Spring Greens Quiche

21st April 2013

This wild food foraging recipe can be adapted to what’s available but is perfect for incorporating all the wonderful spring greens that are finally in abundance at the moment.

Ingredients

Either half a pack of frozen shortcrust pastry defrosted, a bought pre-baked 22cm shortcrust pastry flan case or;-

• 175g plain flour
• 75g butter
• pinch salt
• cold water

Sift the flour with the salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter to get a breadcrumb texture then add enough cold water to bring it all together into a dough then rest in the fridge for half and hour.

For the filling;

• 150g air dried ham cut into wafer thin slices (parma, iberico, speck etc.) we used the pigeon ham we made earlier.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• two large handfuls of nettle tips
• 1 handful of young dock leaves
• 2 large bunches of Three-cornered leeks chopped
• 200g grated cheese (cheddar or gruyere)
• 5 eggs
• 300ml single getting cipro without a prescription cream
• salt
• pepper
• large pinch dried thyme

Wild Food – 1 Day Foraging Course

Roll out the pastry (if using) and line a 22cm flan dish. Don’t cut off the edges and re-chill. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade (gas mark 5).

Line the base of the pastry with baking paper and fill with rice or baking beads, place on a tray and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the paper and rice and bake for another 5 minutes to cook the base. Then reduce the oven to about 160 or gas mark 3.

Meanwhile, bring a pan of water to the boil and once boiling blanch the nettle tips and dock leaves in boiling water for about a minute. Drain in a sieve and allow to cool then chop finely.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the ham for a minute or two to release the flavour.  Add the chopped Three-cornered Leeks and cook for a minute or two until they are wilted then stir in the blanched chopped nettles and dock leaves.

When the pastry base is cooked, spread the bacon/greens mixture evenly over the base and sprinkle with the grated cheese.  Beat the eggs with the cream, season with the salt and pepper and thyme and pour over the filling.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until the filling is just set, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Trim the pastry.

For a vegetarian version simply omit the ham.  The nettles and docks can be mixed with or substituted by any of the spring greens we have looked at over the last couple of months; Dandelions, Daisies, Ox-eye Daisies, Dead Nettles, Sorrel etc.

We deliver award winning bushcraft courses and wild food foraging courses throughout the year.

Kev Palmer