HAM, SWEETCORN & LEEK QUICHE

My daughter Arabella was given a cook book for her birthday and so last week we decided to try out a recipe for supper. I am feeling a lot of guilt at the moment as I don't make home cooked meals from scratch every night for Arabella like I used to. There is very little time nowadays because of the baby. I know it's not for long - in a few months time Olympia will be on proper food and we can all eat the same thing - but I still feel guilty. 

Anyway I decided to cook this quiche as Arabella and I are big fans of the Higgidy ones, the recipe recommended making your own pastry but I decided to take a short cut and buy short crust pastry. I have never blind baked before and I made a bit of a mess of putting the pasty in the tin but thankfully my presentation didn't affect the taste!

This took quite a while as you have to blind bake for 20 minutes and then bake with the filling for 40 minutes and then leave it to stand for 10 minutes. In typical me fashion I didn't read this so it was all quite rushed and stressful!

Ingredients for 4 people:

A roll of short crust pastry
2 eggs, beaten
100ml single cream
125g sweetcorn
100g ham, cubed / shredded
100ml milk
75g gated cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small leek, sliced

You will also need baking beans to blind bake.

Firstly take the pastry out of the fridge an hour before you need to cook it. Then you need to blind bake / pre-bake - I had never done this before so was a little apprehensive. 

Start by preheating the oven to 200 C / gas mark 6. Then roll out the pastry into a lightly greased quiche tin, press it down and mould round the tin. Finally prick with a fork all over. My tin was slightly too big hence it didn't look particularly neat. Next cover with a sheet of baking paper and fill with the baking beans. Pop into the oven for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and beans and bake for another 10 minutes.

Whilst this is baking fry the leeks in a tablespoon of olive oil until cooked.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180 C / gas mark 4.

Fill the quiche base with the ham, sweetcorn and leeks. Then whisk together the eggs, milk and cream and pour this over the base and top with the cheese. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Leave to set for at least 10 minutes and then serve with a crisp green salad.

This was pretty simple to cook but I found it a right hassle and as I was cooking this I was thinking, what a nightmare, it will be rubbish and I am never cooking this again!! Luckily I was very pleasantly surprised. It tasted delicious and I was really proud to have baked my own quiche. Arabella liked it however she has requested than next time I leave out the leeks. If you wanted a vegetarian version you could substitute the ham for extra vegetables such as mushrooms or peppers or broccoli or if you like it meaty you could add some bacon. The choice is yours, knowing me next time I expect I will add more cheese!