and nights are way too short…

But there are always great things happening in October… Yesterday we had the visit of M.-san… though we’ve been in touch through SNS we haven’t met since May 2016 when we delivered to her house two of the four little kittens Pablo has left orphans. When we met then I was heart broken from the loss of our beloved stray cat and of having to split with the kittens so I remember barely the lunch we had together… Time has showed that M.-san is a loving mother for the cats, they’ve grown beautifully and I see pictures of them often on IG!!! But it was time to meet again, and I was happy when she said she would visit us. M.-san is both into cooking and into flowers. And she does that for a living… so it’s very inspiring for me!!! But it was challenging to chose then what to cook for her, as she teaches cha-kaiseki. I decided to prepare something very French, classic and simple, using the products from Isumi. And I opted for a classic quiche lorraine with Isumi smoked ham, milk and eggs from Chiba and a sablé pie crust. I served it with a simple shredded salad, cherry tomatoes and olives from the garden in Aix.

And for dessert a spicy apple compote. Nothing too amazing but simple fresh and delicious products only… we had a great time chatting about food, flowers and cats of course!!!

October 29, 2018

Corn meal

I haven’t baked a quiche since July 1st and it was more than enough waiting for making one… I baked plenty of fruit tarts during the summer but no quiche… really a pity!!! So I was all about making a classic spinach and tofu quiche for lunch today… but when picking the flour in the fridge (as you may know now, I keep all my flours in the vegetable drawer of my fridge), I found the bag of cornmeal too… and that was it! I wouldn’t make s regular pie crust with whole wheat flour but with a mix of whole wheat flour and cornmeal. And I wasn’t disappointed at all. It brings a touch of corn flavor, like a tortilla, and a bit of crispness. Simply amazing! The spinach-tomatoes-ham-fofu was nice too.

So here’s my pie crust recipe, simple as hell: 100g of cornmeal and 100g of whole wheat flour, 70g of butter, water. Mix all the ingredients, roll and use as a regular. It is also perfect for some small crackers.

September 22, 2018

Jute mallow

モロヘイヤ (say moroheiya) or jute mallow is a summer green that us eaten often in Japan in miso soup and tempura. I’ve known it for long but was barely cooking it until last summer when we visited our friends in Tsunan and K. prepared some. This little green plant is like okra or yamaimo, it becomes a bit slimy when cut and even more when heated. I know that many people may be disgusted by the slimy aspect and texture but honestly for me, as soon as it is vegetal I don’t mind. And jute mallow is really nice in many other preparations. I use it with eggs in omelets or scrambled eggs, in stir fried vegetables to serve with rice, and in quiche which is today’s recipe.

Jute mallow and mustard quiche

– flour, water, olive oil for the pie crust

– 2 handfuls of jute mallow

– 2 tomatoes

– a piece of smoked bacon (optional)

– 2 tbs of mustard

– 3 eggs and some milk for the egg base

Prepare and roll the dough in a thin layer to set in a large pie dish. Spread the mustard on the pie crust.

Wash the tomatoes and chop them. Wash the jute mallow and remove the thickest/hardest parts if any. Chop and grill the bacon.

Beat the eggs and the milk, add the bacon and vegetables. Stir and pour in the pie crust. Bake for 40min or until golden. Enjoy warm or cold!

July 11, 2018

More Malabar spinach

As I was telling you in my previous post, Malabar spinach go very well with a lot of things, and in particular with salmon. This recipe is very simple to prepare and really delicious. It’s just a quiche with fresh salmon (it’s the season for salmon from Miyagi) and Malabar spinach like one would do a classic spinach and salmon quiche. For the pue crust I used whole-wheat flour and olive oil. I really find it very quick to knead with olive oil rather than butter. For the quiche filling, I did an egg and cow milk base (recently I buy locally produced milk). I grilled the salmon in a pan and then removed fishbones and skin, and cut into large bites. I chopped the washed Malabar spinach and add all to the egg base, stir well and pour into the pie crust. Bake for 30min in the oven at 190.

Enjoy!!!

June 30, 2018