An Insectoid Interlude

I know it sounds like the refrain of a very old story - busy busy busy, but I TRULY have been to busy to blog. Anyway, as a brief interlude - we've moved on from tadpoles to caterpillars, this time more successfully. Mum and Dad have a friend with a limau purut shrub that attracts a ton of wrigglies. She gave us a little sprig of the plant complete with a plastic container, and we were able to watch the caterpillars get into their coccoons and the butterflies to emerge from the coccoons. This picture was taken this morning, after the butterfly just emerged, much to the fascination of the kids. Steffi was quite taken with the butterfly and of course had to draw her version of a duo of "mummy and baby butterflies".


Anyway, I was a little annoyed because living in heartlands of Bukit Batok means that the wet market is very traditional Chinese and I CAN'T find daun limau purut. I've sent out an appeal to this caterpillar raising lady to give me limau purut leaves next time instead of caterpillars...

An Egg-cellent Time

This past weekend was an excursion in eggy dishes - wanted to make this quiche recipe from this interesting cookbook by Maria Villegas called "Taste + Color", which lists recipes by colour and has lovely food photography too. There was a nifty dish, called Asparagus and Camembert Quiche, which I modified since I ran out of watercress, didn't know what "mache" was, and didn't have much camembert on hand!



Anyway, the recipe was nice, turned out quite tasty - Ben has discovered he likes quiche, and Steffi, being allergic to eggs was relegated to nibbling at the crusty edges of pastry.

Asparagus, Spinach and Camembert Quiche

Ingredients
1 sheet of ready made shortcrust pastry (I hate making pastry!)
12 - 15 spears of thin young asparagus
1 round of camembert cheese (about 140 g)
1 packet of frozen chopped spinach (comes to about 1 cup cooked)
150 g smoked salmon, chopped.
3/4 cup of whipping cream
1/3 cup of milk
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of paprika

Method
1. Cook asparagus in lightly salted boiling water about 2 min, transfer to ice water bath to cool, then drain and chop into 1 1/2 inch length pieces
2. Cook chopped spinach about 3 - 4 minutes in above boiling water and then drain and squeeze out excess water with a sieve
3. Mix spinach and milk together - can blend if feeling energetic...
4. Lightly beat eggs, whipping cream together, then add spinach and milk. Add salt, pepper and paprika to taste.
5. Line tart pan with ready made pastry, cover with baking paper and bean weights and bake at 200 deg C for 10 min. Remove the paper and weights and continue baking at 180 deg C for another 5 - 8 min.
6. Cool the pastry slightly, then line the base with asparagus, chopped camembert and smoked salmon. Reserve a small handful of salmon.
7. Pour in milk/spinach/cream/egg mixture into tart pastry. Scatter remaining salmon on the surface
8. Bake at 180 deg C for 30 - 35 min.



Of course, I had 2 egg whites left over, and that became my Atkinite breakfast - scrambled egg whites, topped with caviar and butterhead lettuce on the side. Yum!