Winter Warmer - Choucroute Alsacienne

At least once a year, when it's cold and blustery, I find myself craving this dish, which I was introduced to as an exchange student in the French Alps. My host mother was an amazing cook, and I have very fond memories of the time I spent living there, so this dish makes me feel all cosy and nostalgic. My lovely boyfriend Patrick recently lived in France; plus we both pride ourselves on our cooking efforts, so I decided it was time to share this beautiful dish with him, and as is often the way my sis & bro-in-lo.

My sister let me steal her Year 11 book prize "French Family Cooking" by Françoise Bernard many years ago, and there is a recipe in there that I have always used as a framework:

As the translation suggests, this dish is basically sauerkraut with sausages - pork pork pork, potatoes, cabbage - but the fun is in the trip to the local butcher shop and the astonishment this dish will cause.

Essentially, I bought 2.3kg of meat:
- American smoked bacon
- British pork sausages
- A pork shoulder roast, cut in halves (in lieu of the veal knuckle)
- A bacon/ham hock, cut in halves ("yay! meaty band-saw!" cried the butcher, well I imagine)
- An Italian spiced sausage
I was unable to fit both halves of the pork shoulder and the hock in the pan, so all up I imagine it was roughly 2 kilos in the end.

I had 3 cans of sauerkraut, which made between 1 to 1.5 kg and as soon as I decided it was on, I rinsed and then soaked the sauerkraut in cold water, for the time it took to go to the butcher and grocer nearby.

I then put my large casserole on the stove with the hock, shoulder and generously diced (1" oblongs) bacon covered in water, to bring to the boil. In the meantime I peeled and halved or quartered the potatoes and finely sliced the onion. I usually omit the carrot, I find the sweetness takes away from the dish, and today was no exception (and anyway I had run out of real estate in the pan!).

Once the meats were at a boil, I took them off the heat; then rearranged, in layers: the bacon; drained (and hand pressed & untangled) sauerkraut & onion; then the pork shoulder, ham hock & spiced sausage; more sauerkraut; clove, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper, pepper, pepper and juniper berries. Then some dry apple cider instead of wine and water to cover.

There is then time to clean up the kitchen hurricane as you bring to the boil then simmer everything for just over an hour. Then it's time to remove the meat "garnish" (the French to English translation in this book is very confusing at times). I placed the hock and shoulder into an ovenproof bowl with a lid in the oven just under 100°c to keep warm, with a ladle-full of the soupy pan juices. Then back to the sauerkraut on the stove, add the potatoes and push them in until they are submerged in the soupy-juice and covered with a warm doona of sauerkraut. Boil/simmer for about half an hour. I say "boil/simmer" because in my current house the gas is either "on very flamey" or "low flame but precariously likely to suddenly go out and continue to fill the room with unburnt gas". Plus as long as you pop by every now and then, it should be fine. Some extra heat or time is not necessarily a bad thing here as the flavour just gets better and better. You can top up with water at any time to counteract the boiling.

After that, put in the pork sausages (or if you follow the recipe use frankfurters - they didn't have any that I liked the look of at the butcher by mid afternoon) and push them under the surface gently. Then plonk the rest of the meats in or on; heat for 20 minutes, then you're ready to serve (or just pop the lid on on low heat or in the sub-100 oven until all your guests are in the door, salutations and settings are done.

Get ready for a feast, food coma and family fun times! It's totally worth the effort - well, at least once a year! I split the larger ingredients to make for safer serving and then once we'd all had a go, I popped everything back in the pan together. This amount was good for all four of us to have a decent serve, and seconds, or was that thirds, plus three generous leftover serves that I savoured over the week to follow. Rye or sour dough bread to sop up all the delicious soup-juice is highly recommended! I favour apple cider with this dish, but as we all proved that night, choucroute goes well with beer, white wine and red wine to suit all drinking tastes!

Bon appétit!

Tuscan Kale Crisps

In my previous research for nasturtium recipes I also discovered that Kale Chips are allegedly addictive.

