Courgette (Zuchini) Quiche or Flan
Courgette Quiche or Flan
Mamta Gupta
This a slight change on traditional Quiche Lorraine (Cheese and Onion Flan, a popular dish in UK. Frying courgettes in garlic gives it a lovely flavour. For a different taste, try making it with thinly sliced ribbons of carrots or aubergines (baingan) or even asparagus spears, cooked in the same way. I especially like the aubergine one. You can alter not only vegetables, but add other ingredients like shredded ham or chicken or tuna fish or prawns too. Experiment with other herbs.
It is an easy dish to make, especially if you use ready made short crust pastry. Makes a 12 inch/30 cm. flan/quiche base.
Edited March 2023
Ingredients
500 gm Short Crust Pastry (you can buy ready made)
3 average sized courgettes or other vegetables of choice
2 cloves garlic, grated or crushed
2 tsp. oil or butter
Salt to taste
A good sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper
200 ml. crème fraîche*. You can use double or sour cream instead. *Crème fraîche is slightly soured, French style cream.
2 standard eggs
Small bunch of dill or basil or chives or any other herb of choice, very finely chopped.
A deep 12 inch flan tin
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350F° or gas mark 4.
Grease a flan dish with butter.
Roll out pastry to a required thickness and sized circle. Lift it off by rolling it onto your rolling pin and then gentling rolling it off onto the flan dish. Press gently to fit into edges.
Make a few holes with a fork. If you have baking beans, place a layer of parchment paper on top of the pastry and then the baking beans on top. This stops the pastry from ballooning up. If you don’t have baking beans, roll up a long piece of aluminium foil and press it all along the edges as shown in picture. I just cover it with a grease proof paper and then place a slightly smaller flan dish on top of it.
Place in the oven and bake ‘blind’ for 10 minutes. Then remove the top plate and foil/baking beans and bake for 10 more minutes. All this is done to stop the pastry from ballooning up in the middle.
Meanwhile, top and tail and then slice the courgettes lengthways into ribbons. I use a cheese slice for this. A potato peeler can also be used. You can cut them in round slices, if you prefer. You can use other vegetables of choice here in lace of courgettes.
Place sliced courgettes in a bowl and sprinkle with salt. Leave to ‘sweat’ 1/2 an hour.
Place in a sieve to drain off the water that has oozed out. Then place them in a towel and twist gently, to remove as much water as you can.
Now heat the oil/butter in a pan, add garlic and stir for a minute.
Add courgettes and fry gently for 5 minutes. Turn heat off.
In a separate bowl, beat crème fraîche and the eggs together. Add your herb of choice, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Arrange the courgette on the baked flan case.
Pour the egg/cream mixture into the pastry case and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until it sets, but it is still soft to touch.
Allow to cool. Quiche is usually served in a buffet at room temperature.
Notes
No additional salt is required in the batter, because courgettes/vegetables have already been salted.
I sometimes make it in a square dish, which makes it easier to slice into small pieces.
You can add a teaspoon of flakes chillies to your egg mixture.
