Egg and cheese pie (Cheese Flan!)

I just noticed i haven't posted anything on the blog in over a year!

To be honest, we have had two family weddings, my son has been attending nursery, and in the general humdrum of life, i have forgotten to update the blog! (Although my Instagram has been heavily updated everyday, and if anyone has had recipe requests i have been contacted directly on there!)

I thought i will get back into the groove with a school time fave. Lately i have been craving the school time dishes such as spicy bean burgers, veggie burgers, cheese pasties and so forth.
Today, i thought i would cook my personal fave, an egg and cheese pie but which we knew as cheese flan. An eggy and cheesy concoction over shortcrust pastry. Oh, i think it was by far the most wonderful dish i have ever had. And you rarely hear that of school food!!

I made a basic shortcrust pastry using

220g plain flour
Pinch of salt
110g cubed, cold butter
3 tbsp. Cold water

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl then add the cubed butter and rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs or no big lumps of butter remain.  Then add the water and mix together until just combined with a palette knife and mash together with your hands quickly to make a firm dough. Cover in cling film then chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

I put my fan oven onto 140°C (Normal oven 160°C) or gas mark 3, to preheat whilst the pastry was chilling.

Once the 30 minutes were up, i took the pastry out and kneaded lightly and rolled out quickly to a size that fit my flan tin (bottom and sides and a little over).

Lightly press the sides and bottom into flan tin and prick all over gently with a fork. Cut out some greaseproof paper and put over the pastry and add baking beads or rice and blind bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

N.B. You won't be able to cook this rice again so keep in a container for future blind baking!

Whilst the pastry is blind baking, make the filling.

I used:

1 small onion, finely chopped
Knob of butter
100ml milk
100ml double cream
3 medium sized eggs
1 tsp. Mustard sauce
Sea salt and pepper to taste
250g grated mature cheese

I fried the onions in the butter for 5 minutes until just soft. Then i mixed all the ingredients apart from the onions and cheese in a jug and whisked well.

Take the pastry out after 10 minutes and remove the greaseproof paper. Spread the onions on the bottom of the pastry, then add the grated cheese all over. Add the milk, cream and egg mixture until it just reaches the top. Then bake in the oven in the middle shelf for approximately 35 minutes, or until the egg sets. Serve with a smiple salad!

You can add other veggies such as mushrooms, tomatoes or broccoli to it, but i liked eating this just as it is.

I hope you guys like this recipe, and please follow me on Instagram, or Youtube!

Instagram: @the_travelling_undhal
Youtube channel: The Travelling Undhal

Yaz 💖