Salmon and Feta Quiche

Update: I know that you are all waiting with bated breath to hear how I made out at the dentist. It would seem that a crown I had put in back in June has gone to crap. The metal casing is still intact but the porcelain covering is what shattered in my mouth on Saturday. So I have an appointment for next week to pop off the old, busted crown. Then the tooth will be checked (in June there was some question if the tooth was still alive) for vitality. If it is still "alive" it will be recrowned. If the tooth has died, it's off for another root canal. Get your prayer books out, people, I need some divine intervention to save the tooth!

I made meatloaf for dinner tonight with some baked potatoes and a veggie, but I'm going to ask Mrs. BA to make quiche for us for this week. To that end, I've posted salmon recipes here before, including one with salmon and bacon. Now from one of my new friends across the sea comes a recipe to put those salmon into a quiche! Enjoy!

Here's my recipe for hot smoked salmon and feta quiche (I know it's not really quiche if it doesn't contain bacon and Gruyere for the purists out there, but it's delicious nonetheless). This fills a dish 28X18X5cm, but you can shrink or expand the quantities to fit your own dish without any harm, it's not an exact science:

• 2 fillets of hot smoked salmon
• 1 packet of feta cheese (I use organic)
• 6 large eggs
• 600ml of double cream (ish)
  

For the pastry

• 300g of Italian 00 flour (this doesn't need to be sifted like ordinary plain and is much lighter)
• 170g of unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon of yoghurt
• a few tablespoons of iced water with half a teaspoon of salt stirred into it
  

I make the pastry in my food processor a la Miss Lawson's recipe in How to Eat. Measure out the flour and butter, cut butter into small dice, put both in a bowl and stash in the freezer for ten minutes. Once they have had their chilling, put them in a food processor and whizz till they look like fine oatmeal (you can do the rubbing in by hand if you so wish). Add your teaspoon of yoghurt and pulse for a second, then with the machine running add the iced water very slowly through the funnel until the pastry is just about to come together but hasn't quite. Switch off and turn the dough onto a surface, squish it into a ball, wrap in plastic and put it in the fridge to rest for at least twenty minutes.

Once the pastry is rested bring it out, roll it to size and line your, buttered, dish. Put it back in the fridge, put the oven onto gas mark 6, and gather all the other ingredients. Flake the salmon, beat the eggs with the cream and crumble the feta. Bring the pastry lined dish out of the fridge once the oven is up to temperature and get on with building the quiche. Put the salmon in the dish, pour in the eggy cream, arrange the feta all over and put in the oven for about an hour. You may need to turn the temperature down after about forty five minutes, but ovens vary so much, so just have a look and see what you think: if it's getting rather brown but is still very wobbly turn it down a notch.

I really like this eaten hot with salad and a baked spud, but it's great ice cold the next day too. This size will easily feed eight people but I like to make a lot so there is plenty left over, it freezes very well and it's great to have the odd wodge stashed in the freezer for unexpected feedings.