Chopped Egg & Onion with Lemon Thyme

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Cape Town, Chefs & Cooks, Chopped Egg & Onion, Clifton Kitchen - Cooking thorugh the seasons, Food Blogs, Food Writing, Kate Abbott, Lemon Thyme, Lifestyle, Light Lunch, Light meals, Mayonnaise, Mustard, onions, Photography, South African Food Blogs, Spring onions, Wholegrain mustard

This recipe is lovely to serve as a starter or a light lunch. As simple as the ingredients may sound, the end result is high in flavour; delicious served sprinkled with chopped parsley, onion rings, and piled on toast, or used as sandwich filling. I love it just on a bed of crisp lettuce leaves.

 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

8 hardboiled eggs, shelled and finely chopped – or if you prefer coarsely chopped

6 spring onions or 1 small onion, very finely chopped

A sprig of finely chopped fresh lemon thyme – about a ¼ of a tsp. once chopped

4 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise or sufficient mayonnaise to bind the mixture together

1 tsp. French whole grain mustard

Fresh parsley finely chopped to garnish or fold into the mixture

Method

Place the chopped egg and onion in a bowl and season well with salt and black pepper

Mix the mayonnaise and mustard together, then add to the chopped eggs and onions and combine all ingredients together. Chill for 15-30 minutes to allow the flavours to develop

Serve with a garnish of parsley

Options:

You could replace the Lemon Thyme with Dill or Tarragon

You could also add some fresh cooked and flaked crab or steamed, shelled and roughly diced prawns to the mixture which will take it to a whole new level.

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Olive, Onion & Thyme Quiche served with Marinated Tomatoes

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Blogging, Books, Books for Cooks, Cape Town, Cape Town Cooks, Emmenthal, Entertaining, Entertainment, Food Blogs, Food Writing, Gruyère, Life, Marinated Tomatoes, News, olives, onions, Photography, Quiche, recipes, Thyme, Travel

There is an ancient pleasing flavour to olives, a flavour as old as God. There will be three of us for supper this evening and I’m making a quiche with an olive twist, serving with it the marinated tomatoes that I made yesterday.

As I prepare the final touches to the table, the smell of roses, mingled with Jasmine, light, fruity and romantic, wafts in through the open doors. Although a lovely evening, its chilly breeze makes it impossible to eat among all this billowing, fragrant chaos as I would have liked to. It’s time to close the doors against the chill and bring warmth into the room before everyone arrives.

For this recipe you can use bought, pre-made pastry which makes the quiche quick and easy to do. For accompaniments serve a nice mixed salad or a mixture of steamed broccoli and spinach dressed with vinaigrette, or just sliced tomatoes with onions.

 

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Short crust Pastry:

225 g plain white flour

Tiny pinch of salt

110 g butter

Water or beaten organic egg mixed with a little water

Ingredients

For the filling:

150 g olives, pitted and chopped half

200 ml cream

3 eggs

2 onions, sliced

15 ml finely chopped fresh thyme leaves

80 g grated Gruyère or Emmenthal cheese

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp. olive oil

Method for pastry

Start with the pastry. Sift the flour into a large bowl with a pinch of salt. Cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour with your fingertips, until mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add just enough water or egg and water mix to bring the pastry together. Do this using a fork or a knife.

Collect the pastry into a ball with your hands. Cover with cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Roll pastry to fit a suitable baking container, cover with baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake blind in a preheated  oven at 180C for about 12 minutes, the pastry should be a light golden colour. Remove and leave to cool while you prepare the filling.

Method for filling

Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté onions gently until golden in colour.

In a bowl gently mix together the onion, olives, thyme, grated cheese, lemon zest, the beaten eggs, cream, and seasoning.

Pour the mixture into pastry case. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C until the filling sets , approximately 35-40 minutes.

Serve with salad of choice.

