Recipe: Leek, Bacon, Cheese and Asparagus Quiche

I love the feeling when you happen to have two or three amazing ingredients in your possession and a recipe is born. This happened to me recently, I had a mysterious episode where I mislaid a box of eggs. Being in the pub might have had something to do with it, because I lost my copy of Grazia around the same time. After recovering my sanity somewhat, new eggs were bought, a requirement for a weekend breakfast. By the end of the weekend, I had  a box of lovely eggs, some English Asparagus and a hunk of Lancashire cheese. What else could I do but make a quiche? Lancashire cheese and asparagus are a match made in heaven, if I do say so myself and if Nigel Slater says so, it must be true ( I love how he calls asparagus 'Spears of the realm'). The creamy, crumbly cheese works so well with the delicate spears of greeny goodness and asparagus is delicious in a quiche.

So how, I hear you cry, did leek and bacon come into it? Well, I love leeks and thought they would complement the flavour better than an onion or similar and the bacon was on offer. If I were to make this over again,  I would probably skip the bacon but it made it salty and tasty - all the better for a workday lunchbox.

I've never made quiche before and I honestly thought that it would be a lot easier to make than it turned out but I neglected to take the whole pastry thing into account. So, the first thing you have to do is blind bake your pastry crust which firms up the pastry in your quiche tin so it cooks properly and doesn't turn to mush when you add your filling. I'll admit, I didn't make my pastry - I used ready made own-brand supermarket stuff. the trouble was that it was ready rolled a bit too thin so blind baking wasn't that successful - the pastry just didn't firm up as expected however, I carried on regardless.

For the filling I first cooked the bacon in a frying pan with a bit of garlic - the bacon really took on the garlicky flavour which was really tasty in the quiche but if you don't like a strong garlic taste, you can omit this to no bad effect - I tend to get quite carried away. Once the bacon was cooking and nicely I added the chopped leeks. I then blanched the asparagus for about three minutes in boiling water and when I removed them, I plunged them into ice water - a tip I saw somewhere I can't remember that helps the spears to keep their nice green colour. I wouldn't usually bother but I thought it would be a nice idea so that I can arrange them nicely on top of the quiche.

In a mixing bowl, I whisked together three eggs and about 200ml double cream, seasoning with plenty of salt and pepper. I then added about 150g smushed up lancashire cheese (it's so crumbly, it doesn't really grate). Once all the goodies for the filling were cooked, I mixed it all in the bowl and turned it out into the pastry case. Arranging additional blobs of cheese on the top along with the asparagus spears to make it look pretty. Baked in the oven at 180 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes or until just firm and golden on top.

Once, out of the oven a certain someone crumbled even more cheese on top which did no harm (except to the waistline!). Served with a side salad and with plenty leftover for lunches, this was a really nice sunday supper. In fact, I would say this was even better after a night in the fridge and tasted mighty fine hot or cold.

Obika, Mozzarella Bar.

Oh Mozzarella, how you have climbed the ranks in my cheesey estimations. When I first became aware of Mozzarella (probably thanks to Jamie Oliver, but I forget) the stuff available in most supermarkets was pretty poor. Nowadays there's a lot more choice and a lot more quality on offer. I realised how amazing Mozzarella can be during my days as a cheeser at Borough Market where you can buy some of the best Buffalo Mozzarella in town.
When it comes to Mozzarella, it's as important how you use it as much as the type or quality that you're buying. For me, it serves as a foil to other flavours but you shouldn't expect too much from it alone. Just a light milky, ever so slightly salty yumminess... Ok, enough of that, you get the idea.
What with all this Mozzarella love going around it's been a timely opening for 'Obika' a Mozzarella bar based in the West Wintergarden at Canary Wharf. I first became aware of the chain when I was in Toronto last year and spotted it there, though we didn't eat we were keen to find out if there existed a London branch and lo, one opened two months later.
Alongside some delightful Italian offerings or pizza, pasta and the like, there are a range of dishes that you choose to accompany your choice of Mozzarella. This is the Mozzarella bar portion of the menu, and if it's your first visit, how can you resist? There are three Mozzarella types to choose from, the Classic, Smoked and Creamy. I went for creamy and was quite unprepared for what arrived. I opted for the simple accompaniment of basil pesto, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach. My creamy Mozzarella was amazing. So creamy, it's hard to describe. It's as though the mozzarella ball had unravelled and melted into a creamy pile of awesome.
T had the smoked option with an amazingly delicious Sicilian aubergine casserole. The casserole was lovely, but the smoked mozzarella is just not my thing. I'm just not a fan of smoked cheese in general. So I'll leave it at that. It you like it, go for it! I know that T enjoyed it and he said it went well with the aubergine. I didn't think that I would be full after the mozzarella bar dish but I was, it was more filling than I thought it would be.
We did manage a dessert though and it was the best Tiramisu I've ever had. Serious. What's also handy is you can get the desserts in different sizes so if you're not sharing or pigging out, a mini option is just the ticket. How can you resist?!
The only quibble was that the service was a little over zealous and there's a small amount of upselling here but  it's only a minor thing and forewarned is forearmed or whatevs. There's no doubting that the indredients here are at an extremely high standard and the success of the chain speaks for itself, with offerings in three continents.
It's something quite different without being too crazy and the quality of the produce shines through with classic cooking. Definitely worth a look. Check out the the moody video below for some cheese-porn basically.

