Chestnut Mushroom and Goats Cheese Quiche with a Cashew Nut Crust

It came as a bit of a shock the other day when I realised how little time we have left before Christmas. I've organised my work Christmas party, I have ordered several new outfit options for said party (one made me look like a shiney bat, that went straight back... ), I even started buying presents in October, but I am still at a loss thinking that there are now only 41 days left.

Being in my early twenties and without any kids I still spend my Christmas Day and Boxing Day with Pete's parents and my parents respectively so I don't tend to do much entertaining at home, but for some reason I still feel the need to fill the flat with company ready foods that I can grab at a moments notice, although it tends to be myself grabbing for a quick snack between baking rather than because we have guests over. Either way, Christmas is definitely a party season and although buying nibbles from the supermarket is far easier, I think you should always serve something homemade to make it extra special - and to gain a few Brownie points with the inlaws and other people you wish to impress!


One staple of the British buffet is a quiche, which can just be put on a plate and cut into wedges and is always a good option for vegetarian guests. I am however quite snobby about quiche, as bought ones tend to have cardboard like pastry and taste like the foil tin in which they arrived. I have made my own pastry for this which does lengthen the cooking time, but if you would prefer you can use some pre-made pastry to speed it up a bit. The filling though requires nothing more than a short bit of veggie frying, a little whisking and then some pouring so will set you back no more than 15 minutes before putting into the oven to bake while you potter off to do something festive.


Chestnut Mushroom and Goats Cheese Quiche with a Cashew Nut Crust
Serves 6-8-10 depending on generosity

Pastry Ingredients
200g plain flour
100g cashew nuts, finely chopped
140g cold butter, in small chunks
40g cold vegetable shortening (or lard if serving to carnivores), in small chunks
a little ice cold water

25cm tart tin - preferable loose bottomed
dried beans / ceramic baking beads
baking parchment

Filling Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced small
1 clove garlic, crushed
300g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
125g goats cheese, mashed with a fork
2 large eggs, lightly whisked
250ml double cream
3-4 tbsp grated parmesan
50g cashew nuts, finely chopped

Pastry Method
Preheat the oven to 180C / 360 F.

Place the flour, cashew nuts, butter and shortening/lard into a bowl and rub together with your fingers until it reaches a sand-like consistency. Now add the cold water a tablespoon at a time and then kneading a little until the pastry comes together. Form into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it is about 30cm in diameter, lift it up using the rolling pin and drape lcarefully over the tart tin. Gently push the pastry down into the edges of the tin, trying not to make any holes - if you do, patch it up with a little of the pastry overhang from the edges. Run your rolling pin over the top of the tin - this should cut off the excess leaving a neat, smooth edged crust. Lightly prick the pastry using a fork and chill for a further 20 minutes.

Cut a large circle from baking parchment and place it over the pastry in your tart tin, then fill with dried beans / baking beads. Blind bake like this for 20 minutes, then take out the beans and parchment and bake for a further 10 minutes.

While your pastry case is cooking, prepare the filling.

Filling Method
Fry the onion in the olive oil over a medium heat until softened, then add the garlic, mushrooms and sage. Season to taste. Fry for a further 5 or so minutes and then add the balsamic vinegar. Stir and fry for another 2-3 minutes then remove from the heat and set aside.

Mix the goats cheese, eggs and double cream, then add the fried mushroom mixture and stir to combine. Pour into your pre-baked pasty case and sprinkle over the parmesan and finely chopped cashew nuts.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until set. The filling may rise while baking but will sink back down when you remove it from the oven.

I think this quiche's flavour improves if left overnight in the fridge and then either reheated or served at room temperature. We ate this as dinner along with some roasted carrots and parsnips and a little vinegar dressed salad.

