Our Cooking Project #8: Toddler making Improbable Quiche

I can't believe it's been ten months since we last did a cooking project! Hubby and I actually started this "cooking project" almost two years ago as a couple thing, but last year we included our then 21-month-old boy in on the project with Choco-Banana Muffins (we made the move to Hong Kong shortly after that, and I guess the cooking project took a back seat since). Two weekends ago my son cooked dinner using my Improbable Quiche. For safety reason, he obviously needed a lot of help, especially with chopping up the ingredients and cooking at the hot stove, but he was involved in every step from picking up the ingredients at the supermarket to eating the finished product. He had a ball making the quiche, and especially loved getting to hold a knife for the first time and cooking at the stove. We basically followed the recipe very closely, except for the chopped spinach, which was added to up the vege content for an easy one-dish meal. It was tough fitting all three of us in our tiny Hong Kong kitchen, but we got the job done and thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of our labour!

Improbable Quiche

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
1 small brown onion, chopped
3 rashers of bacon (~75g), roughly chopped
4 slices of ham (~40g), roughly chopped
A bundle (~100g) baby spinach, washed and chopped
1 small red capsicum, diced
5 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups of milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup (80g) grated cheese
1/2 cup frozen corn
1-2 tablespoons herbs (I used basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, thyme and sage)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180degC and grease a 24cm diameter ovenproof dish

Chop, chop, chop:

2. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, and cook the onion, bacon, ham and capsicum for a few minutes, stirring often, until the bacon is lightly crisp, the onion is slightly caramelised and the capsicum is cooked. Add the chopped spinach to the pan and cook briefly (less than a minute) until wilted. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes

Pour the milk into a bowl:

3. Whisk the eggs, milk, flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl until well combined.

Add the eggs to the mixing bowl:

4. Stir in the bacon mixture, grated cheese, frozen corn and herbs into the mixing bowl. Season with pepper (and salt, if desired, but keep in mind that bacon and ham are salty already).

Mix, mix, mix:

5. Pour mixture into your greased dish, and bake for 45 minutes or until set in the centre.
6. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Et voila - the Improbable Quiche (or half of it anyway, at the dinner table):