Fennel and 3 Cheese Quiche

Serves 4-6.

INGREDIENTS

Pastry:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 100 g butter (diced)
• 50 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 x egg yolk

Quiche Filling:

• 2 x large fennel bulbs
• 1 tsp of sumac
• 200 g feta cheese (crumbled into small pieces)
• 2 x eggs
• ½ cup of pure cream
• ¾ cup milk

Serve with:

• Goats curd
• ½ cup fennel fronds
• Salt and pepper

METHOD

1. Prepare the pastry base by placing all the of pastry ingredients into a food processor and blend for 2 minutes.
2. Remove the pastry mix from the processor and place onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands just bring the mixture together so it forms a smooth ball. You don’t need to knead it, all you want is to bring it together firmly.
3. Place the ball into plastic wrapping and into the fridge for 30 minutes (see note below).
4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
5. While the pastry is resting prepare the filling for the quiche. Slice the fennel bulbs thinly long ways – try to slice some really long pieces to place on the top of the quiche (see pictures).
6. Heat a pan with olive oil or butter and fry the fennel on both sides. Sprinkle with the sumac and season with salt and pepper. Set the fennel aside and make sure to separate the longer pieces of fennel as you will use that for the topping. Keep the fronds as well to top the quiche at the end.
7. In a bowl whisk the eggs, cream, milk together. Add the feta in along with the caramelized fennel, keeping some of the long fennel slices for later on.
8. After 30 minutes of resting remove the pastry from the fridge then place it onto a floured surface. Roll it out into a large circle (use your quiche base as a measurement). Make sure to roll the pastry out to an even thickness. Place it into a buttered or oiled quiche base using your preferred technique (see note below).
9. Blind bake using baking weights and baking paper or a heavy grain like rice or dry chickpeas if you don't have baking weights. Blind bake for 15 minutes (see note below).
10. After blind baking the pastry remove the baking paper and baking weights then pour in the quiche filling. Top with the long pieces of fennel and place into the oven to bake for another 30 minutes or until the pastry and sides of the quiche look golden brown.
11. Remove from the oven and serve immediately or allow to cool and place into the fridge to keep for another day.
12. Serve topped with fresh fennel fronds and a scoop of the fresh goats cheese curd.

Notes:

• Make sure to rest the pastry in the fridge. This is important as it will make it 10 times easier for you to roll it out! It will stay firm this way.
• To place the pastry into your tart/quiche shaped form you can use a variety of techniques. I would recommend rolling the pastry over your pastry roller and then placing it over the edge of your quiche base to roll it over the top. Then pressing it into the edges and trimming the excess off.
• Blind baking is when you cover the pastry with baking paper and some heavy baking weights or grains in order to keep the baking paper down and covering the raw pastry. Normally it is good to blind bake for 15 minutes so that the pastry cooks through partially.

Recipe and photos by Anastasia Zolotarev. Click here to see her blog.