Seafood Quiche

Are you a quiche lover? This is a great recipe to try as soon as possible!

Quiches may be one of the most indulging salty treats. Usually, we use the french dough "Pâte brisée" to make quiche recipes. However, there is a variety of fillings and I am sure everybody has a favorite. One of my favorites is seafood filling, and this is exactly what I am presenting today. So, I hope you like my recipe.

Ingredients

Pâte brisée

- 250g flour, sifted
- 125g butter, softened in room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- 6 cl cold water
- 1/2 tsp salt

Filling

- 125g calamari, boiled for 10 to 15min (in salt water with a bay leaf)
- 125g shrimp
- 150g canned mushroom
-  1/2 l bechamel sauce (white sauce)
- 4 spring onions, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, grilled and diced (check my grilling tip here)
- 150g cheese (mozzarella and cheddar)
- 1 tbsp cedar vinegar
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper

Process

Pâte brisée

1-Prepare your dough: mix flour and salt, then add butter and mix gently with your fingers. Add egg yolk and water and mix again until you get a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour for better results.

2- Preheat your oven to 250°C. Stretch your dough and place it in a pie dish then use a fork to tap all around it. Bake for 20 to 25min or until it's done. (baking time may differ so watch out)

Filling

1-In a hot pan, add olive oil, then spring onions. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 3min. 

2- Add mushrooms and calamari, and cook again for 3min.

3- Add cedar vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce. Lower the heat and cook for 3 to 5min. Add your shrimp and cook for one more minute. If it is needed, season with salt and pepper again. Allow to cool for some minutes.

4-  Place your filling into the crust and spread it out evenly.

5- Add bechamel sauce. Then add cheese and red bell pepper.

- Bake again for 10 to 15min or until golden brown.

 Enjoy!

Stuffed Potatoes with Smoked Salmon Terrine

     It's been a while! I have been super busy with work and family events that I couldn't post anything lately. This does not mean that I don't cook, of course, but I did not have time to take photos and organize things for my blog. Anyway, I am back now and I hope I will be adding new recipes every now and then.

     As you may know, we are in the Holy month of Ramadan. So, happy Ramadan everyone! It's true that it is a fasting month. However, people love to have delicious dishes and nice treats after a long day of fasting. 

     For me, I try to keep it as simple and healthy as possible. Thus, I am sharing with you today a recipe that has been one of my favorites recently. It is stuffed potatoes with smoked salmon terrine. I can't tell you how delicious and tasty they are. As usual, this recipe is very easy and does not require a lot of time. I hope you like it and I hope you try it out soon! 

Ingredients

- 5 to 7 medium size white potatoes, washed and peeled and cut in half lengthwise

- 150g smoked salmon terrine

- 100g mozzarella and cheddar cheese, shredded

- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)

- 2 tbsp soy sauce (Kikkoman preferably)

- Salt and pepper

Process

1- Boil potatoes in salt water for 15 min or until soften enough but still firm. Drain very well and allow to cool on a kitchen paper; this will help to absorb excess water. Remove the flesh from potato skin, leaving about 1cm shell of flesh and skin and putting the flesh in a separate bowl as in the picture above. Now, preheat your oven to 250°C.

2- In a mixing cup, add potatoes flesh, mustard, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Bled the ingredients with a hand blender (you may use a food processor, potato masher, or a fork) until smooth. If the mixture is too hard, add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk or water and mix well again. It should look as the

picture below. 

 

3- Add the smoked salmon terrine and use a potato masher or a fork to mix the filling. 

4- Spoon the filling back into potato shells and sprinkle cheese on top. Place in a pan layered with parchment paper and then cover with aluminum foil. 

5- Bake for 20 to 30min. Remove the aluminum foil and back again until the cheese is melted.

Served warm.

Spinach & Cheese Crepes

     In my previous recipe, I showed you how to make nice and salty crepes from scratch. Today I am going to present to you spinach and cheese filling, which is my first suggestion for salty crepes. This is a basic spinach and cheese recipe, and you may certainly add any of your favorite veggies. I hope you enjoy my recipe.

 

Ingredients

- Crepes (check my previous post)

- American cheese slices

- 1 bunch of spinach, chopped

- 1 onion, diced

- 1 red pepper, diced

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- Salt, pepper, ginger

Process

1 - In a hot pan, add olive oil, then onion. Cook for 2 to 3 min then add red pepper. Cook again for 2 to 3 min, then season with salt, pepper, and ginger.

