Mrs. Bubblefire - queen of Pastry

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Mrs. Doubtfire
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Mrs. Bubblefire - queen of Pastry

Post by Mrs. Doubtfire »

One cannot learn how to cook from a cook book receipe. Here is exactly how to make perfect cheese and onion quiche every time in a Bottle Gas oven using nothing but local Egyptian ingredients.

You will need a food mixer and bowl
Plain flour
Corn flour
Local loose butter
salt
black or red pepper


Cheddar cheese (not processed)
Buffalow cheese (Feta)
5 eggs
Milk
One large WHITE onion
Half a green SWEET Pepper, not a hot pepper
One large tomatoe

A 7" round metal baking tin about l" deep.

First put flour and butter in fridge to ensure it is cool.
Prepare onion and pepper by cutting small making sure you cut away any white pith from the green pepper, and no hard skin or core from the onion. Gently sweat these in a non-stick frying pan with a little butter and oil. When the onion becomes transparent, stop the cooking. leave to stand.

Prepare the pastry. Take about one and a half mugs of plain flour. Sift it well to remove inpurities, insect larvae, grit and bits of wood etc. Add salt and pepper to taste. Do NOT add any raising agent. Add a level desertspoon of Cornflour. Mix all together and sift well into a mixing bowl.

Take approximately just slightly less than half a mug of loose local butter, and cut it into the flour with a sharp knife into fairly small pieces. DO NOT rub in. Some things are best rubbed by hand. Pastry is NOT one of them! Now, with the MIXER begin blending the butter and flour on slow. Gradually increase the speed as the butter becomes broken down. Finish on Fast speed so that the incredients resemble fine breadcrumbs, but do not over mix.

Whilst mixing at high speed add a teaspoon of bottled water at a time until the breadcrums begin to stick together. DO NOT make the pastry wet so that it sticks to the fingers when tested. It should just about bind together without stickiness. If it is too wet the pastry will resemble concrete when it is cooked. I should add that mixing these particular incredients with a food mixer will make the pastry short. If using non-Egyptian ingredients (fine flour) then it will be too short, but we are doing it the Egyptian way here!

Pop the baking tin in the freezer for a minute or two. Make sure the rolling out board is very cold. If necessary put it in the freezer for a couple of minutes together with the rolling pin. Everything must be as cold as possible.

Flour the hands and ball together the pastry, and if necessary knead lightly so that it all sticks together without sticking at all to the hands. If the pastry sticks to the hands, it is too wet. If not wet enough, it will crack when rolling out. lightly flour the rolling surface, rolling pin, and roll out pastry to about one eighth of an inch thick. Roll it around the rolling pin and carefully insert the pastry on the top of the baking tin and begin to press into shape so that it fits the tin perfectly. Cut around the top edge and decorate with a fork if you wish. Put in fridge to relax whilst you prepare the egg custard mixture.

Switch on Bottle Gas. If your oven thinks it is a furnace, turn the requlator to the lowest setting.

Take a medium size cooking pan. Break five eggs into it. Mix with mixer until blended. Take a good rounded desertspoonful of feta cheese and blend with the egg mixture. Do not add any salt as there is a great deal of salt in the Feta cheese. Mix up a couple of desertspoonfuls of flour with milk to form a creamy texture, and add this to the egg mixture and blend in. Add at least a quarter kilo of milk and blend in. Take some hard cheddar cheese about the size of two cigarette boxes and grate it. Add this to the egg mixture with a fork or spoon.

Pour all this mixture into the prepared pastry case. Add the green pepper and onion a spoonful at a time, and gently stir in. Do not add these ingredients to the mixture until nearly ready for baking as they will tend to all sink to the bottom. It is best to have them evenly distributed. Finally, thinly slice up a tomatoe, removing any hard bits and very carefully lay them on the top so that they float, and will form a decoration.