Lychee Cupcakes with Rose & Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting and Rose Syrup Tuile Curls

Ladies and gents, prepare yourselves for a seriously girly recipe. Pink in colour with a creamy floral flavour, these are some very ladylike treats. Reminiscent of turkish delight, but with a cheesecakey edge to the frosting thanks to the mascarpone and whipped cream. The pureed lychees keep the sponge cake wonderfully moist, although I must admit that their perfume like flavour didn't come across as much as I'd like, so I added some to the frosting to amp it up a little. I do find it difficult to get more delicate fruit flavours to come through in cake batter - watermelon is another flavour that baking seems to cancel out.

The rose syrup tuile curls are like little flowery brandy snaps. Unfortunately they don't hold their crispness for too long so it is best to bake these and add them to the cakes just before serving so they keep their shape and crunch.

It may seem silly to some people to bake a batch of little cookies just to decorate some cupcakes, but that's just how I roll. A dessert on top of another dessert? Yes please! To be honest though, they were more of an experiment to see if I could make a rose version of this cookie from Dorie Greenspan's wonderful book Baking: From My Home To Yours. A real treasury of delicious treats and a must have for the avid baker, Dorie's book shows how to prepare these little cookies using maple syrup; but seeing as I had a lovely bottle of rose syrup on hand I thought it a good chance to have a play around and hopefully make a tasty and unusual cupcake topper. I think I succeeded!

I quartered the recipe from the book and still came up with too many tuile cookies, but adjusting it to make any fewer cookies would result in some seriously difficult ingredient measuring and I would never be averse to eating ten or so little leftover rosey curls...

The curl batter needs to be made the evening or morning before as it needs to refrigerate for at least 3 hours before baking. Of course they are optional, and could be replaced with a simple icing rose if anything at all, although the glitter is a must to create the required ludicrously girly visage.

Lychee Cupcakes with Rose & Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting and Rose Syrup Tuile Curls
Makes 12 standard American sized cupcakes

Rose Syrup Tuile Curl Ingredients
15g unsalted butter, at room temperature
15g light brown muscovado sugar, packed
30ml rose syrup
15g plain flour, sifted

Lychee Cupcake Ingredients
180ml pureed lychees (skinned and pitted)
60ml milk, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
110g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Rose & Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting Ingredients
80ml pureed lychees
1 tbsp rose syrup (or see notes for an alternative)
75g mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100ml double cream
300g icing sugar, sifted

Rose Syrup Tuile Curl Method
Mix the butter, sugar and rose syrup until well combined and then gently stir in the flour until just incorporated. Cover the dish with cling film and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 1 week.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F while you line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and then wrap some more greaseproof around a rolling pin.

Spoon small hazelnut size scoops of the tuile batter onto the tray leaving around 2 inches space between them (they spread a lot) and then bake for 5-7 minutes until the edges turn golden brown but the centres are still a deep pink.

Remove the tray from the oven and leave the cookies to cool for about 10 seconds. Then take a thin flat palette (such as you use to smooth frosting) and gently slide it under a cookie seperating it from the paper. Gently life the cookie from the sheet and place it over the greaseproofed rolling pin - it will wrap around it making the required curl shape. If the cookies on the sheet become solid before you can curl them over the pin, just place the tray back in the oven for a few seconds so they soften up and become pliable again.

Repeat with the other cookies and leave them to cool on the rolling pin while you bake the next batch. When cool place on a piece of greaseproof paper in a safe area where they won't get knocked or broken while you bake the cupcakes.

Lychee Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a tin with a dozen standard American cupcake liners or muffin liners.

Mix the pureed lychees withthe milk and vanilla extract and set aside. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes and then gradually add the sugar. When well combined and fluffy add the egg and egg whites and mix until just combined. Now add half of the flour mixture and blend, then add the lychee and milk mixture and combine before adding the final portion of flour. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes until the tops are lightly golden and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool for ten minutes in the tray, then remove to a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Rose & Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting Method
Whip the double cream to stiff peaks and set aside. Beat the pureed lychees, rose syrup, mascarpone and vanilla extract and then gently stir in the whipped cream until just combined. Now fold in the sifted icing sugar until you reach the required spreadable/pipeable consistency - you may not need it all.

Spread over the completely cooled cupcakes and top with a tuile curl or your decoration of choice.

