Courgette & Parmesan Quiche

This is my take on a recipe featured in the August 2019 Country Living magazine. I have chosen to make my own “quiche” pastry rather than use a “ready-rolled puff pastry” and have used my own method for making the white sauce.

I would also suggest using a flan dish rather than a deep pie dish as I found that the filling did not fill the dish I used completely. As a consequence the crust was rather large.

Ingredients

Pastry

• 225g plain flour
• Half a teaspoon salt
• 100g butter
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Filling

• 40g butter
• 40g plain flour
• 400ml milk
• 2 medium eggs, beaten
• 60g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 courgettes
• 2 carrots
• 1 small aubergine
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground salt & black pepper

Method

1. First make a white sauce by melting the butter in a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add flour and cook over low heat, stirring, for 2 minutes. Do not allow mixture to brown. Remove from heat and gradually blend in the milk. Return to heat and cook, stirring, until the sauce comes to the boil and thickens. Simmer very gently for 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, covering the surface with a circle of baking parchment to stop a skin forming.
2. Make pastry by sifting flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix to a dough with the egg and water. Roll out and line a 23cm fluted flan dish. Chill.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan oven) gas mark 4.
4. Cut the vegetables lengthways, as thinly as possible, with a mandolin if you have one. (I used a potato peeler as a suitable alternative to produce ribbons of courgette and carrot.) Halve the aubergine lengthways, if necessary, so that it is similar in width. Cut into strips using a sharp knife.
5. Mix the eggs and Parmesan together in a bowl, then stir into the now cool white sauce.
6. Pour the sauce into the flan dish.
7. Starting from the edge of the dish arrange the vegetables around in a spiral pattern. Alternate between the courgette, carrot and aubergine. Brush the vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt.
8. Put flan dish on pre-heated baking tray and cook for 50-60 minutes until golden, and vegetables are tender.
9. Allow to cool for approximately 10 minutes.
10. Slice and serve.

Serve alone, or as an accompaniment to a selection of cold cooked meats and warm crusty bread. Serves around 6-8.