Meat Loving Quiche Man

I stumble across many wonderful (some weird) things on Twitter, the latest being the Sunday Bake Club.
 
While they began in January this year, I've only been following for about the last month.

The concept is fantastic -- on Sunday bake something to team with the week's theme. How simple could it get?
 
Each Sunday evening, my Twitter feed is filled with amazing looking baked goods and great conversation with some friendly mostly United Kingdom based bakers.
 
Check out their blog to see some of the past themes. We may need to ask if we can have a sister city program for Australia.
 
This week's theme is Bakes for the Boys, so being a boy I thought I was at least halfway there.

Thinking about this theme amongst debating the gender politics of a sausage roll I kept getting a repeated phrase in my head "feed the man meat".
 
I tried avoiding going down the stereotypical cave man road which ignores the metrosexual quiche men amongst us, but by combining the best of both worlds I created the Caveman's Quiche, Man! 
 

I couldn't resist prettying it up with a pancetta flower

 

Caveman's Quiche, Man!

 

Pastry

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 100g unsalted butter
• 50ml water
• Pinch of sea salt

Method

• Finely cube the butter
• Add butter, flour, salt to the bowl of a food processor
• Process on high for about 20 seconds till it looks like breadcrumbs
• Add water and process for about 1 minute till it comes away from the sides and forms a ball
• Wrap in cling wrap and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
• Grease 25.5cm x 6cm deep quiche/pie tin with removable base
• Flour work surface and roll pastry out to about 1/2cm thick
• Line the tin a bit higher than the sides to allow for shrinkage
• Blind bake for 10 at 180º C 
• Remove the beads/beans and bake a further 10 minutes
• Now it's ready for the filling
• Make the pancetta flowers while pastry is baking

Pancetta flower
6 slices of round hot pancetta
Method

• Place 4 slices pancetta flat on a greased tray
• With remaining 2 slices curl each tail around to look like a flower and place on top of the round end as per picture below
• Bake for 10 minutes at 180º C
• 1 flower is only there as a back up and can be a cook's treat

Filling

• 6 pork sausage
• 6 short cut rasher free range bacon
• 160g hot Calabrese salami
• 150g ham cubed
• 12 eggs
• 200ml sour cream
• 100g parmesan shredded plus 25g extra for topping
• 4 spring onions chopped
• 25g grated cheese

Method

• Pinch and twist the sausage in the skins then slide out to make little balls of sausage
• Roughly slice the bacon
• Roughly chop the salami into 1cm pieces
• Fry sausage balls on a medium heat for about 10 minutes
• Repeat with bacon and salami
• Cut the ham into 1 cm cubes (I asked for a 1cm thick slice at the deli)
• In a mixing bowl add the eggs, sour cream, parmesan and spring onions and combine
• I didn't add any salt as I thought there was already enough in the meat and cheese
• Fill the pastry case with the meats
• Fill with egg mixture
• Sprinkle with extra parmesan
• Bake at 160º C for about 1 hour (I checked every 20 minutes)
• Sprinkle on additional cheese and bake for an extra 5 minutes (I was thinking about a meat lovers pizza when I did this)
• Serve topped with pancetta flowers
• Note I treated today a bit like a Bake Off technical challenge where all the recipe was missing because I was making it up. Next time I would add about 2-3 tbsp. of flour to the meats so that it can soak up some of the juices without having to over bake the quiche  

Wood Panels and Ham and Chicken Rolls

My childhood was filled with Chinese restaurants, the good, the bad and the ugly. Not that I'm one for gross generalisations but I have a theory the uglier the restaurant the better the food.

Being a child of the 70's (restaurant going 80's) wood panelling was a must in any quality restaurant followed up by an appropriate anointing of square plastic tasseled lanterns, I assumed depicting a Chinese fable.

But you knew you had hit taste bud gold when you had to complete an obstacle course of various sized banquet ready table tops lining the passageway to the bathroom.

As I grew older I would venture through a variety of establishments adorned with lattice dividers, an aquarium of menu options and the latest Chinese versions Madonna track blaring throughout.
Even with the most elaborate interiors and silky smooth turning of the Lazy Susan I feel reassured when there's a glimpse of wood panel.

My favourite menu staple was the ham and chicken roll, crispy yet juicy and at times with just a hint of SPAM.
They were a menu guarantee till I moved 700km south and they are an unheard of item!!

