After a busy weekend at Chez Teresa/A Taste d'Angleterre (well it is July) from enchanting Chinese children who especially loved our Knickerbocker Glories which we make with fresh fruit, whipped cream and home made vanilla ice cream - to a French couple who loved our fresh berry smoothies so much so that they had two each. to a large Spanish family - to a trio of elderly French ladies who enjoyed a late late lunch at 7:00 pm yesterday evening we were content. Today being a Monday (we are usually quite busy on a Monday) by contrast has left us twiddling our thumbs and wondering why we have only had one customer in for lunch. On Saturday we were full to capacity and yesterday we had a steady stream of customers, so why today should be any different we cannot fathom. It has rained a little this afternoon in the Loire so maybe that had something to do with it.....There do seem to be a few tourists about, though not that many...obviously the ones that are simply are not into what we have on offer today. Perhaps folks will come in for a late lunches and afternoon teas as the afternoon rolls on.
We did just have a lady in who asked to see our quiches which are so clearly created by us and yet she still asked if they were 'fait maison' she then proceeded not to want any anyway as we generally receive excellent feedback about our quiches we are not too perturbed. Why is it that on days when we are not busy we seem to get through our doors the oddest of people wanting to eat things we do not serve, or people asking for directions to the post office (three different people have asked today) or another restaurant?
On the what we do not tend to serve front, the other day we had a couple of young ladies popping their heads round the door asking what cakes we had so I proceeded to tell them that we had Chocolat au fondant, Tarte au citron, