Pizza pie

This is an old faithful recipe in this house, quiche.  Or if you want your kids to eat it, you call it pizza pie.  Its perfect for cooking on the weekend and then having for lunch and or dinner.  Great cold or warm and easy to stretch further by making a salad and oven chips as sides.  The recipe isn't very rigid so amend it as you like, but there are a few essential requirements:

• You really need ham or bacon in it for it to taste good
• Have at least 3 eggs, but 4 is better
• Blind bake the pastry before you put in the filling
• Don't put onion or celery in - it makes it taste funny (in my opinion)

1 piece of frozen shortcrust pastry:  spray a pie/quiche dish and layer it with the pastry trimming the edges and making sure it covers the dish evenly.  Layer baking paper on the dish and blind bake.  If you haven't invested in a set of ceramic baking weights then you need to (I use mine all the time!), but for the mean time you can use rice.  Bake for about 10 mins at 180 C.

Meanwhile mix up the filling:

1 1/2 cups of grated cheese
300g (ish) diced bacon or strips of ham
A few mushrooms diced finely
A dozen cherry tomatoes chopped in half (I didn't have any today and used sundried tomato strips instead)
A splurge of milk and or cream... (maybe 1 cup?)

The milk/cream measurement isn't exact and I adjust the amount depending on the consistency of the other fillings, you really want the mixture to look just like the pictures here, not too runny.  Essentially the runnier, it is the longer it will take to cook.  Pour into your "pie" shell.

I usually put it in the oven at 180 C for about 40 minutes, then come back and check on it every ten minutes.  Sometimes you may need to turn the temperature down towards the end.  You know its cooked when almost set in the middle (it wont wobble when you wriggle it).

Some other really nice fillings to include are feta cheese, grated zucchini and peas (these two green things get complaints at this house).