Put in the oven on the top shelf and bake for at least half an hour. You can test if it is cooked by inserting a knife in the middle. The filling should rise above the sides of the pastry shell, but will sink back after cooking. If the centre is not quite firm, bear in mind it will continue to set after cooking. Too much cooking and it will become hard and solid. The pastry round the edge should be just starting to turn brown. An extra five or ten minutes cooking should do no harm. You have to know your oven rather than time exactly. It is not affected by opening the oven door, so you can keep a close eye on it.

When cooked, allow to stand until the filling is set and sinks back, then place a large plate on top, turn it over to remove it from the tin, and with another plate turn it back so that it is right side up.

Onions in food cause bacteria very quickly, so this must be eaten before 3 days, and kept refrigerated. It can be frozen by the desperate, but this does spoil the texture and flavour. This receipe does not include cream, but half of the milk can be substituted by single pouring cream for an extra rich flavour.

Let me know how you get on, and I will tell you where you have gone wrong if it doesnt turn out absolutely perfect every time. :mrgreen:


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Post by Goddess »

Wow, Mrs D!!!! Never thought you could cook!

I'm going to give it a try! I just love Cheese and Onion quiche - but it ends up like a frisbee each time so I gave up - will give it a bash with the new and improved recipe when I get the ingredients together.
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Post by Horus »

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Dont you just love the local flavour to this receipe:
Sift it well to remove inpurities, insect larvae, grit and bits of wood etc.
Find a bag of flour like that in Tesco's and they would give you your groceries that week just to keep quiet. :?
But I must say it sounds very nice :)
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Post by Goddess »

Horus wrote::lol: :lol: :lol:
Dont you just love the local flavour to this receipe:
Sift it well to remove inpurities, insect larvae, grit and bits of wood etc.
Find a bag of flour like that in Tesco's and they would give you your groceries that week just to keep quiet. :?
But I must say it sounds very nice :)
Heaven help me!!!!! I read that and thought nothing of it!!!! Just a fact of life here!!! Feel really embarrassed now that I sit and pick bits of wood and stuff out of my flour and inspect the bag for black creatures before I start to use it!
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Post by JOJO »

Goddess wrote:
Horus wrote::lol: :lol: :lol:
Dont you just love the local flavour to this receipe:
Sift it well to remove inpurities, insect larvae, grit and bits of wood etc.
Find a bag of flour like that in Tesco's and they would give you your groceries that week just to keep quiet. :?
But I must say it sounds very nice :)
Heaven help me!!!!! I read that and thought nothing of it!!!! Just a fact of life here!!! Feel really embarrassed now that I sit and pick bits of wood and stuff out of my flour and inspect the bag for black creatures before I start to use it!
i'll share those idiot pants with you Goddess on this one!
I read the recipe and instructions and thought ' that sounds like one hell of a disgusting EGG CUSTARD to me!' :oops: :oops: It wasn't until i read your post below that i clicked on the little luvvie was making a Quiche :oops: :oops:
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Post by Horus »

I keep telling you that you don't read your mail properly :)
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Post by jewel »

My recipie for a delicious cheese and onion quiche - GUARANTEED perfect every time is - hop in car down to nearest M&S - select said quiche from their finest range - take home and heat in oven for about 15mins - yummy :P :P :P and no washing up either!! :lol: :lol: :lol: this is not just quiche ............this is M&S quiche :D
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Post by LivinginLuxor »

I totally agree with you for once, Jewel! Why spend a long time making such a thing as a quiche, only for it turn out like burnt cardboard, when the ingredients should be car, money and a carrier bag?

Here's my recipe for superb grilled chicken, marinated in a lemon marinade

Car, taxi, bicycle or arabeya
Go to Nile View restaurant on the banks of the river.
Ask for grilled chicken.

