Golden Onion Mushroom Quiche Recipe

This month's 'A Sweet Punch', although not sweet, came out fantastic! This is another one of those why-on-earth-did-I-ever-think-of-making-these kinda recipes.

I would highly recommend this golden onion mushroom quiche recipe to beginner bakers. You know why? Its going to make you feel awesome and so much more confident because its practically no-fail.

Golden Onion Mushroom Quiche Recipe
Makes 8 generous wedges and 4 mini quiches

Ingredients

For the pastry:
1 cup + 2tbsp flour (200gm)
100gm unsalted butter, frozen
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 beaten egg
A generous pinch of salt

For the filling:
2 cups chopped mushrooms (I used button mushrooms)
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 beaten eggs
Freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil


How I Made It:

For the pastry:



Mix flour, salt and baking powder together. Ideally, you should sieve this. Ideally. Grate the frozen butter and mix it well with fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

Sidenote: I would recommend grating the butter only if you have someone to outsource the washing of the said grater. If not, just cut the butter into cubes and follow this process.



Add the egg and bring the dough together. You can add a few drops of ice cold water if needed at this stage, but I didn't have to. Transfer the dough to a floured surface.



Roll it out about 1/2" thick. Its fine even if its not an even circle or whatever. Just make sure the thickness is more or less even all around.



Next step is to gently transfer this to a greased pie dish. Here's what I used. I bought this pie dish ages ago anticipating this exact moment! Well, not really, but atleast it was put to good use after 7 months of buying it.



Gently lift the rolled out dough and lay it over the dish. Press it down lightly at the bottom and along the sides. If there's a gap somewhere, just take the overhanging dough fromt he sides and patch it up. Go on, nobody needs to know. I did it along the top and left hand side, can you tell? Of course you can, but, it doesn't matter. That's the beauty of a quiche.

Refrigerate this crust while you put together the filling.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F / 180C.

To prepare the filling:


Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions until golden brown. Add the mushrooms and saute until soft and all the water has evaporated from the pan. Top off with ground pepper and salt and mix well. Cool completely.



Break 2 eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. I know there are three in there but I ended up with a lot of extra filling and I really don't want you to waste good ingredients. So stay with me here, ok? Only 2 eggs needed.



Add 1/2 a cup milk to the eggs.



And top off with about 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Mix well.

To assemble and bake:



Bring out the prepared crust from the fridge.



Lay the onion mushroom mixture evenly on it.



And top off with the milk-egg-cheese mixture until it reaches almost up to the top of the crust.



Bake until the top turns golden brown and patchy in parts and the crust turns golden - about 25 to 30 mins.



Cut into wedges and serve warm.



I had some leftover dough and filling so I made 4 of these adorable mini quiches with it in these tart moulds that came with my old oven. These only need to be baked for about 20 mins and are fantastic single-serving portions for parties or potlucks.

This was a great "Sweet Punch" for September. Will link to the roundup as soon as its done. Thanks ladies!

Mushroom Biryani / Biriyani Recipe

With all that talk of non vegetarian biryanis yesterday, I simply had to share the Mushroom Biryani I tried a couple of weekends back. I usually follow a pretty standard recipe when I make biryani but I opted to make this one a bit more spicy and tomato-ey than usual. We loved it and I am making some more for a potluck tomorrow.



Mushroom Biryani
Serves: 2-4

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked basmati rice
1 cup chopped button mushrooms
1 large onion, sliced long
2 large tomatoes, pureed
1 tsp tomato paste (or tomato ketchup)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (or to taste)
1 tsp garam masala / biryani masala
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter / ghee (or another tbsp of oil)
Salt to taste

To Grind Together:
1 onion
5 green chillies
1" piece of ginger
4-5 garlic cloves
1" piece of cinnamon

3 cloves

3 cardamom pods

A few stalks of coriander leaves (optional)

For Garnish:
1 large onion, sliced long and fried golden brown
A handful of tasted cashewnuts
Chopped coriander leaves

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil and ghee and throw in the onions. When they are golden brown, add the ground masala paste. Don't worry if some of the spices are not ground fine. Mix well until nicely fried, for about 2-3 mins. Then add the chopped mushrooms.

2. The mushrooms will give out some water, so cook until the mushrooms are soft and the water has all evaporated. Then add the chilli powder, turmeric, garam / biryani masala and fry for a minute. After this, add the pureed tomato and tomato paste / ketchup. Stir well and cook well until all the ingredients come together. No need to add water at any stage. Add salt.

3. Gently mix in the cooked basmati rice and garnish with the fried onions, cashewnuts and coriander leaves.



Serve hot with raita.

