Quiche Lorraine

When I think of picnic, I think of checkered mat, rattan basket, quiche and champagne. Don't ask me why - I don't even do picnic often. Anyway, a few Saturdays ago, a few friends and I went for a picnic and to check out the farmer's market in Tuen Mun. And this is what I made in the morning to bring along - a quiche lorraine.

I roughly followed the recipe from BBC Good Food. It's not the prettiest quiche but at least it tasted alright, I think.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
1 1/4 cup of plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 stick of unsalted butter - very cold and cut into small cubes
Cold Water

For the filling:
Mozarella Cheese, grated
Bacon, chopped into thin and narrow pieces (I used smoked pancetta and chopped into chunks - like the texture better or I was just lazy)
Half an onion, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
100 ml of milk
200 ml of whipping cream
Salt and Pepper

Steps:
1. For the pastry, sift the flour with salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have soft breadcrumb texture (think apple crumble). Make the mixture into a firm, round dough by gradually adding cold water in. Wrap the dough with cling film and rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 190C.
3. When ready to bake, roll out the pastry on the counter surface and line a 9-inch pie dish. Make sure the pastry is large enough to hang above from the sides of the dish - something that I forgot which turned into a mini disaster (on that later). Line the pastry with parchment paper and fill it with baking beans. Put the pie into the oven and bake for 20 minutes (aka bake blind) Remove the beans and bake for another 5 minutes.
4. While the pie base is in the oven, fry the bacon in the pan until browned and crispy. Drain with paper towel when done. Likewise fry the onions in the pan until soft. At the same time, combine the beaten eggs with cream and milk in a bowl.
5. Turn the temperature of the oven down to 170C. Remove the pie base from the oven, put the bacon and onion into the pie, then the grated cheese and the egg mixture.
6. Bake for a further 30-40 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and quiche can be eaten hot or lukewarm. Serve in wedges.

Okay the disaster part - I made a mistake in not letting the pastry dough overflow to the sides of the dish before baking. As a result, as I poured the egg mixture onto it later on, it quickly leaked to the side and to the bottom. That's why it turned out like a tart baked inside out - with filling not just in the middle but on the sides of the quiche. Oops - well, I removed those baked eggs on the sides after done so hopefully no one has noticed.

Fine produce found in the Farmer's Market - we bought some and cooked at home and it's super yum!

The cutest baby on earth!

Noodle making demonstration - the lady who did the demo made it looks so easy

A scantily clad model promoting the farmer's market - don't know whose idea was that 

Cheeses, chocolate frog and every flavor jelly beans (as in the Harry Potter series) - which made up our picnic menu! 

It was such a great day out - weather's gorgeous and farmer's market's lovely. What a way to spend a lazy afternoon. Do check out my friend janice and rita's blog post about the farmer's market and picnic:

http://mochachocolatarita.blogspot.com/2011/12/hong-kong-farmers-market-crossroads.html
http://www.e-tingfood.com/2011/12/saturday-farmers-market-at-crossroads.html