I have some Tuscan Kale (Cavolo Nero) coming up in the back yard, so I thought I'd give it a go out of curiosity.

So, as per the recipe, I chopped out the stems, then mixed up the leaves in a freezer bag with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and ground sea salt. Then I popped then into the oven on 200 degrees, admittedly a few minutes too long out of absent-mindedness.

I'd aim for ten - fifteen minutes but they were in for about 20 by accident, and turned out a touch too browned/black.

They came out crunchy, salty and delicious, but the bitterness of the Tuscan cabbage and the "furry tongue" spinach after taste were a bit too much for me, I only ate about a third of the batch before feeling overwhelmed. Fortunately they keep perfectly fresh and crispy in a zip lock bag. That was Friday, today is Monday/Tuesday (night) and they are still there as a handy zing of texture and flavour to have when I get home from late shift. If you love bitter greens and that spinach-y/dark-greeny flavour, I can see how they'd be morish, but unfortunately it is just too much for me.


I have a feeling the curly kale used in the recipe will be a more mellow bite, and I've seen bunches of curly kale in the local grocer's so I've got that as another option to try, I'll let you know!

Nasturtium Stir'ems

As you know, my front garden is alight with nasturtium plants this winter, and I had heard that they are quite edible. Eaten raw they are SUPER peppery; even for me who is in love with watercress as a salad base. So I thought I'd pick a bagful and try them out cooked. They really are quite appealing, lovely looking leaves and stems:


So I decided to add them to my standard Duck and Glass Noodle Stirfry Salad in place of the usual watercress (which is getting easier to buy, but is really rather difficult to grow).

All in all it was pretty straight forward, I just cut up the stems and leaves with a pair of scissors and added them into the wok at the appropriate time.


I only used duck, green beans, garlic and ginger as the other stuff so I could really see what the nasturtiums had to say.


It turned out nicely (although I have a right wrist injury in a splint so left-handed stirfrying caused a bit of kitchen carnage I must say):
...but I must say the nasturtium didn't really add much flavour that I could notice, not like watercress does; but the stems add a nice texture, and you are left with a funny tongue coated peppery feel once you finish eating, which is a new sensation.

I think the verdict is that I'll use the front yard plants for my stirfries if I haven't got watercress to hand, but I can't say it will be replacing it all together. I'll carry onto the next nasturtium experiment...

Fire and spice

Time for a confession: I am a massive chili WUSS! I love a little tang of chili on the tip of the tongue, such as my favourite Italian restaurant puts in their alio olio; or as a pinch of chili flakes in my stir fry sauce but that's about as far as I can go.

However, I love having chili plants in the garden, and I have put in two gorgeous dwarf ornamental pepper plants - one has purple foliage and produces deep purple to red chilies; whilst the other has standard green leaves and green to red chilies. My parents saw this and decided to give me another MONSTER chili plant which had been rambling wild in the rosebeds and growing too fast to harvest:



Oddly enough, my little black dog has been quite taken to wrapping her mouth around the chilies and gumming on them like lollipops. I'm worried about what might happen if she actually chews so it's living on the patio table for the moment. I used a couple in a stirfry the other day, and of course my family decided to have a chili chew-off - my bro-in-lo who is a chili gun was a teensy bit red in the face! My seestah had tears streaming down her face! I sensibly had picked out the volcano pods of doom and quite enjoyed the stirfry. The trick is to leave them whole as it is the seeds which are the killers!

So. Too many chilies. What to do? Make chili oil! It's great as to douse on things in the same way you would use any good olive oil - to oil a pan; finish a pasta or even dress a salad. You can opt to use the soaked chilies themselves or just the infused liquid if you are a chili wuss like me.