15 minutes later, eat and enjoy the view.
I might agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong!
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Post by Goddess »

I wish it was as easy as that!!! Unfortunately up here there is nowhere with ready made quiche. And the few restaurants that do sell it up here charge extortionate prices for Golf ball sized ones!!
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Post by marvin-carrie »

LivinginLuxor wrote: Here's my recipe for superb grilled chicken, marinated in a lemon marinade

Car, taxi, bicycle or arabeya
Go to Nile View restaurant on the banks of the river.
Ask for grilled chicken.

15 minutes later, eat and enjoy the view.
Easy for you Stan but some of us are 5 ½ hours away :)

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Post by Lisak »

I can get the authentic food as theres a fab egyptian restaurant just down the road where I live, and if you sit in the garden one can pretend that you are in Egypt, but somehow falls short of the Nile View, only thing that lets it down really.
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Post by HEPZIBAH »

[face=Comic Sans MS]OOh Lisak, please tell me where so I can pay it a visit next time I'm in that area. :) [/face]
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Post by Lisak »

Its called Habibi and its in Far Gosford Street. (not far from the bottom of Ball Hill)
www.habibirestaurant.co.uk

Manal, the owner is a wonderful lady and welcomes everyone as part of her family. I love it there.
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Post by HEPZIBAH »

[face=Comic Sans MS]Thanks Lisak. Will certainly give it a try next time I'm in Coventry, after all it's not too far from Walsgrave. :D :) [/face]
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Post by Mrs. Doubtfire »

The very last thing one would want surely is grilled chicken in Luxor, which usually tastes disgusting, (it it has any taste left in it) probably grilled a couple of days previously, warmed up slightly and most likely full of bacteria. Of course, alcohol would probably kill most of it off.

Unfortunately to be a chicken in Egypt is unfortunate indeed since they have to be bled before being killed. This is usually done by inserting the victim in an electric drum something like a washing machine, which automatically plucks the feathers out whilst it is still alive. If its got any blood left in its mangled body, it might be lucky and have its throat slit.

The creepy crawlies and insect larva that one finds in the flour, also extends to the rice, all the loose Hibiscus, herbs and spices, which is one of the main reasons why they should not be imported into the UK. Much more hygienic to buy the pasturised herbs and spices from Sainsburys. :mrgreen:
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Post by jewel »

Unfortunately to be a chicken in Egypt is unfortunate indeed since they have to be bled before being killed. This is usually done by inserting the victim in an electric drum something like a washing machine, which automatically plucks the feathers out whilst it is still alive. If its got any blood left in its mangled body, it might be lucky and have its throat slit.
Please tell me this isn't true Mrs D :( :cry:
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Post by Countessa »

Sadly, I think to be a chicken anywhere is unfortunate - you just need to do some basic research to find out how brutal their slaughter can be anywhere.

And with regard to rice, herbs & spices; I would agree with Mrs D that if one was to purchase these items from street vendors then they would most certainly contain bugs & larvae. However, one can just as easily buy jars of spices and bags of rice from the supermarket with not a bug in sight!!
I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure...
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Post by HEPZIBAH »

[face=Comic Sans MS]The last time I ate pigeon and chicken in Luxor I knew very well that when I visited that same home a couple of days before that I had fed those very birds. :roll: [/face]
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Post by Maggy »

I can remember as a child having to go to the farm for our christmas bird and having to wait untill the farmer wrung it's neck. So not much difference then to what happens here now, there were no ready "dressed chickens to be had then. OH hell I'm giving my age away now.:oops:
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Post by Mrs. Doubtfire »

Jewels I once went with a friend of mine to buy a couple of fresh chickens. I was amazed when they were popped into the machine and switched it on. It was terrible to listen to the pain of the creature, and I simply havent touched a chicken ever since.

As I am a devout animal lover, I hope I have now turned everyone off eating chicken. haha.

Strawberries are just coming in, so shortly I will be showing you how to make strawberry tarts just like the ones you buy in the best bakers in the UK, using my own special receipe for sweet pastry (and a few special ingredients excluding the bugs). :mrgreen:
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