Help. In a moment of insanity I offered to make a quiche for a party. Quiche???

[worriermum]

I have never made a quiche in my life and don't even own one of those wavy quiche dishes. This is for a party and I have to impress, so please,please Mumsnet give me a Worriermum-proof yet delicious quiche recipe, that explains the very basics. I have to post and run now, but will scour for responses later.

buy ready made shortcrust pastry. Roll out in dish as per pack instruction.

Make filling:

• fry 1 sliced onion with large pack cubed bacon or pancetta

Make sure onions don't go brown. keep fire low. Cook thoroughly. Leave to cool

• beat 4 eggs + 1/4 cup cream. Add onion bacon mix and season with pepper

• bake in oven 40mn

3 eggs, 1/2 pint milk, 2tbsp flour, 100g cheese. then whatever filling you like.

line a dish with pastry and prick it all over and bake blind first until it goes dry looking, then pour in the custard.

does it have to strictly be quiche?

Jamie Oliver's Asparagus and potato tart is sort of like a quiche, but with filo pastry and looks very impressive, but is dead simple to do.

note made quiche either but its on my list of things to do.. i have this recipe saved from recipezaar that I thought i would try one day.. sounds very nice.. not totaly sure about the worcestershire sauce as its not a fav might substitute something else.. good luck

Thank you Slim and Chopster - those are very helpful. My problem is I live in a 3rd World country with no shop-pastry available. Is it difficult to make my own? The recipes I've found on the net all contain dark warnings about the need for iced water or advise using lard. Any recipes or tips for pastry that work work with a quiche? Thanks again

And thank you too Meridian, Califrau and Lapin ..sorry, hadn't seen your posts when I wrote my first thank you letter! Califrau, that's exactly how it was...and then a very lame attempt to say "Or perhaps a cheese cake instead" which of course only made the hostess more determined to have a quiche. Thank you all again ...feeling slightly more confident now.

ok, i used to be totally useless at pastry till i found this recipe - foolproof!

rub 6 oz butter into 9 oz flour till it's breadcrumby. add a beaten egg and a tablespoon of milk, knead and roll out - add more flour if it's sticky.

as for the filling - i usually chop up a pack of bacon into small pieces and fry till really crispy, add slices of tomato and grated cheese, then pour in a mixture of 4 beaten eggs and a tub of creme fraiche.

good luck!

God bless Mumsnet ... thank you all. Right, off to shops armed with this thread.(??? , hope my quiche turns out better than my metaphors...)

go to marks
buy a posh quiche

take

the iced water is because warm hands and pastry don't go together well. If you had a food processor you can easily do pastry in there. Or, jsut run hands under cold tap and mix it. Refrigerate the pastry for a bit before rolling.

The rule I always learned for pastry was half fat to flour. So say 500g flour, 250g fat, 2 eggs and a spalsh of milk to bind. Lemon zest works nciely in savoury pastry too.

lol, Cod . Ah,if only... Am now in the land-of-no-Marks,no-Waitrose,no blooming anything! I have to make my own ice-cream, ffs!

ice cream?! Where are you??