I made a small jar for my friend Tina recently as I had not had enough time to knit up a baby blanket for her and was finally able to catch up with her and her gorgeous bub, and I hated to turn up empty handed:



DAEMON CHILI OIL WITH HERBS AND SPICES

Sterilise a jar (by which I mean, put it in the dishwasher, if you are lazy like me)

Harvest a handful of thyme (I used lemon thyme for the jar above) and as many chilies as you want to fill your jar with and wash thoroughly. Trim the stalks off the chilies. You can leave them whole, which is pretty, or halve them lengthways to show off the seeds and increase the heat of the oil flavour more rapidly.

Skin and chop up a couple of cloves of garlic.

Place the thyme, chilies and garlic in the jar. You can simply chuck it all in; or put them in layers for a large jar. In the case of a small jar like the one I made for Tina, I like to keep the thyme on its stems and wind it around like a big bird's nest inside the jar - this provides a framework for the chilies and garlic chunks - just tuck them in with a fairly even distribution all around the jar (layering as you go in a circular motion).

Add a pinch of black peppercorns from your grinder (this way you'll get some whole ones and some semi-smushed ones).

Then pour over the oil, tapping or agitating the jar as you go to try to release the tiny air bubbles out of the centre of the chilies. In theory, by getting all the air out and having all the organic matter covered by the oil, it shouldn't be able to spoil, and will keep for ages and ages.

A simple yet effective way to use up all those chilies!

- Variation - I like the flavour profile of thyme, chili and garlic; but if you don't have thyme or you want to try something else, you can also use any or all of the leafy stalky herbs such as rosemary, oregano or marjoram. Try them all, it's so easy!

Nasturtiums

I was so angry when I first moved here, the previous owner (or was it the estate agent?) had basically thrown a packet'o'mixed seeds all over the garden beds so it looked a bit like a Jackson Pollack flower spew! I got a gardener in to help me rip out everything except the big lemon tree, the bottle brush tree and the hibiscus tree in the front yard, and I started again with a country cottage style garden - I've planted marigolds and mint in a pretty row along the driveway; some pizza thyme by the letterbox; a row of standard iceberg roses and tuscan rosemary along the footpath; some lavender, heirloom sage, native lillies and watercress in the front garden bed; and two bay trees in formal pots by the front windows. Everything is edible, except for a port wine magnolia which I wanted for the fragrance near the front door. However, in the meantime, the entire front garden bed has filled up with a sea of nasturtium plants, popping out all over the place as if to say "hey! we're edible too, you know!". I've been tasting the leaves - MAN they are peppery. You know I love the peppery taste of raw watercress, but the nasturtium leaves sure pack a punch - I've had tears in my eyes with the last few nibbles! So I'm on the hunt for nasturtium recipes - in particular I think I will try substituting them in place of watercress in stir-fries, but here are a couple of recipes I wanted to keep here as links to remind me to try them later:

We're eating flowers

Herb and nasturtium biscuits

Thai Rice Salad with Nasturtium

Please let me know if you have any further ideas or recipes that you've tested!

Monday Mayhem!

(A post made possible with the contribution of my lovely friend Bex)

So, it all started with this yummy jar of Spiced Yabbies that I bought down south in a winery, sadly I can't remember which winery! Although technically, I'm not sure if in WA we are supposed to be referring to them as Gilgies to avoid confusion. That didn't work. I had served up my own jar as part of an antipasto platter for rellies. Bex moved back interstate and was on the same road trip, so she gifted me her jar as well. Also, Bex introduced me to a cute little shop/café called The Ingredient Tree near her place when she was living here. I had recently returned from an adventure on the Amazon Basin in Peru, and had spent every single day there eating the most delicious Heart of Palm salad that I am sad I never got the recipe for. So to my surprise, this little shop had a shelf full of tins of Palm Hearts, so of course I grabbed one... not really knowing what to do with it. Nor the yabby meat in spices. It had been months of thinking, and mind-marinating, but not much inspiration. Then it turned out the Yabby Meat was about to expire:



I had considered making a Yabby Meat Linguine, similar to my vongole/shellfish standard.
A Chargrilled Yabby Salad?
A Yabby Cous Cous?

