Corn in the Quiche

8 October 2016. Another day of marking time; fifteen years since I started University and a trip over to a place I lived at until 1988 and that I'd not been back to visit since December 1996. Sometimes  your instincts push you in certain directions and with me they usually tell me to push forward regardless but on the 8th it was a day for looking back perhaps to help find out where I needed to go from here.

When I returned home I remembered I was to go a walk in the Peak District on the Sunday with one of my oldest friends and as he'd agreed to drive I thought it was only fair that I prepared something to eat on the walk. As the weather was getting a little colder a quiche that was fortifying and also inspired by my recent holiday to Herefordshire was the order of the day.

Herefordshire is known for Cider, Cheese and Beef both roast and corned as well as its orchards. This quiche recipe included all these ingredients in some way and the ingredients were as follows:

For the Pastry Case:

12 ounces plain flour.
6 ounces of margarine.

For the mainly dry ingredients of the filling:

3 sliced Spring Onions.
1 Diced White Onion
Topped with 2 tablespoons of cider.
4 slices of cut up Corn Beef.
5 ounces grated Oak Smoked Cheddar.
1 teaspoon of nutmeg.


For the liquid mixture:

1 and a quarter cups of milk
1/8 pint of cider.
2 tablespoons of flour.
4 beaten eggs
A pinch of nutmeg.

Having decided to listen to nothing before 1988 when I drove over to the village I used to live in I had chosen for that journey R.E.M's 1985 classic Fables of the Reconstruction and when I started cooking I continued the theme by playing the follow up to "Fables..." 1986's Life's Rich Pageant an album full of raw and rocky emotion, spindly guitars and powerful hooks.

The first step was to make the pastry case by rubbing together the flour and margarine and making it transform into breadcrumbs before mixing it together with around a tablespoon and a half of milk in order to form a dough that could be easily rolled out. I then spread the rolled out dough out into a pie dish that was thoroughly greased and about 25 centimetres wide and 5 centimetres deep.

Next I added the mainly dry ingredients by putting the onion pieces and spring onions evenly on the bottom of the dish. I then added the Nutmeg and the Corned Beef, which I tore into small squares, and then on top of that I added the pieces of Oak Smoked Cheese and the Cider.

Separately I put together the liquid mixture by beating the four Eggs together in a large measuring jug and then adding the Cider, Milk, Nutmeg, Flour and Milk. I then poured this mixture evenly throughout the pastry case and then cooked it in the middle of the oven on Gas Mark 4 (or 180 degrees for non-fan oven or 170 degrees for fan ovens) for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes I did the usual test of putting a skewer through the mixture and when the skewer came out clean the Quiche, I knew, was cooked. This dish has a bit of everything; the great taste (albeit with a high fat content) of the Corned Beef, the fresh goodness of the White and Spring Onions and the richness of the Cider and the Smoked Cheese. It was just as well it was eaten by my friend and I in the middle of a great five mile walk as it gave us something with plenty of richness and flavour to keep us going on a nippy early October Sunday Afternoon.

Oven Fresh and ready to be stored overnight for a long walk the next day

A spare slice to take to work on the Monday and set me up for a big week.