Chicken Quiche

Chicken quiche:I can finally make quiche! My favourite person's favourite thing in the world, isnt it? Can't wait to make one for her soon :)This one's for you Upsie!
Ingredients:

Crust:

150 gm flour

75 gm unsalted frozen butter cut into small peices

1 tb sp salt

3 tb sp ice cold water

3 tsp herbs (I used thyme)
Method:

Seive the flour. Add salt. Add the cold butter. Now using a couple of forks mash the butter into the flour till it breaks into smaller peices. Add the thyme. Now use your hands and quickly bring it together without using much pressure. Add the water to help form a dough which should not be too hard or too soft. Let it sit in the fridge for about half an hour. Bring it out and roll it to get 1/4 inch thickness. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut out a big round shape, basically bigger that the rim of you pie tin. Now place it in the greased and dusted pie tin and scrape off the extra dough from the rim. Place a sheet of butter paper in it and fill it with kidney beans or rice or any grains to weigh the butterpaper down. Now bake this in a pre-heated oven for 30 min at 180-190C. This is basically to bake the crust.
Filling:

250 gm boneless chicken cut into small peices

1 med onion chopped

3 tb sp oil

Salt to taste

3 tb sp mixed herbs

1 tsp pepper

1 cup grated mozzerella cheese

2 eggs

1 cup milk
Heat oil. Add onions. Saute till it turns transparent. Add herbs. Add chicken, pepper and salt. Let this cook till chicken is done, that should be about 10 min. Let it cool. Bring out the baked crust in its tin. Remove the butterpaper with the grains. Arrange a layer of half the cheese at the bottom of the crust. Now add the chicken filling and again top it with the remaining cheese. Beat the 2 eggs into the milk and just before popping it into the oven pour it into the quiche filling. Bake for about 30 min in a pre-heated oven, at 200C, or till it forms a golden brown color on top. Let it cool before you tear it apart.

This makes for a great lunch with a side of steamed veggies and some iced tea maybe. So comforting :)

PS: Thank you so much Bhakti for these lovely pictures :)

Rum Tart

This was for a friend on his birthday. What better than an alcohol based chocolate dessert. Must be on every guy's wishlist. I learnt the basic 'art' of making tart at baking class. The alcoholic twist was my idea ;) So was the chocolate ;)

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup cold unsalted butter cut up into small peices..veryy cold!

1/4 coco

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp milk powder

A pinch of baking soda

3 tbsp ice cold water
Filling:

1/4 cup cream

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup coco

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp dark rum
Method:

crust:

Seive the flour, soda, salt, milk powder and coco together. Now drop the cold butter into it and using 2 forks and mash it as much as possible, till the butter has mixed with the flour to form coarse bread crumbs. Now use your hands and quickly bring it together making sure the butter does not melt. Add the ice cold water at this point to form a dough which is not too hard neither soft. Do not knead it. Just make a ball of dough. Let this sit in your fridge for about half an hour. In the meantime you can make your filling.
Filling:

Get all the ingredients together in a saucepan in a low flame and bring it to a boil. Keep aside and let it cool down to room temperature. Now add the rum and mix well.
Now bring the dough out and let it sit at room temperature for 5 min. Roll it out now to about 1/4 inch or even lesser than that if you can. Cut out round shapes using a knife or a big cookie cutter. Grease and dust the tart tins. Place the cut out dough into it one by one making sure it fits right. Scrape out any excess dough from the rim of the tin to give it a clean finishing. Now using a fork make a few pricks on the base and the sides of the dough lined tin and bake it at 180C for about 20 min or till it does not feel like dough anymore, in a pre-heated oven. Let it cool. Then spoon in the filling and let it chill in the fridge for atleast an hour before serving.

This makes for a great party dessert, or in my case, a hangover fix for the next morning! Haha!