I love pulling out random ingredients from the fridge and being able to make something cohesive .

I keep a constant supply of streaky bacon and puff pastry in the freezer and eggs are usually around too. Then it’s a matter of using up whatever vegetables are in the fridge at the time to fill up the rest of the quiche with and to make a side salad. We were lucky to have a bit of beetroot chutney too. Otherwise it would have to be tomato sauce and/or Kaitaia Fire Kiwifruit & Habanero Pepper Sauce.

Also time to show off my new tea towel from the Fisher & Paykel stand at Taste of Auckland. Fisher & Paykel are a major appliance manufacturer based here in Auckland. Fisher & Paykel are pretty smart with their online presence. They’ve realised that people that buy their products like to cook and be inspired by foodie things. So they’ve set up their own food blog called Our Kitchen. Brilliant!

See how two of the pastry corners curled over and two remained upright? Looks like cat ears don’t you think?

Bacon and Whatever Quiche

Ingredients

Master Ingredients
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
4 strips of streaky bacon, roughly chopped
6 eggs, beaten
Cheese (enough for topping)

Whatever Ingredients
Any vegetables that can do with a little baking such as broccoli, spinach, tomato, green beans, mushrooms, asparagus etc.
I used:
1 courgette, sliced
Half an onion, diced

Seasonings
Dried herbs
Salt
Pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Lightly oil or butter a cake tin. I used one with a spring release so that it would be easier to get this sucker out afterwards.
3. Lay the puff pastry down making sure that there is at least a 1 inch wall all around the tin. If you can, curl the 4 corners over the edge of the pan. This will help the pastry to stay up.
4. Arrange all your vegetables on top of the pastry. I layered mine, onion first, then a layer of courgette, but you can just as easily just toss them all in at once.
5. Season with herbs, salt, pepper.
6. Arrange the bacon on top followed by cheese.
7. Pour the beaten egg mixture in. Be careful not to let it spill over the pastry walls. This beast is going to rise. Be prepared!
8. Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve hot or cold. With a salad or on its own.

Suitable for breakfast, lunch or dinner.