Cheese Fondue, YES!

Now that the nights have drawn in and got colder, the time for decadent, warming foods has definitely arrived, as I have proved over the past week with some epic eating! Salads only next week. If last Friday was steak night, this Friday was fondue Friday.
Cheese fondue is back, if I say so it must be true. A pot of warm melted cheese and stuff to dip in, what's not to like? Having worked for a cheese company for the best part of three years, I can be a be a bit of a geek about the subject of cheese but what I'll share with you is the recipe that I recommend as well as a few hints on where you can buy the best cheeses in London for your perfect fondue.
Fondue recipes can differ depending on region but also personal taste, there's no hard and fast rule but the cheese should melt well and be tasty.
My favourite mix is by far the Swiss "moitié-moitié" which means half and half - half Gruyère, half Vacherin Fribourgeois.
Before you get started, get some dippers ready, you can dip whatever you like, but chunks of good crusty bread, new potatoes, brocoli and cauliflower all work well. Raw carrots are also good and I tend to do a salad of rocket with a hefty vinegar dressing to cut through all that dairy. Some people like to have charcuterie as well, just go with what you fancy. Keep it simple or mix it up. One of my favourite things is to fry some courgette and red onion until just cooked and spoon some cheese over the top. Also, pickles! You've got to have the pickles. Pickled cucumbers and onions are best.


For the fondue:
Allow up to 200g of cheese per person (for a main meal, if you're hungry). So, for a fondue for 4 people, you'd need about 800g of cheese, 400g Vacherin and 400g Gruyere. For the total weight of your cheese, you need about half the amount of a dry white wine - something cheap will do and that'll be about 400ml.
Get your fondue set and warm the pan, then add the wine. You can start things off on your hob if you're desperate to eat! Once the wine is just about to simmer, add your cheese which should be grated or coarsely chopped. The important thing is to keep things moving, so get a wooden spoon to help melt the cheese through. Once it's nice and smooth, add a dash of kirsch (a cherry brandy) but actually almost any liquer works well within reason. I should also say that before adding your cheese, you can rub your pot with a cut garlic clove, but I've never done it and I don't think I've missed out. Some recipes also suggest adding cornflour to help the mixture bind but it's not vital.
The thing that is vital, is not letting the cheese boil. You want to keep it at a constant temperature so keep an eye on that flame. At the end you'll end up with a little layer of 'toasted' cheese on the bottom, hopefully not burnt and you can eat it if you want to. At the end of the fondue, a Swiss tradition I'm told, is to add an egg to the pot and make a cheesey scrambled egg to scoop up with some bread. I've never done it but I'm sure it'd be great.
Another tip: if you have a fondue set and don't want to use methylated spirit in its liquid form, you can get these awesome firestar gel fuels online that do the job brilliantly. One gel is usually enough for a decent kilo fondue.
Don't have a fondue set? You can make up your fondue over a medium to low heat on the hob. Use a thick bottom pan and keep it hot at the table with a bain marie sort of thing.
Now, you're ready to dip! So, you can dip whatever you like, but chunks of good crusty bread, new potatoes, brocoli and cauliflower all work well. Raw carrots are also good and I tend to do a salad of rocket with a hefty vinegar dressing to cut through all that dairy. Some people like to have charcuterie as well, just go with what you fancy. Keep it simple or mix it up. One of my favourite things is to fry some courgette and red onion until just cooked and spoon some cheese over the top.
When you dip, be sure to get right to the bottom of the pot so you get the good cheese covering your dipper.
You get the idea, happy dipping!



Where to buy the cheese.

In the UK, Vacherin Fribourgeois is not easy to come by. One supplier is KaseSwiss who are based at Borough Market and Maltby Street. They also do wholesale to a range of shops around London so you can always contact them to enquire about the latest stocks. One thing you can guarantee is that any cheese from these guys, fondue or otherwise, will be amazing. They also promote the 'ECF movement' which is something I can always get on board with. It stands for eat cheese first, as in at the beginning of the meal.
If you can't get hold of Vacherin you can try a different regional recipe. Alternatively, you can use Emmental which is more readily available, just make sure it's a young one so it doesn't get too stringy when it melts.

ENJOY!!!