As for the heart of palm, maybe a modified Caprese?
Or just eat it all in a big palm heart splurge?
Or a Heart of Palm Cous Cous?

Hmm, I really like cous cous and I haven't had it in an awfully long time... and I'd just bought a nice new set of stock jellies to try (one little one makes 2 cups' worth, which is perfect!).



A googlywoogly and a similar sounding combo later, and I finally came up with this idea:

(Warm Salad of) Heart of Palm and Spiced Yabby Cous Cous

Let's do this! If you want to know how long it takes, start making this with the start of Bargain Hunt on the telly in the background. You should be done well before the ad break that comes just before the auctions. Convenient timing, I ate my dinner in front of the suspense filled scenes.

So first things first, as above I just boil water in the kettle to pour with cous cous in a 1:1 ratio. For this one, pour out two cups' worth of water to mix up your stock jelly cube. Add two cups of cous cous, and stir/fluff with a fork to avoid play-doh clumps forming. Set by the stove and completely forget about it.

So I had never really handled these palm heart do-dads, so in case you are the same, here's a pic of how they come out of the tin. They didn't have a very strong fragrance in the brine, so I just sliced them up and hoped for the best.


Then I decided to go for a blend of the following vegies - thinly sliced zucchini strips, halved mini-Roma tomatoes, a diced 3/4 of a red onion plus the grated zest and juice of half a lemon - fresh off the tree from the front yard!


Herbs and spices were a bit of a fun blend - dried mixed herbs from the spice rack, cracked black pepper, powdered cumin and powdered garlic. Then I braced myself against the cold night air to grab a handful of chives which I then snipped up with scissors.

Then I drained the yabbies, but left in the spices that they came with.


The boxes arrived today from my East coast place, but I was not going to dig out the Circulon casserole dish and so here we are again, cooking inappropriate dishes in a wok.

I fried up the onion and zucchini slices in a generous splash of olive oil, with a single slurp of balsamic vinegar and all the dried herbs and spices. Then the yabby meat Then I added the tomato, lemon zest & juice and then used a garlic press to add a couple of cloves of happy goodness. Then in with the palm hearts, then using the fork for maximal fluffiness, the cous cous in small amounts with vigorous stirring in between. Heat off and away we go with a bowlful of warm salad to go and see what Tim Wonnacott has to say about stately homes and the fripperies of royal visits. Oh you saucy minx! Delicious.

"Wow!" Factor Wednesday

...or, Rock out with your Wok out Hump day.

So I've gotten into the habit of cooking up a big batch of somethin' somethin' the day before a round of shifts, boxing it up into generous serves and feeling super prepared for the energy drain of the work week.

In related news, I've also been working on my new vegie and herb garden now that I have access to ground floor dirt. The perennial basil has been going off like a frog in a sock, with fat, tart leaves and huge long stems of edible flowers.

So I decided to come up with my take on the legendary Thai takeaway staple of Beef with Basil.


The first round was for when Mumsy and Dadsy came over unexpectedly for dinner one night, and it's had many new versions inventified since then.

The last batch brought into work made me happy due to nomming, yes; but also quite chuffed because every time a new person would walk into the tea room they'd say one or all of these things, in this order:
"Wow! Something smelllls amaazing!"
"What are you eating? That looks amaazing!"
"You made that? Wow! Amaaazing!"
Which isn't too shabby for a leftover stirfry!

BEEF WITH BASIL, experimental cooking style:

Have a weird habit of buying budget/on sale beef steak, and filling your freezer full of it. Despite this, have no recollection of your past self already doing this, and end up with lots of steak to use up. For this recipe it's best to use budget lean steak with no fancy marbling to confuse the beefy issue. Pull a tray of said steak out of the freezer and allow to thaw whilst you attend to vegies.

Harvest a metric shit-tonne of perennial basil. Wash, pick off caterpillars, then strip the flowers and leaves off the stems - separate into three piles.

