Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Quiche

Many moons ago, in our misspent youth, BBC2 and I would go out partying on a Saturday night till the early hours. We would invariably end the night with a visit to the wonderful 24/7 bagel shop in Brick Lane (just google it, you’ll find hundreds of reviews), it’s a bit of an eastend of London tradition. Anyway, I would always get one smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel and one hard boiled egg bagel yummy! BBC2 on the other hand would get pickled herring…yuck…no accounting for taste!

So, since moving to Cornwall about ten years ago those glorious bagels have been sorely missed by us both and we have tried to recreate them with store bought alternatives…no luck. Bear with me, I will get to the point!

On one of the occasions of trying this we had some left over salmon and cream cheese but no bagels. However we did have a store bought pastry case and a little light went on in my head and yes I made our first ever smoked salmon and cream cheese quiche!

BBC2 has since taken over this recipe because he makes much better shortcrust pastry than I do…but it was MINE ALL MINE!!! LOL😜

Tips before starting…
Give eggs time to blend with cream and seasoning
Make sure fat and water are cold
Make sure pastry is rested and chilled
make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature , makes. It easier to distribute on pastry base

Ingredients and method

Pastry
6 oz plan flour
1 ½ oz butter cold
1 ½ oz lard cold
Good pinch of salt
2 to 3 tablespoons of iced water – in either iced wanted is the key!
Food processor:
Put the flour and salt into the processor and pulse for a moment; add the butter and lard cubed and pulse until you have fine bread crumbs. With the processor still running at low speed add the water slowly until the pastry comes together in a ball, stop the processor wrap the pastry in cling film and place in a refrigerator for 30 minutes.
By hand:
Sieve the flour into a bowl with the salt, add the butter and lard cut into small cubes then work the butter and lard into the flour by rubbing it through your fingers and thumb until you have a mixture of fine bread crumbs, add the water a little at a time until the pastry comes together in a ball ensuring it’s not too wet, place it in cling film in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170c fan, butter a 8inch loose bottom flan tin and pop it into the refrigerator, roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface so that the pastry will fit the flan tin, carefully lower the pastry over the tin ensuring that it covers all the sides and with a fork prick the bottom of the flan tin every ½ inch, place the tin on a heavy baking tray and bake for 15 minute.

For the filling
5 oz of Smoked Salmon
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of creamed cheese at room temperature
10 fl oz of double cream
A pinch of Salt and pepper
In a jug mix the eggs and the yolk, take the pastry case out of the oven after 15 minutes and lightly paint the inside of the flan case with the egg mixture to seal and return to the oven for another 5 minutes .
Add the cream, salt and pepper to the egg mixture and whisk with a fork, take the flan case out of the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes then spread the cream cheese over the bottom of the flan case then cut the smoked salmon into small pieces (I use scissors for this) and place over the top of the creamed cheese, pour half of the egg and cream mixture over the salmon and cream cheese. (At this point I would sprinkle some cheddar cheese on to finish)
Place the flan back onto the shelf of the oven the pour the rest to the egg and cream mixture over the flan case ensuring that all the salmon is covered but do not over fill the flan.
Cook for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.
Allow to cool before removing from the flan tin