And a sprinkle of glitter. Don't forget the glitter.

Notes
I bought the rose syrup from my local supermarket in the ethnic foods section. It can also be found in many Asian and Indian supermarkets.

The rose syrup is necessary to make the tuile curls but for the frosting you could substitute the same quantity of rose water and a few drops of pink food colouring.

I think these would look beautiful with little fresh pink rose petals or buds on top, or a little cube of turkish delight would also be very fitting.

I know these seem outrageously feminine, but they got the thumbs up from some nice gents in my office. If you like turkish delight, I'm pretty sure you'll like these.

Fudgey Bacon and Pecan Blondies

Bacon. Bacon is great. In fact, most pork products are pretty fabulous. It's just a shame that it's one of the most fatty meats you can eat so we don't have it often, but occasionally I'll treat Pete and I to a tasty bacon sandwich for breakfast or a dinner of sausage and mash. However until now we had not tried bacon in a sweet baked recipe or dessert.

It's a pretty big thing in the USA right now - fancy a bacon, banana and peanut butter cupcake? Or maybe the famous 'Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut' from Dynamo Donut and Coffee in San Francisco? If you browse for some sweet treats on Etsy.com you're sure to come across chocolate covered bacon or bacon chocolate truffles.

As Pete and I are pretty addicted to Food Network we were made aware of these combos awhile ago and have always been curious as to whether it actually it good. My salted caramel cupcakes are awesome, so surely the salty bacon mixed with something sweet like chocolate would be great? Well, it is. Really really great actually. So great that I'll probably spend the next few weeks adding bacon to everything I cook - I'm now fairly sure that bacon will indeed enhance any recipe known to man.

There isn't so much bacon in these delicious slices so it's overpowering. You won't get a bit of bacon in every bite, but now and again you'll hit a chunk and be taken to heaven. The saltiness works SO well with the sweetness of the fudge and the creamy rich pecan nuts. I could indeed eat the entire tray if I didn't think that it would make me look like the very animal you get pork products from. Please try it, even if you think it sounds wrong. These blondies are so very very right.

Bacon on your creme brulee ma'am? Why yes, yes please.

Fudgey Bacon and Pecan Blondies
Makes 18 delicious squares

Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, melted
430g soft brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
280g plain flour
100g pecans, roughly chopped
100g vanilla fudge, roughly chopped
3 rashes of bacon, grilled until the fat is crispy and then chopped into little chunks

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a 9" x 13"deep sided baking pan (or something similar) with greaseproof paper.

Whisk together the melted butter and sugar until well combined, then add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.

Sift together the baking powder, salt and flour and then beat into the sugar mixture for 2-3 minutes. Fold in the pecans, fudge and bacon pieces.

Spread evenly into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is crisp and golden but the inside is still moist. Slide a knife into the center and if it comes out pretty much clean with perhaps a couple of crumbs it's ready.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan and cutting into squares. It's really good warm, and really good cooled. Store in an airtight container.

Some bacon-licious links!

Woodhouse Farm - A Leicestershire based producer of excellent home reared meats including bacon, you can order online for delivery or they have a storefront you can visit.

Bacon Salt - The stuff of legends, shake it onto anything and make it taste like bacon. Bacon chips. Bacon chicken. Bacon steak. Bacon popcorn. Bacon with extra bacon-y flavour! Buy it online in 8 different flavours including original, maple, applewood, jalapeno and more!

Baconnaise - From the people that invented bacon salt, you can now buy bacon flavour mayonnaise! Comes in regular or lite versions, I am yet to try this stuff but shall be purchasing very soon to slather onto everything I can think of.

The Bacon Explosion - A truly ridiculous recipe for teh hardcore bacon lover. I do not condone anyone ever eat this as it contains 5000 calories and 500g of fat. Heart fail.

Love Food Hate Waste's Bacon Recipes - This is a really great site showing you how to turn leftovers into delicious a new meal along with proper portion sizes, food storage tips and more. This link takes you to the bacon recipe ideas but go to the homepage here for more frugal fun.

