Potato, Ham & Broccoli, Self-Crusting Quiche

 

Whoopee! This quiche has no base so perfect for those of you who love quiche but have little spare time or those of you who just don’t enjoy spending copious amounts of time in the kitchen. I mean there’s a little bit of prep…you won’t get away scot-free but with no base to make and roll out and par bake e.t.c it’s a lot less tricky. So it’s super easy to make (it was even easy to write out the recipe).

This was made to use up the last chunk of Christmas ham I had in the freezer but of course, if you are vegetarian simply leave it out and it’s still a rather tasty quiche. It’s loaded with broccoli and sweetcorn and of course, quite a bit of cheese and is just lovely with a green salad served up for brunch, lunch or dinner.

Self-crusting quiche, aka; Impossible Quiche. I don’t really know what that means…’Impossible Quiche’. Impossible to make? Of course not! Impossible to stop eating it…probably! Impossible not to like? Impossible to stop writing Impossible?…Impossible to fail?…Yes, I think that’s that one!

 

INGREDIENTS

450 g / 1 lb potatoes (approx 3 medium-sized)
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
500 g / 1 lb broccoli (1 medium-sized)
1 x 410 g / 14 oz tin whole kernel corn
200 g / 7 oz leftover ham or ham steaks (1 cup when diced)
100 g / 3 ½ oz cheddar cheese (1 cup when grated)
½ medium-sized brown onion
1 medium-sized clove garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon butter
8 medium-sized eggs (6’s)
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2/3 cup + 1 teaspoon standard flour
2/3 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
¼ teaspoon ground, black pepper
1 large tomato

 

Serves 8

 

Notes

• If you have it, you can replace the flour and the baking powder with 2/3 cup of self-raising flour.
• You could easily replace the potatoes with the same amount of cooked pumpkin or kumara (sweet potato).
• If you like you can replace the broccoli with wilted, chopped spinach or sliced and blanched courgettes.
• You can also replace the ham with rindless bacon or cooked shredded chicken or cooked, diced breasts.

 

STEP BY STEP

For this, you will need a 9-cup capacity ovenproof dish that is 25 cm / 10 in round x 5 cm / 2 in deep.

• A loose bottomed tin isn’t a good idea for this as the filling will leak out the bottom, I learnt this one the hard way!
• I used a fluted dish so it looks more quiche-like but any ovenproof dish that’s the same capacity/size will do. Note, if you go smaller there will be too much filling and if you go bigger the quiche will be flatter than mine and will take a little less time to cook.

Right, let’s go…let’s do the ‘impossible’!

Peel and chop the potatoes into approx 2 cm / ¾ in cubes).

Place them in a saucepan, cover them with cold water and over a medium/high heat, bring them to a boil.

Once boiling, add ¼ teaspoon of the salt and turn the heat down to medium/low or to where the water is simmering (softly boiling).

Cook them for 10 minutes (from simmering) or until they are easily pierced with a knife.

Once done, strain them into a colander or sieve and…

…place them in a medium-sized bowl.

Refill that saucepan you used for the spuds with water again and bring it back to the boil.

Whilst it’s coming to the boil, cut up the broccoli into little florets.

When the water’s boiling, add the broccoli and…

…blanch it for 3 minutes.

Then strain it through the colander/sieve also and…

…then add it to the bowl with the potato.

Open and drain the liquid from the corn, also adding it to the potato and broccoli.

Then, roughly dice up the ham and…

…You guessed it…add it to the rest!

Next, grate the cheese and…

…I don’t even need to write it, do I?!

Net, finely dice the onion and crush or finely chop the garlic clove.

Using a medium-sized frying pan, over a medium heat, heat the oil and the tablespoon of butter together and when they are hot…

…add the onion and stirring often, sauté it for 3 minutes or until it has softened. 

Then add the crushed garlic to the onion and continue cooking for a further minute. 

…add it to the rest!

Time to grease the tin…

Grease it well with the remaining teaspoon of butter, ensuring you get into all the ridges around the sides.

Then sprinkle the teaspoon of flour all around the inside of the dish. 

• I think the flour helps to give it a little crust.

Place all of the prep you’ve done into the dish, spreading it out evenly.

Now, preheat the oven to 170°C fan bake oven or 190°C conventional oven, on bake, with a rack situated below the centre of the oven (so the top of the dish will be in the centre of the oven). 

Break the eggs into another medium-sized bowl and add the mustard, whisking the two together until combined.

Go on to add the flour and the baking powder and whisk that in also until it’s as smooth as you can get it.

Lastly, add and whisk in the milk and the remaining teaspoon of salt and the pepper.

Pour the egg-fill over the vegetables in the dish.

• Don’t worry if yours fills it up right to the top, it shouldn’t rise and spill over in the oven and if you were worried about that you can place a cooking tray underneath it…just in case. 🙂

Thinly slice the tomato into 8 slices and…

…place them around the edge of the quiche, so that there will be one slice on each piece of quiche.

Carefully place it in the oven for 20 minutes and then turn the oven temp down 20°C lower and continue cooking for a further 35 minutes or until it’s golden brown all over, firm to touch in the centre and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean (with no liquid from the egg-fill on it).

• • If a knife isn’t coming out dry and clean keep cooking for 10-minute intervals until it does.

Run a knife around the edges to make sure none of it is stuck before slicing it into wedges.

Serve whilst still warm with a nice green salad, some crusty, fresher than fresh bread and I like mine with a huge dollop of sweet chilli sauce (but then again I could put that on everything)!

Keepin’ it fresh – Covered well with cling wrap it should keep well for up to 3 days in the fridge. Reheat individual pieces in the microwave for just under 2 minutes.

 

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