Mushrooms Stuffed with Brie : Recipe

I think I am very smart so what I do occasionally is, read a recipe and if I like it, I read the ingredients again and fool myself into thinking I can remember them all when I go shopping. Here's what happened the last time I did that.

Mini Portobello Mushrooms

I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman and instantly knew I'll be making it. I read through the ingredients list and thought they were easy, especially since I had some brie left over after making this salad. Turns out that's the only ingredient that's common between her version and mine.

Brie

She used button mushrooms - I used portobello mushrooms
She used parsley and green onions - I used cilantro (coriander leaves) and totally forgot the green onions
She used brie - I used very little brie and then some mozarella
She didn't use onions - I did

But the bottom line is, this turned out super yummy! Its a quick appetizer and sure to win over any mushroom-lover. You can also make big batches in one go, so its awesome when you are entertaining.

Here's my version.

Mushrooms Stuffed with Brie
Serves 2

What I Used:

12 mini portobello mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 small block of brie cheese
3 tbsp grated mozarella
1/4 - 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh coriander leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter
Salt to taste

How I Made It:

1. Wash and remove the stems from the mushrooms. Pat dry with a dry kitchen napkin.

2. Melt butter in a skillet and add the mushrooms. Sprinkle with some salt and toss them around until well coated with the butter.

3. Arrange these on an oven-proof dish stem side up and set aside.

4. In the same skillet, add minced garlic and onion and fry lightly for 30 seconds. Then add the chopped coriander leaves and sprinkle some salt. Toss around for a minute until the leaves soften. Take care not to fry or burn it.

5. Cut the brie into small squares and lightly press into the mushrooms, where the stems were removed from. Top off each mushroom then with grated mozarella. Finally sprinkle the coriander leaves mixture evenly.

6. Bake in a 180C/350F oven for 15 minutes/until the cheese is melted and soft.

This is one good-tasting appetizer. Its very forgiving so you can use pretty much any meltable cheese and any herb that takes your fancy. And yeah, apparently any kind of mushroom too :)

Mushroom Peas Curry / Matar Khumb Curry Recipe

I love those small recipe booklets by Neeta Mehta. They are nicely themed and mostly have traditional and easy recipes. This particular one where I got this Matar Khumb recipe has Punjabi recipes that are extremely popular yet I've never tried before, except maybe the Paneer Butter Masala recipe.

I've already tried two recipes from the book and loved them both. Here's the first one.

Mushroom Peas Curry / Matar Khumb Curry

Adapted from Neeta Mehta's Punjabi Recipes

Serves 4

What I Used:

200gm/about 4 cups mushrooms, washed and chopped into 6 (I used white button mushrooms)

1 cup green peas

2 cardamoms/elaichi/elakka

2 cloves/laung/grampoo

1 tbsp dhania powder / malli podi

1 tsp red chilli powder

2 tsp garam masala

A pinch of turmeric powder

4tbsp oil

Grind together to a puree

2 large tomatoes

1 green chilli

Grind together to a paste

1 large onion

6-8 flakes garlic

1" piece ginger

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil. Add the cardamom and cloves. Fry for 1 min.

3. To this, add the onion-garlic-ginger paste. Cook stirring continuously until light brown. Remove from fire.

4. Add the masalas now - dhania powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and haldi with some salt.

5. Return to low heat and cook for a few seconds. Add 1 tbsp water.

6. Add the tomato-green chilli puree. Cook till dry and oil separates from the gravy (about 10 mins)

7. Next, add the mushrooms and peas. Stir fry for 5 min.

8. Add 2 cups water. Cook on low medium heat for about 15 min till peas turn soft and oil separates. Adjust salt.

Serve curry with rice or chappatis. I served mine with some jeera rice.

Stir Fried Broccoli with Mushrooms and Bean Sprouts

Since the new year, I have been on a diet of sorts. I say of sorts because I am not following any particular kind of diet. Its just one where I watch the carbs, which means I cut off rice almost completely, chose whole wheat bread over white bread and baked it myself as much as I can, and also included more vegetables and fruits in my diet. I also stopped drinking coffee and reduced tea-drinking to once a week. This wasn't too hard since I prefer milo anyway!

As part of this new diet plan, I started having stir-fries with different combinations of vegetables. Its very common in Singapore food courts to have 'mixed rice' stalls where basically you can choose a number of side dishes of vegetables and meat on a bed of rice. Most of the vegetable side dishes are a combination of 2 or more vegetables and this is one such combo that I particularly love.

