1st BBQ of the year and a mediterranean veg and pesto quiche

Having had a great bank holiday weekend so far (girls night out on Friday and rock tribute festival 'mockfest' on Saturday) when yesterday came around I knew I just wanted to go to the gym and then chill in the kitchen making nice things. That didn't happen however as the weather was actually not bad for once so Andy and I decided to give the brand spanking new BBQ it's first outing! It was late in the day so we didn't invite a crowd, just our friend Steve who can always be relied upon to eat copious amounts of meat and we all did just that!

We bought 1 pound of lamb kofte and 1 pound of minced beef steak from the butchers. Andy made a recipe he had seen Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall make- Bloody Mary Beef Burgers. Unfortunately we couldn't find the recipe online so we had to wing it (basic ingredients shown above). The flavour of the meat was absolutely gorgeous but unfortunately the mixture was a bit too wet and they didn't hold together very well on the BBQ. In the end we baked them in the oven first to firm up a bit then finished them off of the barbie. I'm sure there will be plenty more bbqing going on this summer so plenty of opportunities to perfect them anyway.

So with the busy weekend I've had, I've not had time to update my recipes that I made the other day. Here's a good one...

Mediteranian Vegetable and Pesto Quiche

Well Ive been perfecting my pastry making skills and created this gorgeous healthy tart/quiche/flan. Whatever you want to call it its packed with flavour, nutrients, fibre and protein. Serve it with a side salad for a well balanced and (more importantly) delicious lunch or light supper. Or if you're like me you will have to sneak a slice or two straight out of the oven because it smells so yummy!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• 6oz wholewheat all purpose flour
• 3oz cold butter
• 3/4 tablespoons cold water
• Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the filling:

• Roughly 1 cereal bowl full of veg for roasting. I used courgette, pepper, red onion and baby plum tomatos. Use whatever veg you like but i recommend the tomatoes as they add a lovely intense sweetness to the quiche.
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 pint semi-skimmed milk. (Dont try and use skimmed to save on cals, this needs the fat in semi-skimmed to bind the eggs)
• 1/2 packet of reduced fat feta cheese
• 1 large table spoon low fat pesto

Directions:

First of all chop your veg into small pieces about the size of a pound coin and roast with a little olive oil at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes. Set aside and let it cool.

To make the pastry, you need to have your butter really cold. I once saw someone on a cooking programme put it in the freezer and then grate it into the flour. I find this works and I use the method to make really light scones as well. Weigh out the flour and season with the salt and pepper then grate in the frozen butter. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips. When the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, stir in just enough water to bind into a firm dough. Press together then wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

When it has rested, roll the pastry out so that its thin enough to line a 20cm greased flan tin. Line the tin with the pastry then trim off the excess round the edge so you have a neat pastry case**. Prick the base of the pastry slighly with a fork. Line the raw pastry case with baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Blind bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Then take off the paper and beans and bake for a further 10 minutes to crisp up the base.  When the pastry case is nice and crisp take out of the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Turn the oven down to about 140 degrees. When the case has cooled down, spread the base with the pesto then sprinkle the roasted veg over the pesto. Using half of the feta cheese, break into chunks and dot in between the roasted veg.

Whisk the eggs lightly with the milk and season with black pepper. Crumble in  the remaining half of the feta cheese. Carefully pour this mixture into the pastry case over the veg and chunks of feta cheese. Bake for 45 minutes at the lower heat until the egg mixture has set and is starting to brown slightly on top. This cuts into 8 pieces but for a meal i would reccomend 1/4 of the quiche with a salad.

** I didnt waste the trimmings from the pastry case when I trimmed the excess. I needed some gruyere cheese into the pastry then rolled it out and cut into thin srips. I baked them for about 12 minutes with extra gruyere grated on top. It make a tasy snack to be enjoyed with mine and Andy's new tipple of choice. Corona beer with a slice of orange instead of the lime. Trust me its sooo good!

Nutrition info below taken from this recipe calorie calculator.

Nutrition Facts
Per Serving:
Amount Per Serving
Calories		313.1
Total Fat		21.4 g
	Saturated Fat	9.7 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.3 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	6.5 g
Cholesterol		120.2 mg
Sodium		303.5 mg
Potassium		274.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate		22.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	3.9 g
	Sugars	2.5 g
Protein		10.0 g