Apologies for the photo – it was taken with my phone…

I went round to my friend Claudia’s for a bit of cooking, and we made leek and bacon quiche, cheesy bits and a beautiful tarte tatin. I’m going to explain how to make a very easy and yummy  and the cheesy bit – you’ll have to wait a little for the tarte tatin.

For our quiche we used bacon and leek but you can really use anything you fancy so this is a good one if you have left-overs and want to make something a little fancy. We were left with a bit of pastry so we made my special cheesy bits – they are great for an apperitif.

What you will need for the quiche:

Short-crust pastry (ready-made or freshly made – see our tomato tart for this recipe)

4-5 eggs
300ml of single cream
2 handfuls of grated cheddar cheese
4 slices of bacon
1 leek
Pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 180C . Cover a tart tin with the pastry. Heat a pan and add a bit of butter or oil and add in diced bacon, once they start to brown add thinly sliced leeks until they are softened.

In a bowl whisk all your eggs and add the cream – you can also replace the cream with milk or go half milk half cream. Now add the cheddar, bacon and leek and a some ground pepper to taste. You don’t need to add any salt due to the cheese and bacon. Put the mixture into the tart tin and place in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

What you will need for you cheesy bits:

Short-crust pastry left-overs 
1-2 handfuls of grated cheddar cheese (the more the better)

Mix your pastry and cheese together and then roll it so it looks like a stick, you can do this in small bits. Then cut into small pieces. Put in a pre-heated oven at 180C and it should be ready in about 15mins!

It’s that easy! And the quiche will feed 4 people, serve with a green mixed salad and there you have it a yummy but simple meal.

Mel