I tried it once at home and we both loved it. Yes, TH loved it too! Its really very simple too and all I had for dinner is a generous helping of this stir fry with two slices of toasted brown bread.

Since I started the food photography basics series, I thought it will be useful to post some pictures that didn't make it to the post for various reasons. To see the additional pictures of the ingredients and dish in this post, you can start by clicking here. Please let me know your thoughts and if you found this useful.

The star ingredients are:

Broccoli, Shitake Mushroom

(Click HERE to see more pictures of these two that didn't make the post)

And Bean Sprouts

(Click HERE to see more pics of bean sprouts that didn't make the post)

To make a stir fry that looks like this in the end

(Click HERE to see more pics of the final stir-fry that didn't make the post)

What I Used:

Broccoli - one small head cut into thin florets
Mushrooms - 1 cup, quartered with thick stalks removed. I used Shitake mushrooms but you can use pretty much any variety you want.
Bean sprouts - 1/2 cup
Green bell pepper / capsicum - 1/2 cup, cut into squares
Onions - 1/2 cup, cut into squares
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Low sodium soya sauce - 4 tbsp
Cornflour / cornmeal - 1 tbsp, dissolved in 4 tbsp water
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil and fry the onions and garlic until the onions turn pink.

2. Increase the heat to high and add the soya sauce. Let the sauce boil for about a min before adding the broccoli, mushrooms and capsicum. Continue to stir on high heat.

3. Once the vegetables have wilted a bit, add the bean sprouts and mix well.

4. Add the cornflour mix and blend well. Make sure not to use too much water to dissolve the cornflour.

5. Mix for another minute until the dish has blended well. Taste and adjust salt. You may not need as much as you think because the soya sauce will already have some salt.

You can adapt the kind of vegetables used and their quantities for this dish. Its very simple to make and quite filling too!

Here's another look at the dish - my favourite shot!

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Chettinad Mushroom Masala

Both TH and I are huge mushroom lovers. I make different dishes quite often but mostly over week nights when there is either no light or no energy left in me to plate and photograph the dishes. Last weekend I tried chettinad the Chettinad mushroom masala recipe that a friend's mother passed on me when she saw my interest in Chettinad dishes. Though I heard their non-veg preparations, I would easily kill for a nicely prepared Chettinad vada curry or Chettinad mushroom masala any day. This recipe is on the spicier side and though the original recipe called for 1 tbsp oil, I tried with lesser amount oil and it worked just fine.

What I Used:

Any mushroom variety of choice - 2 cups, chopped (I used a mix of shitake and oyster mushroom)
Tamarind - a small marble-sized ball soaked and squeezed in 1/2 water to extract juice
Salt - to taste

For Spice Mixture

Garam masala - 1 tsp (crush 1 clove + 1 cardamom pod + 1/2" piece cinnamon)
Chana dal / kadala parippu / split bengal gram - 1 tbsp
Whole black pepper - 1 tsp. If using powder, use 1/2 tsp

For tempering

Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2, halved
Curry leaves - a few

How I Made It:

1. Dry roast the ingredients, cool and grind for spice mixture. If using garam masala, you can add while grinding.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering, add the curry leaves and red chillies. Fry for 10 seconds.

3. Add the chopped mushrooms and stir well until it is well coated with the oil. Add salt. Let it cook till the mushrooms start sweating and become soft. Then add the tamarind mixture and cook on an open fire until the gravy gets thick and sticks to the mushroom pieces.

4. Next, add the ground spice mixture and fry for another 3-4 mins. Adjust salt and remove from fire.

Serve hot with rice or roti.

I am sending this to Srimathi's RCI: Chettinadu Vegetarian Cuisine

You may also like my no-grind Mushroom Masala Recipe.

Mushroom Masala

This dish happened one lazy afternoon when I went for a nice signature massage at Latitudes Spa, where we get a sexy Googler discount, and casually picked up a packet of button mushrooms at Food World.

Since shelf life of mushrooms is just about a day, I had to quickly act on it the next day. The quickest way to cook mushrooms has got to be this. It was just yummy with some warm toasted bread.

What I Used:

Button mushrooms - 1 cup
Onions - 2 medium
Tomato - 1
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Chicken masala - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Fresh coriander - for garnishing

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil in a kadai and roast the onions till golden brown.

2. Add the ginger garlic paste and the jeera, chicken masala, pepper masalas and fry well for 3-4 mins.

3. Chop the tomatoes and add it to the fried masala mix.

4. Finally, chop and clean the mushrooms. Add it to the above mixture, cook closed for 5 mins and remove from fire.

Serve hot with some lightly toasted bread.