There is some great asparagus available at the moment, thin, young and so tasty. I love it dunked in eggs a la Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, on toast with lots of butter, by itself with a vinaigrette, or classic hollandaise. Unfortunately I got the last pick of the basket. I had my mind set on asparagus and thick stems were not about to put me off. Remembering I had some bacon left from the market, I decided on quiche, well more kind of bacon & egg pie with asparagus (you'll see why).
I set about caramelising some onions, when done set aside and fried off diced up bacon. As soon as the bacon was crisp and oozing its fat into the pan, I slid the onions back in along with a dash of wine and reduced. I set the mix aside to cool down. I lined a dish with short pastry and put it in a hot oven to blind bake.
While the pastry was baking I mixed together 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of eggs (4 size 7) + 1 yolk (keep the white aside). When the pastry is finished blind baking pull it out of the oven and brush with the set aside egg white, place back in the oven for a couple of minutes (the egg white acts as a waterproofing).
The above egg mix isn't a quiche mix, if you wanted a more traditional quiche custard add another cup of milk. I prefer the 2:1 ratio when I have a high filling to custard mix, if I have fewer fillings I tend to switch to the classic quiche ratio.
I layered on the onion mix.
Then the asparagus.
Finally the egg mix and topped with some ewes milk cheese.
Bake at 160°C for 40 minutes, or until it's almost set in the middle. Let it rest for 10 minutes or so.
Well nothing to do with quiche, but new shelves we just bought. We finally have a home for the beater!
