Ham & Pea Quiche

Okay, bear with me here. I pulled this recipe out of nowhere, so if it seems a little bit random-it sorta is. A insisted I try baking something savoury for once because I have been overloading him with cakes and cookies recently. I was torn between all the different savoury pastry recipes in the Golden Book of Patisserie. I wanted something that I could serve for dinner, preferably something with meat in it, and I wanted to use my new tart tin. There was a recipe for pea tartlets and another for a capsicum tart and several quiche recipes. In the end I used the pastry recipe from the capsicum tart but the filling from the pea tartlets. I added some Bangalow sweet pork leg ham that I picked up when I was passing by the David Jones food hall, channeling a bit of a ham & pea soup theme.

So it was originally meant to be a tart...but I don't feel quite right calling it one, because it really tasted like a quiche to me. It might have something to do with the texture. I got far too impatient after waiting almost 2 hours for the dough to chill, I was hungry and bored and undercooked the pastry a tad. So there was something about the texture that made it quiche-like.

Ham & Pea Quiche
Pastry
150g cold butter, chopped into cubes
225g plain flour
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg beaten

Place flour, parmesan and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse briefly until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Mix the oil with the eggs in a small bowl and slowly add-through the feeder tube-just enough to form a dough, pulsing with the gentlest touch to combine.

Shape into a dish and wrap in cling film, refrigerate for 1 hour. Oil a 25cm tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface (or baking paper) to fit the pan. Line the pan with the pastry, leaving an overlap of about 2.5 cm. Prick the base with a fork. Chill for one hour in the fridge. (This is when I started getting impatient and only waited half an hour)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Roll a rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to cut off the excess pastry. Line te pastry case with foil or baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and beans and bake for 5 minutes.

Filling
180g frozen baby peas, thawed
150g ham, whatever floats your boat
2 large egg yolks
4 tbsp grated Parmesan
1/2 cup creme fraiche double cream
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Decrease the oven temperature to 150 degrees C. Leave the oven door open if you want it to cool quickly while you prepare the filling. Boil the peas in a little salted water for 2 minutes, or until tender (I was too lazy for this, I just warmed them up in the microwave for a couple minutes). Drain well. Combine the peas, ham, egg yolks, cheese and cream in a food processor and pulse briefly. Season with pepper and nutmeg and stir in.

Spoon mixture into the pastry case. Bake for 20 minutes, or until filling is just set.

Serve warm or at room temperature.