Plan E

Monday nights are always a little harder to find an open restaurant but when we had to go our 5th choice because of so many places closed, it was getting a bit ridiculous.

First choice– Kinn Thai Canberra, today was supposed to be their grand opening but with a several day delay and no guarantee of an actual opening date it was time for plan B

Plan B– somewhere in Braddon followed by Frugii, sorry boys! Frugii is opened Wednesday – Sunday

Plan C– Les Bistronomes, ooooh beef Wellington with red wine jus, yes please! Oh wait, you’re not open Monday’s either

Plan D– Shannon’s BBQ, not an actual restaurant by the looks of the photos but somewhere to satisfy our meat craving nonetheless, not open until Tuesday 28th… Of course it is Luckily I checked before suggesting it to the group only to be disappointed again

Plan E– debating between Chifley’s bar and grill or Marble and Grain… Either way at least they are both open tonight

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Mini quiches – recipe

After my productive morning of sleeping in and having breakfast before 9am (yes I enjoy my sleep), I decided to make something quick and savoury for a morning tea I was headed out to later that day. I coincidentally had all the things for mini quiches except for puff pastry (which is usually my freezer staple), but I sent TimmyC out for that while I quickly gathered the rest of the ingredients.

This is only the second time I’ve made mini quiches and I’ve found them to be quite easy.

Mini quiches

(I made 18 quiche Lorraine and 18 vegetarian quiches)

Ingredients:

Spray cooking oil
1 small onion diced (I used Spanish)
1/2 cup of grated tasty cheese
1 dollop thickened cream
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
4 sheets of puff pastry
3 rashers of bacon (diced)
small grape tomatoes (1 per vegetarian tarlet)
basil leaves torn
Parmesan
Persian fetta

Equipment:

muffin tins
oven
mixing bowl
scone cutter or a drinking glass

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Lay out all the pastry sheets separately to allow them to thaw
3. Spray the muffin tins with spray cooking oil
4. Cut out 9 holes per sheet using the scone cutter/glass and place them into the bottom of the muffin tin. It does mean wasting some pastry depending on the diameter of your cutter.
5. Place onion, cream, eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix
6. To guarantee even dispersal of ingredients and to make it easier making two types of quiches, I put a sprinkle of bacon and cheese in each quiche Lorraine and a tomato cut in half with torn basil leaves and cheeses in the other tarts and just spooned in the same vegetarian egg mixture
7. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, I rotated the tray for another 2 minutes. Depending on your oven, it might take 15-20 minutes but you’ll know when they’re done because they’ll be golden brown.
8. I usually leave the quiche inside the muffin tin for another 5 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack.

Tips:

I usually spray my tins with oil on the door of my dish washer to contain the mess
It doesn’t matter if you spill over, the egg mixture just cooks in the tart mold and it holds together
If the mixture starts getting to thick towards the end, just add an extra egg or cream
I just did four cheeses with tomato basil because that’s what I had on hand, you can throw anything in these things like: canned salmon, sun-dried tomato etc.

If you don’t have a scone cutter you could also use a glass. I love how the pastry curves with the tin to make perfect tartlet shells. These are the vegetarian option: tomato, basil and cheese.  Quiche Lorraine in the making.All done and golden brown.