What’s In Season For August

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Apple, apples, Asian greens, avocado, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprout, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, Carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, Chefs, Chicory, cumquats, fennel, food and drink, Foodblog, Fruit, garlic, ginger, grapefruit, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leek, lemons, limes, mandarins, Nettle, Nettles, okra, olives, onions, oranges, papaya, parsnips, pineapple, potatoes, pumpkin, recipe, rhubarb, Seasonal produce, shallots, silverbeet, spinach, swede, sweet potato, turnip, Vegetable, Vegetables, witlof

It’s hard to believe that we are just a few days away from the month of August. In my garden shrubs and trees are sprouting new growth and last season’s spinach which I had not removed has regrown without much prompting and is looking healthy and lush. The nettles too are doing well in this garden.

Nettles are incredibly nutritious, they establish themselves anywhere where in soil with high fertility, on banks of river beds, near trees and within the vegetable patch. Yes they sting like mad and one needs gloves when picking, but the application of heat when cooking removes all trace of stinging hairs. Cook the nettles as you would spinach. The flavour is slightly stronger than that of spinach and is a lovely substitute to use in the classic spinach and ricotta gnocchi or for a lovely leek and nettle sauté.

When selecting fruit and vegetables, it is best as always to buy where ever possible, locally produced and what is in season to ensure the benefit of maximum flavour and nutrition from your fruit and vegetables.

Here is a guide for produce to look for in August.

Fruit:

Apples, cumquats, grapefruit, lemons, limes, mandarins, oranges, papaya, pineapple, rhubarb,…

Vegetables:

Asian greens, avocado, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, fennel, garlic, ginger, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leek, okra, olives, onions, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, shallots, silverbeet, spinach, swede, sweet potato, turnip, witlof…

Chicken & Mushroom Pie served with Clifton Kitchen Greek Salad

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balsamic, capers, chicken, cream, dairy baking, eggs, feta, food and drink, Greek style salad, green peppers, Kalamata olives, milk, Olive oil, onions, organic, puff pastry, radishes, recipe, red wine vinegar, salad, Seasoning, Thyme, tomatoes

When one manages to find good organic products it is a bit like finding your own gold deposit. Every two weeks I receive a delivery of good organic meat from Simply Wholesome and or Go Go’s; the selection which may range from good strong heavy boned chickens to a leg of young goat, eggs, butter, organic wine and whatever new products they may have managed to source, which I am always keen to try.

The chicken produced a fantastic roast, good flavour, and being so large also provided sufficient meat for a chicken pie, this was served together with the Clifton Kitchen Greek style salad.

If you have some puff pastry in the deep freeze, to make this pie is quick and easy.

Chicken Pie

Serves 6

Ingredients

300g cooked chicken, diced

1 large onion, finely chopped

15ml fresh Thyme finely chopped

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

200g Portobello mushrooms or button mushrooms, finely sliced

60ml dry sherry

150ml cream

100ml milk

3 large eggs

Olive oil

Seasoning, salt and pepper

Method

Set the oven to 180C. Roll the puff pastry to line a 20cm loose bottom tart or quiche tin. Using a fork, lightly prick the base all over, insert some baking paper and top with baking marbles or beans. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the baking marbles and return to the oven for 5 more minutes, remove and set to one side while you prepare the filling.

In a pan sauté the onions in some olive oil until translucent, add the garlic and Thyme and sauté for a few about 5 more minutes, remove from pan to a dish.

To the same pan add the mushrooms and sauté until the liquid produced by the mushrooms, has evaporated and the mushrooms are golden brown. Add the sherry and cook for a few more minutes. Add mushrooms to onion mix and season, add the diced chicken.

In a bowl mix together the eggs, milk and cream, season lightly then pour mixture over the filling and incorporate well. Pour filling into pre-cooked tart base.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes, by which time the custard should be just set.

Serve with Clifton Kitchen Greek salad

Clifton Kitchen Greek Salad

This is an elegant salad bursting with full flavours of cheese, olives and fresh ingredients.

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 English cucumber, diced

5 tomatoes, diced

6 radishes thinly sliced

1 medium onion thinly sliced. Red if possible

1 green pepper, finely diced

300g Kalamata olives, pips removed

30g capers

200g feta, crumbled

10ml dried oregano

120ml olive oil

20ml red wine vinegar

A drop or two of balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a bowl combine the cucumber, tomato, radishes, onion and green pepper. Scatter over the olives, capers, feta and oregano. Drizzle over the olive oil and vinegars; toss well to coat all of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper as needed, serve.