Spinach, Tomato and Mushroom Mini Frittatas

We had our neighbours round at the beginning of December for pre-Christmas drinks and nibbles. I made some festive bites which were quick and easy to do and tasted delicious. Initially I planned to make a quiche but I came across this recipe on Italian Food Forever and decided to give it a go. I used spinach and cherry tomatoes for their festive colours and added in some mushrooms. This recipe is so versatile as you can basically add whatever ingredients you fancy. They keep well too and tasted great for breakfast the next day. 

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month. 

AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter this month is N and I am using it for 'Noel' as Caroline is accepting any Christmas related entries. 

Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Red and Green aka Christmas. 

Extra Veg guest hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary on behalf of Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy.

Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The theme this month is Anything Goes and this recipe uses 8 large free range eggs.

 eggs, milk, spinach, mushroom, tomato 

 egg and milk mixture 

 add in the filling 

Makes 12 mini Frittatas

8 large free range eggs
250mls milk
salt and pepper
180g baby spinach, sauteed and drained
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
handful of chestnut mushrooms, chopped and sauteed

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Grease a non stick 12 cup muffin tin.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk and season with salt and pepper. 
• Pour evenly into the muffin cups. 
• Add in a spoonful of mushrooms and a handful of spinach to each cup.
• Add 2 cherry tomato halves. 
• Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until set. 
• Allow to cool before serving. 

Spinach, Ricotta and Mushroom Quiche

This is one of the tastiest quiches I've made. Although I'm not vegetarian, I have found that the vegetarian quiches tend to taste better than the meat/fish ones. This broccoli and red pepper quiche was a real hit at my Christmas party last year and I've had repeat requests to bake it again. However, this may well trump that as it was just so tasty! I was a little worried about a soggy bottom particularly as the recipe calls for spinach and mushroom - two ingredients that excrete a lot of water whilst cooking. I made sure I strained the spinach well ensuring it was very dry before using in the quiche.  The mushrooms were roasted in the oven first so you can discard any excess water.  The quiche looks very impressive with the large mushrooms on top with the green spinach poking through. The mustard and ricotta worked well and really brought all the flavours together. 

I'm sending this to Extra Veg hosted this month by Jo from Jo's Kitchen on behalf of Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families.

Cooking with herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage as the recipe uses thyme. 

Vegetable Palette hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. The theme this month is white vegetables and these large flat mushrooms are definitely white! 

Simple and in Season hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours on behalf of Ren. Spinach is available all year round but it's in season in spring. 

 mix the ricotta cheese with grainy mustard 

 spread cheese/mustard layer on the bottom of the quiche 

 add the cooked and strained spinach 

 arrange the flat mushrooms on top 

 pour in the cream/egg mixture 

 Ready to eat! I took this to work so I don't have any pictures of the cut slice. 

Recipe adapted slightly from BBC Food which is a James Martin recipe from Saturday Kitchen

For the pastry (or use ready made)
280g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
140g cold butter, cut into pieces
8 tablespoons cold water

For the filling

4 large flat mushrooms 

Handful of thyme leaves

400g spinach leaves

250g ricotta cheese 

1 tablespoon grainy mustard

3 egg yolks

300ml double cream 

salt and pepper

• To make the pastry using a food processor - place the flour and butter and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add the water one tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. 
• Alternatively, rub the butter and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add water one tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. 
• Roll into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking. 
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and line your tart tin. 
• Use a small ball of pastry scrap to press the pastry into the corners of the tin. 
• Chill in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Line the tart case with kitchen foil or baking paper and fill with baking beans. 
• Blind bake for 20 minutes, then remove the beans and foil/paper and continue baking for 5 - 10 minutes until the pastry is light brown.
• Grease a 25cm/10in loose-bottomed tart tin with butter.
• At the same time, place the mushrooms onto a baking tray and sprinkle with thyme leaves. 
• Drizzle lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes or until they start to soften and excrete water. Discard any excess water.
• Bring a large pan of water to boil and add a tablepoon of olive oil. Add the spinach and cook until it's just wilted.
• Drain twice and press with a paper towel to ensure that the spinach is dry. Season with salt and pepper. 
• Place the ricotta into a bowl and stir in the grainy mustard. 
• Spoon the mustard and ricotta mixture into the bottom of the tart case, top with the wilted spinach, and carefully place the roasted mushrooms on top.
• Place the egg yolks and cream into a bowl and whisk until mixed. 
• Pour this mixture into the tart case.
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until it's golden brown and gently bubbling.
• Allow to cool before slicing. 

