Smoked Trout & Leek Quiche with olive oil &wine pastry

Trout is readily available from the rivers of the Carpathians or yes to be honest nowadays the fish farms that dot the valleys. Anyhow its a local fish that has not flown half way round the world to be here and I like using it. It works well with the mild flavour of leeks and the result is a sweet very savoury tart.

Ingredients – for quite a deep 20cm quiche

1 olive oil and wine pastry case [link to recipe]

2 fat fillets of smoked trout or 1 fairly large smoked trout

4 eggs

400ml 3.5% milk or a mix of cream and milk

fresh herbs, bits of rucola. Nice herbs are parsley and dill. Tarragon would be great and very Transylvanian but not with the dill as they would compete. be generous with the greenery

half a leek extremely finely chopped (so you dont need to cook it first)

some salt and pepper

How To

Chop up all your herbs and the leeks and sprinkle into the quiche case

With your fingers roughly break up the smoked trout and place on top of the greenery

Mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper gently with a fork and pour over the trout & herbs

Press down any “floating” bits of greenery because if they stick out they will burn. However some sort of haphazard, bits poking out look is nice

Cook at 160-170C gently until browned on top and the middle of the quiche no longer wobbles. It will rise up souffle like and then as it cools down setttle down.

Serve warm with a celeriac, carrot and apple salad and I fancy a nice glass of Feteasca Regala with it…

Easy Olive Oil & Wine Pastry – for savoury tarts

Well behaved pastry that doesnt need pre-chilling or rolling. You can substitute water for wine.

I remember the first time I tried an olive oil pastry…I was a student and keen on experimentation. There wasn’t much extra virgin around in those days and back in the kitchen I created oily crumbs which when pressed into a tart tin promptly fell apart and tasted faintly rancid. I relegated the idea but always hoped I would find a recipe that worked.

Fast forward a year or two well Ok then a few decades…and I started tinkering around with flours and quantities and here is a recipe that is my absolute Go To for quiches. Its so clever because you dont actually need to roll it out, nor do you need to chill it and relax it you just press it into the tin as if pressing modelling clay. It is also so well behaved it never bubbles up or shrinks like regular butter based pastries can.

Ingredients

This will line a deep (4cm) 20cm quiche ring so if you have a regular slightly less deep flan tin you will have a little left over – freeze it.

175g Wholemeal flour (adds flavour)

75g polenta (adds crunch)

100ml white wine (water is fine)

80ml fruity extra virgin olive oil (it does imbue some taste so I think its worth it)

a pinch of salt if you must

1 tablespoon of poppy seeds (not essential but makes it look special)

1 egg beaten with a fork and a pastry brush

How To

Measure the oil and water/wine. Use just one measuring container and do some maths. Excess washing up is bad – bad for you and bad for the planet. I always like how the oil floats on the water…I know its nerdy but I like it.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl together and mix with a knife until a solid soft ball is formed. Yes thats right that is all there is to it! Unless you want your pastry to have the texture of shoe leather don’t over mix it.

Press the pastry into your tin gradually working from the centre out so the pastry is one thickness. make sure the rim is not paper thin using your thumb to tap it down a little.

Preparing for the Tart Filling – Blind Baking

Scrunch up a piece of baking paper (it needs to become softer and pliable)

Fill with ceramic baking beans if you own them, a mix of beans, rice and grain as I prefer or salt (which works well but if spilt makes your tart really really salty so I avoid it).

Bake for 20 minutes at 180C

Remove the beans

paint the inside with the egg – you just waterproofed the tart case to prevent a soggy bottom and we don’t want any of those

Bake again for 10 minutes

Leave to cool, fill with your chosen filling and bake gently until the filling is cooked.

Hot Chocolate Orange Fondant Puddings – a dirty little secret

We all love chocolate fondant pudding…the soft molten chocolate goo inside and the spongy crust provide for a great collision of taste sensations. Here I am using an eco friendly serving dish – the case of the orange itself which is also great if you dont happen to own ramekins or mini pudding tins. This also imbibes an extra orangey hit into the mix. I took the idea from a child’s cooking session where we baked orange cake in the shells and created this more adult version.

And now the dirty little secret…. no not that you can eat the batter direct from the bowl and never actually bother with making the puds…no something a little more prosaic… simply that you can cook these direct from frozen…hallelujah! and therefore they should be on your dinner party shortlist.

Ingredients (makes 12 halves)

2 oranges whole boiled for 1 hour starting with a level of water that almost covers them both – use up less than perfect oranges, make ahead and freeze them
6 oranges
cocoa powder, for dusting
200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
200g butter, in small pieces plus extra if you are using ramekins or expresso cups
200g sugar
4 eggs and 4 yolks
100g plain flour (note for a gluten free version use rice flour or corn flour)
50g good cocoa powder

Gadgets & Gizmos

An electric whisk/ food mixer with a whisk attachment – unless you have Popeye biceps its not really worth whisking with a hand whisk…well I think its not!

A blender to pulp your boiled oranges.

A cup cake tin is handy

How To

If you are using orange halves no need to prepare your moulds just cut in half and use a citrus juicer to take out the juice. Now with your fingers or a teaspoon remove the pithy debris – what you want is orange halves free of the pith and segment membranes. It sounds worse than it is – its pretty easy! Cut a little of the orange away at each end so it will sit flat on a tray/ final serving plate. Place each empty half so it just rests on the cup cake hole.
If using ceramic/metal little pots/ ramekins make sure what you are using is ovenproof – expresso cups work well if you dont have ramekins. First get your moulds ready by painting them with melted butter and then allow it to go solid. Now sprinkle with cocoa powder generously, tip upside down onto a plate to remove excess. This step seems fiddly…..and it is. But the cocoa powder allows the pudding to rise up gracefully and not stick to the sides of the moulds. Same thing applies to souffles.
Cut your boiled oranges up roughly just to ensure you can take all the pips out. Blitz them up to a nice puree. It should smell like marmalade.
Melt your chocolate and butter together in the microwave (carefully and checking the rotating plate is rotating so you don’t set fire to it like I did recently…beautiful chocolate reduced to smoke and ash…) or traditionally in a bowl over simmering water.
In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail – if you havent got an electric whisk this is pretty daunting and I am not sure I would bother to be honest.
Sift the flour and cocoa into the egg mixture. Pour in the orange puree. Fold very gently until incorporated taking care that the orange puree hasnt all sunk to the bottom.
Pour the melted chocolate/butter into the orangey floury cocoay egg mixture in thirds, folding in ever so gently so as not to knock the air out. Again make sure the chocolate hasnt all accumulated at the bottom of your bowl.
You can tip into a jug but I hate excess washing up – I use a ladle to put into the orange halves. Fill to the brim. At this point you can freeze them. If cooking immediately it is better to chill them a little beforehand but not essential.
Heat oven to 180C and cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds (this wont happen with the orange). If cooking from frozen add 6 minutes extra to the cooking time.
Serve immediately!

I think they are great with some vanilla ice cream on top or actually just as they are.