drmoss_ca
Is there a Doctor in the house ?
Rog,
My version is a short crust pastry base, which is blind baked 400ºF for 20 minutes, then put back in the oven with the foil and weights removed to crisp up a little, perhaps just 10 minutes at 350º. I think my short crust pastry technique is somewhere above in this thread, but it is like this:
1½ cups white flour
¼ tsp salt
4oz shortening
Pulse flour and shortening in a food processor till it is like breadcrumbs. Maybe 30 seconds in all. Add 8 TBSP ice cold water pulsing as you go. Should form a ball of pastry you can take out, flatten, wrap in cling film, and place in fridge for 30 minutes plus until needed. When blind baking, roll out chilled pastry so you can line a 10" dish (I used a cast iron skillet above). Cover with aluminum foil, fill with baking weights (rice, beans, but I use 1¢ coins) and "blind-bake" for 20 minutes at 400ºF. Remove foil and coins and proceed as described.
The filling is a chopped onion fried till clear in butter, then 1 TBSP flour added and stirred in. Scrape into a large mixing bowl. Squeeze out 10oz frozen spinach to remove as much water as possible, add to onions. Wilt 8 cups torn Swiss chard, and 8 cups kale. Roughly chop and add to mixing bowl. Stir, season with a little salt (less or more depending on the cheese you use), plenty of black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Mix in a cup of shredded cheese, parmesan, peccorino, or whatever you have. More salt if using nasty processed cheese shreds, less if grated Italian cheese. Then mix in an egg and about a cup of heavy cream. The end result is to have something you can squish into the pastry base, but not runny. Make six holes in the filling with a dessert spoon, and crack a whole egg into each. Bake at 350º until whites firm and yolk springy - around 30-40 minutes. Serve either hot from the oven, or cold. Mine will be cold with salad on the side.
My version is a short crust pastry base, which is blind baked 400ºF for 20 minutes, then put back in the oven with the foil and weights removed to crisp up a little, perhaps just 10 minutes at 350º. I think my short crust pastry technique is somewhere above in this thread, but it is like this:
1½ cups white flour
¼ tsp salt
4oz shortening
Pulse flour and shortening in a food processor till it is like breadcrumbs. Maybe 30 seconds in all. Add 8 TBSP ice cold water pulsing as you go. Should form a ball of pastry you can take out, flatten, wrap in cling film, and place in fridge for 30 minutes plus until needed. When blind baking, roll out chilled pastry so you can line a 10" dish (I used a cast iron skillet above). Cover with aluminum foil, fill with baking weights (rice, beans, but I use 1¢ coins) and "blind-bake" for 20 minutes at 400ºF. Remove foil and coins and proceed as described.
The filling is a chopped onion fried till clear in butter, then 1 TBSP flour added and stirred in. Scrape into a large mixing bowl. Squeeze out 10oz frozen spinach to remove as much water as possible, add to onions. Wilt 8 cups torn Swiss chard, and 8 cups kale. Roughly chop and add to mixing bowl. Stir, season with a little salt (less or more depending on the cheese you use), plenty of black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Mix in a cup of shredded cheese, parmesan, peccorino, or whatever you have. More salt if using nasty processed cheese shreds, less if grated Italian cheese. Then mix in an egg and about a cup of heavy cream. The end result is to have something you can squish into the pastry base, but not runny. Make six holes in the filling with a dessert spoon, and crack a whole egg into each. Bake at 350º until whites firm and yolk springy - around 30-40 minutes. Serve either hot from the oven, or cold. Mine will be cold with salad on the side.