Smoked salmon and courgette quiche

This was one that your Dad and me loved, but which you wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Funny - you love slices of bread topped with smoked salmon.


Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

1 large courgette, chopped into smallish chunks
a small packet of smoked salmon, torn into small pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
shortcrust pastry (made with about 8oz flour)
2 eggs
1/2 pt full cream milk
a little olive oil
a sprinkle of thyme (dill would be lovely if you have some), and lashings of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out (a) one of those flan dishes with a removable bottom and (b) a baking tray to stand it on. Grease the flan dish, or line with some greaseproof paper.

Roll out your shortcrust pastry, and line the flan dish. Mine's about 20cm across, I think, and this amount of pastry is more than enough to line the dish and have a little left for 3 or 4 jam tarts.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil, until they turn translucent. Add the chopped courgette, and cook until it's softened (but not too much, or you'll have a soggy mess on your hands).

Tip the courgette/onion into your flan dish, and spread them about artistically. Add the smoked salmon pieces, and season with some thyme and lots of black pepper.

Lightly beat the eggs with the milk, and pour (carefully) into the pastry shell. Make sure it's on the baking tray before you start - there's nothing worse than wobbling across the kitchen with it.

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is set. Eat while still warm, with a green salad.

Kipper flan

I suppose this is really kipper quiche, but that just sounds too odd. I found this recipe in Delia's Frugal Food - and as I had a couple of kippers hanging about in the freezer, thought we'd try it out. It's nice hot (the kipper bones must be more flexible), but a bit on the bony side when cold.

It's definitely one of those recipes that you wouldn't necessarily go out and buy the ingredients specially to make, but is worth a go.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

250g kipper fillets
shortcrust pastry - enough for a 20cm diameter tin (about 8oz flour usually does the trick)
a little lemon juice
2 large eggs (I used 3 small ones)
about 250ml milk
1/4 teaspoon Colman's powdered mustard
salt and pepper

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out a flan dish (the ones with the removable bottoms are the best).

First of all, grill your kippers for a couple of minutes on each side - sling them on a rack under your grill as they are. In the meantime, line the flan dish with your pastry.

If you've got lots of time, you could bake the pastry case blind - prick the pastry all over with a fork, place some greaseproof paper over the top, and weigh it down with baking beans or rice. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so. If you haven't got time for all that malarkey, you can miss it out - you'll have a slighly soggier bottom to the flan, but it'll still be extremely edible.

Skin the kippers, and try to extract as many of the irritating little bones as possible. Flake, and tip onto your pastry base. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the top.

Beat together your milk, eggs and mustard, and pour into the flan. Season with lots of black pepper.

Place the flan dish on a baking sheet (in case of escaping mixture - it's a right pain to get off the bottom of your oven), and sling in the oven for 30-40 minutes. The filling should be golden brown, and puffed up.

Eat warm, with a green salad.

Smoked haddock, potato and sweetcorn chowder

Not many posts recently, as there haven't been many new recipes - when I'm snowed under with work tea tends to head towards the family classics.

This one was new though, and inspired by the lovely Nigel's suppers on BBC1.

Makes enough for 4 greedy adults. You'll need:

a large fillet or two of smoked haddock (undyed is probably nicer, but day-glo yellow means it looks pretty...)
a large onion, finely chopped
a large tin of sweetcorn, or a mugful of frozen sweetcorn (defrosted)
lots of potatoes - 4 or 5 large ones, peeled and diced
milk - about a pint

First of all, poach the fish in the milk. Bung both into a large pan, and gently heat the milk until it's almost boiling. Turn down, and simmer for 4-5 minutes until the fish is cooked through. Drain the fish (keep the milk!), and flake into large chunks (removing any bones, and discarding the skin).

Fry the onions in a little olive oil until they're translucent. Add the potatoes, and swish round in the oil. Add a mugful of boiling water to the potato/onion mixture and the rest of the fishy milk. Season with lots of black pepper, and simmer until the potato chunks are cooked.

Add the sweetcorn/fish, and warm through.

Serve with lots of fresh crusty bread, maybe topped with a little cream cheese.