A retro recipe

My absolute favourite lists are recipes. You get two lists in one - the ingredients and also the method!

This recipe is the taste of my childhood. My mother would get this in the oven within half an hour of coming home from work and we would all have it for supper later with new potatoes and green beans. It makes a beautifully light, summery meal.

Ma's Tuna Quiche

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 stick of celery, finely chopped
• 1 tin of tuna, drained
• 1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 5 eggs
• 120ml milk
• small handful grated cheese

For the pastry:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g fat (I use 50g butter and 50g vegetable shortening eg. Trex)

Preheat the oven to Gas 6.

Make the pastry by rubbing the fat into the flour with your fingertips. When it looks like breadcrumbs, add cold water splash by splash and combine with the blade of a knife until it forms a ball. Wrap in a plastic food bag and put in the fridge.

Fry the onion and celery gently in a little olive oil until soft and translucent. Then tip the onion and celery into a large jug together with the tuna, tomatoes, cheese, eggs and milk. Mix it all together with a fork.

Roll out the chilled pastry and line a flan dish with it. Cover with greaseproof paper and baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove the baking beans and paper and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.

Pull the flan dish slightly out from the oven and pour the jug of eggy filling into the pastry case. Slide back into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. When it is ready the filling will be firm and a wonderful golden orange colour.

This final photo is a child's portion by the way!

For pudding tonight we had strawberries...O and I went a bit mad at the PYO earlier today...

we will be making jam tomorrow....