Bacon and Spinach Quiche

Quiche may sound like a very fancy dish, something that you may not want to even try making. But quiche is just a savoury custard tart originating from France. It has a shortcrust pastry as its base with a custard with any savoury component of your choice. We decided to go with a spinach quiche to give it somehow some healthy qualities and the bacon, well with it's not so healthy but delicious flavour. Well, we must live a balanced life! 

Pastry

Ingredients

• 200g all purpose flour
• 90g unsalted butter
• pinch of salt
• Cold water

Steps

1. First sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl.
2. Cut the butter into cubes and add them into the flour mixture. 
3. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour till you get a soft breadcrumb texture. (A rather messy job, but it's always fun to get your hands dirty)
4. Add the water into the mixture slowly until you can form a firm dough. 
5. Wrap the dough in some cling film and store in the fridge until needed.
6. To partly bake the pastry, roll it out on the cling film used so that it'll be easier to lift the pastry into a deep tart tin or a spring form pan. (Dust the top of your pastry and rolling pin with some flour to prevent it from sticking)
7. Put the pastry into the pan and try to make the edges as uniformed as possible.
8. Blind bake the pastry in a 190 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Custard

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 250ml of milk
• 150g cheddar cheese
• 4-5 strips of bacon
• 1 big onion (diced)
• a bunch of spinach (as much as you want)
• ground black pepper
• salt
• 1 small tomato
• oil

Instructions

1. Blanch the spinach in salted boiling water for about a minute or so and put them in ice water to stop the cooking process.
2. Drain the spinach and use some kitchen towel to help get rid of any excess water left in the leaves.
3. Chop the spinach into small pieces or use a pair of scissors. Set aside till needed.
4. Saute the bacon with a few drops of oil. (The bacon will release some of it's natural oils.)
5. Add the diced onions into the frying pan with the bacon until translucent. Set the bacon and onions aside.
6. To make the custard, crack 5 eggs into a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Beat the eggs together and continue beating while adding the milk.
8. Add the bacon, onion, cheese and spinach into the custard mixture and mix well.
9. Once you're done blind baking the pastry, pour the custard mixture into the pastry shell. 
10. Place the sliced tomatoes on top and bake in the oven at 190 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

Bon appétit!