pears & roquefort

It’s time for another quiche.

Some time ago I bought Meike Peters’ 365 The Cookbook. From the idea it’s covering a whole year w/ recipes – day by day. I’m pretty sure it was a huge challenge, but in the end this comprehensive book dedicated for home cooking emerged.

I’m always a little vague concerning my approaches for the pastry shell of any quiche or tart. In general you can work w/ different pastry shells (shortcrust, yeast dough, puff pastry – if home-made, if store bought). For the sake of time I sometimes prefer a store bought solution, but now … In the cookbook I found a recipe for shortcrust pastry that seems handy, a straightforward approach to shortcrust & it is used for all recipes about quiches, tarts, whatever.

So I decided to try it.

In addition I wanted to try another type of quiche combining fruit & cheese: it’s the combination of pears & roquefort – juicy, sweet & salty – which appealed to me.

So let’s start!

There is the pastry shell to be prepared … So start w/ preheating the oven to 180° C fan.

We mix flour, egg, butter & a pinch of salt & knead it quickly & well w/ our hands until we receive a ball of dough. We put the pasty dough in the fridge for about 30 min for cooling. Unfortunately my hands are always warm – so the dough gets sticky. Always.

Afterwards we roll out the pastry dough between cling foil & fit it into the tart form. Cut off all overhanging parts & discard them or whatever you like. Put the pastry shell in the preheated oven for about 15 min. Afterwards reduce the oven temperature to 160° C fan.

If the pastry shell is uneven just press it down – slightly …

In the meantime – when the pastry shell is in the oven – we assemble what we need for the filling:

• pears
• roquefort
• spring onions
• white wine
• crème fraîche
• eggs.

Let’s chop the spring onions – fine rings.

Let’s peel & trim the pears. We need only about 250 g … If you start w/ 2 – 3 pears it’ll fit (& you may snack the rest). Then we chop the pears – small cubes.

We crumble the roquefort.

In a frying pan we fry the pears & the spring onions & add the white wine. Let it simmer for about 20 min. The liquid should boil away …

In the meantime we whip the eggs & the crème fraîche. Add some salt & pepper to taste.

The pastry shell is still warm – it’s fine.

We add the pear mess & the crumbled roquefort & distribute it evenly. Finally we pour the egg mess over everything.

The quiche marches at once into the oven for about 40 min.

… & we get a great crumbly, crispy pastry shell w/ a filling of juicy, sweet pears & strong roquefort.

Enjoy!