Nancy's Best Macaroni and Cheese

After a work week like last week, I really needed a big plate full of comfort food. Being left to cover three peoples jobs is definitely not fun, and definitely not something I will be repeating after this second week of it is over. Part of me wishes that food didn't make me feel better - I would be a hell of a lot slimmer if it didn't - but sadly I don't earn enough to go on shopping sprees to lift my spirits. Until I win the lottery, I will soothe my soul with delicious but not so nutricious dinners.

This recipe is by far one of the best comforting meals I can think of and involves three of the archetypal warm you up from the inside ingredients - cheese, cream and pasta. Not for the weight watching (or the faint hearted some may say), this oven baked pot of starchy goodness was apparently made popular in the Western world by Thomas Jefferson who brought it back to Virginia, USA after his adventures in Italy, the land of wheaty cheesy goodness. Pasta? Pizza? Cannolis? Boy does that country know how to eat.

Onions cooking with garlic and sage / Milk infusing with bay leaf and nutmeg

So you can imagine my surprise when Pete let slip that he had NEVER EATEN MACARONI CHEESE? What? Is that possible? Not even the crappy boxed stuff or lame pre-packed ready meals? Of course I had to make him try it, and start with the best version possible - baptism by fire I say. My guy is a big time cheese lover, and emmental is one of his favourites so I added that to my recipe and it was a really good choice adding a slightly sharper edge to the rich creamy sauce.

Cooking roux / Finished white sauce

You could really use any cheese combination you like, but I wouldn't advise using any more mozzarella than I have here - I think if you upped the amount below it would be too stringy to mix thoroughly through the macaroni and onions. As you can see below my sauce was very elastic but still viscous enough to coat everything well. A sprinkling of parmesan over the top would add another layer of sharpness to cut through the cream.

Finished cheese sauce / Macaroni, onions and sauce mixed to perfection

Do try to get panko for the topping too, it really is far better than regular breadcrumbs and gives a beautiful crunch to the burnished exterior.

I really would not advise this as a regular meal, one serving probably contains a whole days worth of calories and fat and I don't want to be held responsible for the first death by cheese clogged artories...

Just going into the oven / Just out of the oven

Nancy's Best Macaroni and Cheese
Makes 8 servings - this can be halved or the leftovers can be frozen after they have cooled for up to 1 month

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
5-6 sage leaves, torn in half
1 large garlic clove, cut in two
500ml milk
2 bay leaves
pinch of nutmeg
30g plain flour
pinch of salt
pinch of ground black pepper
250g grated mozzarella
250g grated mature cheddar
200g grated emmental
250g macaroni
2 cups panko (or regular) breadcrumbs

Method
Preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F and butter either 2 medium or 1 large deep sided oven pan. Put these to one side out of your way.

Fry the diced onion, garlic halves and torn sage over medium heat until they are soft and caramelised. Remove the garlic halves and sage leaves and set aside - this can be done in advance and refrigerated if needed.

Warm the milk over low heat with the broken bay leaves and nutmeg until it comes to a simmer, then turn off the heat and remove the bay leaves . Melt the butter in another deep sided pan over medium heat and when it starts to bubble mix in the flour, salt and pepper, then cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the hot milk in 4 parts - it may seize up at first but keep whisking and when all the milk is added you should have a smooth sauce. Keep cooking this mixture, stirring often, until it bubbles and thickens - this should take around 10-12 minutes. While this is cooking put the pasta on to boil for aroudn 8 minutes - you want it to be al dente as it will soften more in the oven.

Take the pan off the heat and thoroughly mix in the cheeses, leaving a little of each to use as topping, and set aside. Drain your al dente macaroni and rinse it in cold water to get most the starch off. Add to the cheese sauce with the onions you cooked earlier and stir through so everything is well combined.

Pour into the buttered oven pan(s) and top with the remaining cheese and a good layer of panko breadcrumbs. Put into the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes until the tops are golden, bubbling and crispy. Serve alongside salad with a balsamic and olive oil dressing and eat your way to high calorie heaven.