Bacon, mushroom and sun dried tomato egg muffins

This is a quick and easy recipe which is perfect for breakfast on the go, brunch or a picnic. It's easily adapatable to suit your tastes and does not require much preparation or fancy equipment. British Lion Eggs contacted me to create a recipe using eggs. In return I received an electronic egg boiler which I can't wait to try out. Did you know that 32 million eggs are eaten in the UK every day? (figure is an estimate for 2014 from British Lion Eggs website) 

According to British Lion Eggs,eggs are one of the most nutritious foods MONEY can buy - they are a natural source of many NUTRIENTS including high quality protein, vitamins and minerals. A medium egg contains less than 70 calories.  Eggs are naturally RICH in vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium and iodine. They also contain vitamin A and a number of other B vitamins including folate, biotin, pantothenic acid and choline, and essential minerals and trace elements, including phosphorus. *

Some helpful hints on egg storage and handling*

• Look for the British Lion mark to guarantee that the eggs have come from hens vaccinated against salmonella
• Make sure that there is a best before DATE on the egg - this is not a legal requirement, but all British Lion eggs are date-stamped
• If you take eggs out of their box, make sure you store and use them in date order
• Store eggs at a constant temperature below 20°C – in most domestic kitchens, the fridge is the best place to keep them
• Take them out of the fridge half an hour before cooking for the best results
• Store away from strong smelling food - egg shells are porous
• Store away from raw meat
• Wash your hands before and after handling eggs
• Never use dirty, cracked, or broken eggs
• Do not re-use left-over egg dishes

For this recipe, I added pancetta cubes, sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms. I was going to add spinach but I used it for another recipe! I also added in a handful of cheddar cheese as I had a small bit leftover. We had these for breakfast and it was tasty and filling. It was light and fluffy and just the right balance of ingredients. I can't wait to make different variations of this especially in the summer. 

I'm sending this to an egg-cellent new challenge all about eggs called Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen.

 whisk eggs in a bowl and add other ingredients 

 divide mixture evenly in a muffin tray 

Makes 10 muffins
6 eggs
splash of milk (optional)
approximately 30g grated cheddar cheese (optional)
3 white mushrooms, finely chopped
1 box of pancetta cubes
5 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Grease muffin pan well.
• Lightly pan fry the pancetta cubes until just cooked.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and add a splash of milk.
• Add in the chopped mushrooms, sun dried tomato and cooked pancetta.
• Season with ground black pepper - I didn't use any salt as the pancetta and sun dried tomatoes were salty but if you choose different ingredients then you may want to add a bit of salt.
• Divide the mixture evenly in the muffin tray.
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown.
• Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.
• Serve warm or cold.

Disclaimer: I was sent an electronic egg boiler in return for creating this recipe using eggs for British Lion Eggs. * Extracts of text are taken from British Lion Eggs website and have been marked with an *

Leek, mushroom and Gruyere Quiche

I had a lovely birthday party this year with a fabulous cake made by my AlphaBakes co-host Caroline. I'm sure it will feature on her blog soon so make sure you look out for it. I planned to make a quiche as this month's AlphaBakes letter is Q but unfortunately ran out of time so my work colleagues got to enjoy this the week after my birthday. I've never made a quiche before and to be honest, I was quite worried as pastry is not my thing and I'm really not a good cook at all. Fortunately, it turned out well and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. There wasn't a crumb left! 

As mentioned I'm entering this to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and co-hosted by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is Q for Quiche.

 flour, butter, eggs, cream, leeks, mushroom, cheese 

 making the pastry 

 not too bad... Hope it's not going to have a soggy bottom!!

 First time using my baking beans 

 cooking the filling 

 ready to go in the oven 

 I couldn't resist a slice after it came out of the oven 

 delicious

Recipe from BBC Good Food website 

Savoury toast cups

This is not a dessert or sweet dish but I wanted to share it with you as I made it for my recent afternoon tea for the first time and everyone loved it! It's so simple to make and the variations are endless. These would be perfect for breakfast/brunch or afternoon tea. They were absolutely delicious! I was really impressed that they held their shape (apart from the vegetarian ones) and I love the individual portions. One of my guests suggested baking them in ramekins which is a brilliant idea. 

I decided to make a miniature full breakfast and put bacon, mushroom, spinach, tomato and egg in a toast cup. I also made 2 tomato, mushroom and spinach at the request of my guests. You can vary the ingredients depending on what you like. I can imagine sausages, peppers, courgettes or cheese being ideal ingredients - perhaps not all at once! The trick is not to overfill which is what I did as I wanted as many ingredients as possible.

 I used bacon (cooked until just brown), mushroom, spinach, eggs and tomatoes (not shown)

 Get a large round cutter and cut out a circle of bread. 

 use a rolling pin to flatten 

 cut each circle in half and use it to line a muffin tin rounded side up. Cut a quarter of the flattened bread and use to place in the centre. Alternatively, you can use the whole circle but you'll get some ridges. 

 Brush melted butter over the bread before filling. If you are using bacon, remember to pre-cook the bacon - do not use raw bacon as it will not cook properly. Push a piece of bacon into the toast cup with the sides overhanging, then add vegetables on top 

 Finally crack an egg in each cup - I only managed this once (bottom row, middle) as the others overflowed (bottom right) The solution - crack 2 eggs in a bowl, give it a light whisk and pour a little egg mixture into each cup. Season with salt and pepper. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes depending on how you like your eggs done. I took them out whilst the yolk was still runny but the egg whites were just set 

 the finished product - I love the crispy bacon edge!

 cross section