2- Add soy sauce, stir, then add your spinach and cook for 3 to 4 min or until soft. Put the filling in a bowl and allow to cool before use.

3- In each crepe, place a slice of American cheese and 1 or 2 tbsp of your filling (depending on your crepe size.)

4- Fold your crepes into squares and place in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5- In a preheated oven, cook your crepes for 7 to 10 min until the cheese is melted. Serve and enjoy!

Cheese & Turkey Ham Muffins

     If you are tired of sweet muffins recipes, why don't you try a salty one? I made these great muffins last week and they turned so delicious! So I decided to bake them again and post the recipe in my blog. We all know that cheese and smoked turkey ham is a superb combination. What if we add red pepper and rosemary? I let you discover yourselves!

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

- 2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup smoked turkey ham, diced
- 1/2 cup red pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup cheese, diced
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves  
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 Baking soda
- Salt and pepper

Wet ingredients

- 1 cup Milk
- 1/3 cup Vegetable oil (or melted butter)
- 1 Egg

Process

1- Preheat your oven to 180°C and  and lay a muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
    In a small bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together.

2- In a mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Make a hole in the mixture and pour the wet batter. Mix until combined. Be careful not to over mix.

3- Fill  muffin cases and bake for about 25 minutes. (cooking time may deffer so watch out)
 

That's it! 

 
 

Tuna Pizza

     Do you like pizza? The answer to this question is always yes, of course! So today I am going to show you how to make tuna pizza from scratch. It's very simple and it does not require any mysterious skills! I like making pizza and I love eating it. I have different pizza recipes but this one is basic and you can be creative and change ingredients to suit your taste. Well, let's start our pizza!

   

Ingredients

1- Pizza Dough:

- 150g All purpose flour
- 100g Corn flour (can be substituted with all purpose flour)
- 3 tbsp Virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp Vinegar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Yeast 
- 1 tsp Sugar
- Warm water 

2- Pizza Sauce

- 100 to 150g Tomato sauce
- 1 tsp Dry garlic
- 1 tbsp Fresh herbs (I used rosemary and thyme)
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- Salt and pepper

3- Pizza Filling:

- 1 Tomato, thinly sliced
- 1 Onion, thinly sliced
- 1 Green pepper, sliced
- 1 Red pepper, sliced
- 100g Canned mushroom
- 150g Canned tuna (good quality tuna gives better flavor)
- 150g Mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
- 100g Cheddar cheese, shredded
- Some black olives, pitted

Process

1- Activate your yeast in a small bowl of water by adding a tsp of sugar, then prepare the dough by mixing the ingredients together and adding warm water slowly until smooth. You may use a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, a rubber spatula, or simply your hand. Cover the bowl and allow to rest and rise for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature. Anyway, you want your dough to rise enough before using it.

2- While your dough is resting, prepare all the other ingredients. When it's ready to use, roll out into a thin circle and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (or greased and floured if you don't have parchment paper) and preheat your oven to 200C°.

3- layer with tomato sauce. Then layer tomato and onion slices, tuna, mushroom, green and red pepper, then mozzarella and cheddar cheese and finally some black olives. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (cooking time may deffer so make sure your pizza is well cooked before serving it)

Enjoy your pizza!

Potatoes Gratin with Turkey Smoked Ham

     Wondering what to cook for dinner today? Here is a delicious recipe that you can make in no time: Potatoes gratin with smoked turkey ham. I usually use minced beef for this gratin, but I like to change it for turkey ham sometimes because it does not need any prior cooking and it gives a special flavor too. For the sauce, I use homemade bechamel sauce (white sauce). You may use the ready-made instead, but I don't think it has the same flavor. I want to mention that a lot of gratin recipes do not require boiling potatoes before using it. I prefer to do so because it's time saving. Well, I hope you enjoy this recipe!

 Ingredients

- 300g to 400g Potatoes, sliced and boiled in salt water for 10 min (half cooked)
- 1/2 l Bechamel sauce (white sauce)
- 100g Smoked turkey ham slices
- 150g Cheddar cheese (or red cheese), shredded
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
 - Salt and pepper

Process

Preheat your oven to 200°C.
1- In a bowl, combine all the ingredients apart from the sauce and cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then toss to coat.
2-  Put the mixture in a gratin pan, then add your bechamel sauce. It is better not to thicken the sauce a lot while cooking it since it will be cooked again in the oven.

3- Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Cook in the oven for 15 to 20 min or until the cheese is deep golden brown. Cooking time may defer so be careful not to over cook your gratin.

 Serve and enjoy your meal!