Slice and dice some vegies to add to your stirfry. I still haven't nailed exactly which vegies I like best in here, or whether I should just be a purist and leave them out altogether. So far my favourite has been cauliflower, as shown above. There is something quite intense about getting those nice nutty charred bits of cauli to add a bit of oomph, but it also is neutral and flavour absorbing enough to not detract too much from the star players. I've tried field mushrooms (the large fleshy flat cups) and celery pieces (stalks and leaves all in), which have both worked well as well. If you can think of a more traditional, green leafy that would work well, please let me know.

Finely slice an onion.

Finely dice some garlic (no such thing as too much) and sliver up a generous (1-2cm) chunk of ginger lengthways.

Now back to the beef. My Mum would constantly moan and groan about how butchers in Oz can't seem to understand that 'stir fry meat pieces' are NOT in fact those big, long, 'with the grain' beef strips that will work so well in stroganoffs and such love-you-long-time simmer stews. Essentially, stir frying is a flash fry attack, where you literally chuck in the meat at the end just as long as you would to brown something then agitate with one or two stirs as the pieces are so thin and tender that that is actually all they should need. I never used to realise what all the fuss was about until I started to Wok out myself. So unless you have an Asian butcher nearby, which I'd like but is not the case in these particular burbs, use semi frozen slabs of meat to cut into bite sized chunks then slice across the grain into thin (3-5mm) slices of happiness. You can attempt this with a mega sharp knife and unfrozen meat, but sadly I am just not that talented!


As you go, place slices in a bowl. Apply the following Mum-approved marinade (all at once or in splashes for each layer if you are doing a huge amount:
Light soya sauce - a generous splash to coat the pieces
Dry sherry or rice wine - ditto
Lots of pepper (ground black or powdered white); dried powdered garlic and ginger
A pinch/half a teaspoon/2cm length of a chopstick end-full of sugar.

I also add a tiny bit of chili flakes to this marinade now.
I decided to be brave and use dark (or mushroom-style dark) soya sauce to really coat and gloss up the beef (brave as Mum used to only ever reserve this strong stuff for the soya sauce chicken, it was never really vetted for general stirfry use!)

Assemble each ingredient near your stovetop in little bowls, plates or generic receptacles within arm's reach. Once your start the stirfry, it needs to be done all in a flash so none of the elements overcooks.

You ready? Start the Wok!
Place your wok over high heat.
Pour in a drizzle of neutral tasting oil. I use olive oil. Vegetable, canola etc are all good.
Plop the garlic and ginger pieces and the basil stems into the oil they'll start to sizzle and infuse the oil and the house with delicious aromas.
Then the onion pieces. I also add cashew pieces here sometimes.
Stir stir stir sizzle. Fish out the basil stems.
Now add the cauliflower/vegie pieces. Allow to contact the wok freely to add some small charred areas then stir stir stir.
Now the beef, marinade and all. If it's too dry, add a splash of water. If it's too soggy, Dad taught me a trick of gently sprinkling over some cornflour to thicken the sauce up - but be ready to go stir-crazy or you'll end up with unfortunate lumps.
So. Stir sizzle stir add the basil leaves stir add the basil flowers stir sizzle, and you're done! Delicious stirfry fit for a feast or a week's worth of workday dinners! Wow!

Traditional Taste Sensations

There are some flavour combinations that have stood the test of time. Tried and tested, trusted, tasty.

Let's talk about this one: Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella.

What is it about this combination that keeps me coming back for more? Is it the sweetness of the tomato? The tang of the basil? The chewy mozzarella (or bocconcini)? I think it is, but in an "all of it together" kind of way. Add some garlic, olive oil, and/or balsamic and you're officially in "fast" food heaven. I mean it. It is fast when something works soooo well. Use it on top of bread, pizza dough, pasta, gnocchi or cous cous and you're pretty much a legend. I'm not even a vegetarian! Here, have some recipes, although they are so easy, I am blushing at the simplicity. Heaven... must be missing... three ingredients...


