KBB#17: Savory Baking - Potato and Tomato Quiche

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

guess what? i've officially become one of KBB member now. this is my first real challenge, Savory Bake.
when the challenge email (read: love letter) came, i was quite intimidated yet interested. we have to made lattice pie with puff pastry base and savory filling as the theme was savory bake.

if some of you are confuse with the differences of pies, tarts, tartelettes, and quiche (just like me before doing this task), well tarts and pies are actually the same, while tartelettes are the small / bite-size version of tarts, and quiche according to Wikipedia are pies made primarily from eggs and cream in a pastry crust. thanks to KBB for enlighten me. i found quiche is quite match with this month's challenge, pastry base and most of them are savory. so i choose one of many quiche recipe in my cookbooks called Potato and Tomato Quiche. for this quiche, i made two kinds of garnishes, one for the lattice and one for the perimeter. i used the usual simple lattice you used to see, the woven one, for the lattice tops and for the perimeter i braided my pastry just like Martha Stewart tells in her web. it's literally not that hard, it's really fun and a nice thing to do especially if you love crafting as much as i do. the only hard thing is because of the weather, i live in a tropic country called Indonesia. it's hot here, my pastry can easily reach the room temperature and when it has reached the room temperature it's getting sticky and hard to shaped.

i made this quiche rushing with the day. i had to go to the church at 10.30am and going somewhere after. as the result of that, i woke up at 6am today preparing everything and finished at 9. wooo, relax! it's not that long to bake this quiche actually, it's just me being so slow. that's why i couldn't take a decent pictures today, i just want it to be fast and quickly so bad. o yeah, by the way, daddy's back with our dslr but i'm still a little attached with my dsc. honestly, i failed making this quiche on Tuesday, because i forgot that my filling is so runny. i baked them in a baking tray and just lined the pastry sheet on it. then i pour the filling, result: the filling ran out from the top of the pastry to err.. everywhere? yes. it was also pouring down from the kitchen table to the floor, and it turned out to be a huge mess! that's okay, at least i made a better one today..

Potato and Tomato Quiche

serves 4-6

from 'The Golden Book of Patisserie'

2 potatoes

2 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp dried oregano

salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 oz (250gr) fresh or frozen puff pastry, thawed if frozen

1 large firm-ripe tomato, thinly sliced

direction:

1. preheat the oven to 400 deg F (200 deg C / gas mark 6). butter an 8-inch (20cm) springform pan or pie plate.
2. peel the potatoes and cut into 1/4 inch (5mm) slices. steam the potato slices for 10 minutes or until tender.
3. beat the eggs, cream, parmesan, and oregano in a large bowl. season with salt and pepper.
4. roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface to 1/8 inch (3mm) thick.
5. line the prepared pan with the pastry. arrange the potatoes and tomato on the pastry base.
6. pour in the egg mixture.
7. bake for 15 minutes. lower the oven temperature to 350 deg F (180 deg C / gas mark 4). bake for 15 minutes more, or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling has set.
8. serve warm or at room temperature.

what happened in my kitchen?

• i used freshly grated cheddar cheese instead of parmesan.
• i steamed the potatoes with sprinkle of salt and pepper.
• i didn't use the store-bought pre-rolled puff pastry, i used 1 store-bought (30x20cm) pastry sheet. so i skipped direction number 4.
• i didn't use black pepper and replace it with white pepper. but i regret this, it must be more tasty with black pepper.
• i add a lot of thinly sliced smoked beef. yum! follow me! haha.

hmm, enough for the talk today.. see you on June! thanks for reading..

HAPPY BAKING! :)