Oh Boy

Rule number one when you're having guests over for weekend brunch? Never go out boozing the night before.

Rule number two?

Never attempt to try anything involving pastry, or any recipe for that matter, if you've never done it before.

We stumbled home last night after one glass of wine, one beer, and one vodka too many. So when I woke up this morning I felt absolutely fabulous darling.

To add to my throbbing headache was the fact that I decided to use a variation of not one, not two, but three different recipes. With no notes on how I was going to combine them. Just three separate recipes.

Brilliant.

My hungovered husband decided to make himself some bacon and eggs (perfect), thus using up valuable bench space whilst I was trying to find some method to my madness to start prepping the ingredients.

My cousins arrived a little earlier than expected (great), and sat around watching their usually composed cousin come extremely close to meltdown.

Ahh...you gotta love it hey?

I'd never cooked with pastry before, so the blind baking bit was an experience. Basically you put the pastry in the dish, cover with foil, add rice or pasta as weight to stop the pastry from puffing up and bake in the oven.

Well that was the plan. I guess I didn't use enough rice, it seemed like such a waste since you have to throw it out after, I think, not sure. So when I took it out of the oven it was all puffy and weird looking. Then when I tried to take the foil and rice off, the rice went everywhere. All over the table, on the floor, on the pastry itself. Oh my God.

Surprisingly everything worked out in the end. Nothing got burnt, it tasted ok, and they even asked for seconds. Now before I forget what I actually did, here is my recipe.


Bacon and leek quiche, mimosas

Chick Pea's Bacon & Leek Quiche

Ingredients
2 sheets short crust pastry, thawed
4 - 5 rashers of bacon, diced
2 leeks, cleaned and cut into medium slices
5 large eggs (though I may try 6 eggs next time)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons roughly chopped thyme
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup cream (or use more milk)
Ground pepper

Method
* Preheat oven to 180C and blind bake pastry in dish for 10 minutes.
* Cook bacon over high heat until crispy, remove and drain on paper towels. Reserve some of the bacon fat and cook leeks until softened. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
* Combine eggs, thyme, pepper, milk and cream and beat until well combined.
* Add cheese, bacon and leeks to mixture and mix well.
* Pour the mixture into the dish. Be sure not to fill it all the way to the top, as the mixture will rise while baking.
* Bake at 180C for about 30 minutes, or until the eggs have set.

To make mimosas, fill 1/3 to 1/2 a glass with Champagne or sparkling wine, and the remainder with orange juice. I might try bellinis next time, yum.