(Having Heirloom Tomatoes available at your local convenience shop definitely adds to the joy and amazement, I must say!)

Two Second Salad:

I was first introduced to this marvellous delicious rapid recipe on a Prix Fixe menu in a Café Roma or some such other generically named place in Paris. I am ashamed to say (I grew up in an Italian stronghold), I would never have thought to order Caprese Salad (that's right, it has its own Wikipedia page, three ingredients are a powerful thing) of my own accord. Truth be told I took one look and thought it was a rip off, but the second the flavour combination hit my tastebuds I was hooked!

Here's one I prepared earlier, for a Father's Day Feast last year:



1. Slice fresh tomato/es (or if using mini-Romas, grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, use halves)
2. Remove basil leaves from stalks (home grown is so satisfyingly fresh - I always keep some in a pot of "Sweet"/standard basil by the windowsill or on the balcony/courtyard near the door)
3. Slice fresh mozzarella - my favourite is buffalo if you want supercreamy or teeny tiny bocconcini if you're using teeny tiny tomatoes

Arrange on a plate in the above order.
Hey presto! Insalata!

(Dressing - optional - Drizzle over olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar and/or salt & pepper.)

Three Second Caprese Skewers:

Use the above combination on skewers for a fun and festive appetiser plate. Ideally use halved cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, halved bocconcini, then repeat. I drizzled over the dressing, but with a bit more thought I think a shallow saucer of dressing to gently dip/roll the skewers in on the side (much like satay stick sauce is often served) might work best.


(I served these up at the start of Christmas Dinner last year and they were eaten so quickly! I should definitely double the amount next time...)

Three step pizza:
(Pizza Margherita to her friends)

Use pizza dough/a pre-bought pizza base/pita bread with a topping of:
1. Tomato paste (I add a fine dusting of garlic and mixed herbs; sometimes pine nuts)
+/- optional fresh tomato slices or small chunks (5mm-1cm big)
2. Basil leaves - Large fresh ones if you can, store bought dried or squeeze tube if you can't
3. Shredded/grated mozzarella

Bake in oven, I usually go 200∘C for ten minutes (or as long as the top can take without going from browned to blackened). Then I eat. Omnomnomnomnom.

Friday Frittata

When I was a little girl, Mum used to joke that if you are what you eat, I must have been made of potatoes. Apparently, if there was a choice between any kind of food or even delicious treats and (mashed, steamed, fried, boiled) potato, I'd be all over the potatoes like a rash as if it were candy. Weird. I wonder if I had some rare elemental nutrient deficiency? Is it selenium that somes from spuds? Let me know!

Anyhoo, I'm a bit more balanced in my diet now, but I must admit that potato is still my go-to carbs over other choices, probably because I've devoted such a lifetime to discovering fun and interesting ways to cook it. This includes the time that my parents got the "evil" (according to my Year 2 teacher) microwave device, and I would cook a potato in the microwave plain, then pour Maggi seasoning sauce (essentially soya sauce with MSG added) on and feel like an evil genius gourmand. The babysitter who taught me how to make home-made crisps by thinly slicing potatoes and frying them as an after school snack is still my favourite, and we are still in contact 25 years on! No surprise then that my aforementioned recipe clipping folder contains an entire section devoted to potatoes:



...and my favourite recipe is potato frittata, which has taken many many forms in my topsy-turvy-many-housey lifetime. I can't believe I haven't blogged it yet for you!

Potato frittata (or "potato based quiche") is a versatile dish. It is a great dish to cut up into little finger food/tapas sized pieces for people to nibble as an appetiser at parties and goes down well as it is substantial but snacky enough to bring to "bring a plate" functions or to work. It's also a lovely comfort food that you can serve up, country café-style on a plate with a simple salad. You can bake it, then keep it in the fridge as leftovers to eat cold or reheated for breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper; which is perfect for the times when I've been living the solitary shiftworker lifestyle and can only work up enough energy to cook once for a big round of days or nights on. I'm actually post-nights, and eating a big leftover slab of it right now as we speak.