Ham and Chicken Roll
Ingredients for approx. 8 rolls

• Spring roll wrappers (about 16 depending on how big you make them)
• 1 large chicken breast skin off
• 2 large chicken thigh fillets skin off
• 4 spring onions chopped
• Ham strips cut into 1 cm thick and about 10cm long (see note)
• 1 tsp. salt
• Pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine (optional)
• 3-4 tbsp. corn flour
• Oil for frying

Method

• Place chicken in a saucepan of cold water and poach gently on low heat till just done
• Drain chicken and roughly cube and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
• In a mixing bowl add the chilled chicken, spring onions, salt, pepper, cooking wine and corn flour
• Mix to combine, the chicken should be coated without there being too much of a paste
• Onto a 2 spring roll wrappers (1 on top of the other) place a small amount of chicken mixture
• Place a ham strip in the middle
• Add a little more chicken if needed
• Try to surround the ham with chicken in the centre of the roll (mine are hip and a bit off centre)
• Roll up the spring roll and seal the end with some water
• Fry in a saucepan of hot oil for 3-4 minutes till golden brown
• Let the roll drain in a colander over a bowl
• To serve cut the roll diagonally into 4 pieces, alternatively leave them whole.
• Serve with chilli sauce or the traditional super sweet but not very sour bottled sweet and sour sauce.

Note: You could use ham steaks or ask your deli to cut a 1 cm thick slice for you, but nothing smoky as it will take over the flavour. I remember the ham in the original being very much like SPAM so that is another option.

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Lithunania

In 2006 Lithuania were the winners of Eurovision, well according to their song anyway but they really came sixth. It is a shame the year I went to Eurovision they sent their worst entry because I normally enjoy what Lithuania has to offer. The biggest mistake ever in any Eurovision song is to try to predict the future. Any time there is a lyric about being the winner it's almost automatically guarantees it ain't gonna happen. So I wont be making the claim that these Lithuanian bacon buns will be the winners of Chow Down to Eurovision 2013, but just as they said in 2006 "you got to vote! Vote! Vote for the winners"
Just a side bar on the voting, it is open now, you can vote for more than one country and as many times as you like. Don't let Lithuania's pleading cries go unanswered.
I found these little gems on lithuanian-recipes.com and based my recipe on that. The recipe there states that they disappear quickly which is no word of a lie, AB and I scoffed them down so that was dinner done. The larger bun I made was perfect for toasting in that bacon and egg all in a piece of toast kind of way. Just writing this I can taste them again and am on the verge of needing a private moment.

They didn't win.

Lithuanian Bacon Buns
Ingredients

• 500g bacon rindless
• 250g ham finely diced
• 1 large onion
• 2 cups milk
• 250g butter
• 7g yeast
• 5 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 cups plan flour
• egg wash

Method

• Finely dice the bacon and the onion
• Add to a frypan with 3/4 of a cup of water
• Simmer till the water has reduced to nothing
• Transfer into a glass bowl and refrigerate to cool
• When cooled add the ham
• Put 1/2 cup of milk and the butter into a glass bowl and microwave for 1-2 minutes till the butter is melted.
• Pour into the bowl of a stand mix and add remaining 1 1/2 cups of milk
• Make sure the milk/butter is only lukewarm and not too hot
• Add the yeast, eggs, salt and flour
• Mix using a dough hook for about 3-4 minutes to combine, it will be a wet dough
• Transfer into an oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap
• Let prove for about 2 hours
• Punch down the dough and leave it in the fridge over night
• On a floured surface roll out to about 1-2cm thick
• Use a 6-7cm cutter (or glass) to cut circles out of the dough 
• Fill each circle with 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture
• Gather the edges together and seal
• Roll in a cupped hand on the bench to form the bun
• Put buns on a greased baking tray
• Allow to rise for about an hour
• Brush with egg wash (1egg, 1 tablespoon water, pinch of salt)
• Bake in a 170°C oven for about 20 mins
• If you make a mega loaf as I did it takes about 45 minutes. To shape the loaf I rolled out the dough and cover with the meat mixture. Rolled it into a log, then rolled in like a snail.
• Try to save some to toast the next day, so yum!

Andrius Pojavis will preform the song Something in Malmö.

Sėkmės!