Classy broads

The summer is trying to linger on in Pieland. All the same, realistically this is probably the last summer-ish recipe for the season. I cobbled it together to make use of the bounty of my vegetable microplot.

Broad Bean and Leek Quiche

First bake a pastry case blind. Now, I know that some of you out there are culinarily challenged (Shout out to a female fox in NY state. She knows who she is.) so I'll explain a bit. You don't have to poke your eyes out first.

First take a quiche dish (wou know...one of those fluted ceramic ones) or pie tin. Butter and flour it. Then take some shortcut pastry and line it. Ready-made pastry is fine. Another idea, if making your own - and I'm sure you'll find recipes on the web - is not to role it. Shortcut pastry is hard to handle. Instead, stick it in the fridge until nice and cold. Then grate it into the dish and kinda squidge it down so that the bottom and sides are covered. Then stick the dish back into the fridge for a while. Chese pasty could be a good idea here. To bake blind - line the pastry with foil. Put into a medium oven for about 20 mins, remove the foil and give it a few more minutes to dry out.

Now for the filling. In a saucepan, soften some leeks (sliced into 0.5 cm roundels) in a little butter. Remove the leeks but retain the butter. Add a little flour to the butter and cook to a roux. Add some milk and turn it into a white sauce. Don't make too much! You're only after about half a cup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the leeks back in the sauce and continue heating. Throw in a handful of freshly podded broadbeans. In my case, the beans were still growing five minutes before I started - but I'm just showing off. Them's the fellas over yonder.

Next, remove from the heat and stir in sone eggs. How many eggs? Jaysus, I don't know. How big's your quiche dish? I think I used about four for a medium-sized quche. And add a wee tub of Crème fraîche. Pour the filling into the pastry case. Bake in a medium oven for about 45 minutes until it is set and the top lightly browned.

Leave to cool before serving with new potatoes and a salad.


The other day, I was sitting on a park bench doing the newspaper crossword, and who should come and sit next to me but a well-known white rap star. I was stuck on one of the clues, so I asked him, 'Can you think of a synonym for anenome, Eminem?'

Ahfangew.