(No seriously, when can I quit my day/night job and run a little country café?)

I've also found that in lieu of having the entire thing as a dense layer of potatoey goodness, you can also substitute many combinations of ingredients for the middle and top layer without too much fuss. Shredded turkey, chopped BBQ chicken, grated zucchini, broccolini pieces, mushrooms, sweet potato and leftover Christmas ham are amongst some of my tried and tested concepts. You can completely replace the potato, if you have a weird childhood trauma aversion to them (Irish ex-boyfriend, are you listening?), but I would suggest you use them for the very base layer just to add some structural integrity. You can also make two different combos in the same dish:



So here is the basic recipe, but if you can imagine it is three layers, one potato, one onion +/- bacon/ham; one potato, feel free to substitute in any cooked meat or vegies for the top two layers.

POTATO FRITTATA

For a lasagne dish 18x27cm
--> Line the dish with baking paper and oil it (I use olive oil spray but butter or oil smear works just as well)
--> Preheat the oven to 180degrees.

Base and top layers
1kg (approx. 10 medium sized) potatoes, thinly sliced (Kipfler or waxy potatoes are best, not mashing potatoes)
--> Boil, steam or microwave these until al dente. These will be for both the base and top layers. As I do them in the microwave, I put half first into the microwave. While that is cooking I then sort out the middle layer (see below). Then while the second 500g (of potatoes or other vegies) is cooking I can start layering the first layer of cooked potatoes into the dish.

If I have limited time on one day or know I plan to make frittata a day later, the other option is to cook all the potatoes, then allow them to cool and keep them in the fridge until you are ready for assembly.

Middle layer
1 large or two small (red or white) onions, finely chopped
2 rashers of bacon or slices of ham, finely chopped (optional)
1 small red chili, seeded and finely chopped OR a tablespoon of sweet chili sauce
--> Fry these together in a pan with a spray or splash of olive oil until the onion is translucent and soft.

--> Layer the bottom layer neatly with your first 500g of cooked potato slices. Season with a sprinkle of:

Seasoning mix
Parsley (dried or chopped fresh), chives or spring onions finely snipped
Ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese (instant stuff in a jar or grated fresh are both fine)

--> Then layer on the middle layer mix; and again sprinkle on the seasonings.

--> Then place the top layer ingredients (your 2nd 500g of potato slices, or whatever cooked meat/vegie mix you want to incorporate. If you have heaps of leftover vegies to use up or a cooked chook in the back of the fridge, you can skip the middle layer to allow more room for this stuff and to save time. Again sprinkly over a fine layer of the seasonings.

Egg mix
8 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk or milk, mixed in with the eggs
--> Pour this mixture over your layered goodies. Allow to settle/gently encourage the ingredients down below the egg line with a fork.

--> Bake for 45 minutes, or until the egg mix is set (which you can check by inserting a skewer in the middle which should come out cleanly if it is cooked through). I find most ovens are not 100% even, so I often pull it out at about 20 or 30 minutes to give it a gentle jiggle to check the firmness, then I rotate it around in the oven for more even baking.

--> Allow to cool out of the oven once done to let the excess steam escape and the egg mix to firm up. I then use the baking paper and a couple of spatulas to lift the whole thing out of the pan onto a chopping board to allow for easier slicing. If you want to make small tapas sized pieces, use a very sharp knife and allow it to cool further before slicing to really firm up the mix (often I refrigerate it overnight then slice it the next day for this effect).




MODIFICATIONS

For a standard sized round quiche dish, 3-4 potatoes are enough for each layer (see purple recipe above) and then alter the middle and top layers accordingly; use 6 eggs to 1/2 a cup of milk for your egg mix.

For a larger roasting pan, use 11 or 12 eggs to one cup of milk, and larger potatoes or more meat/vegie mix.

It's an art, not a science! Enjoy!!!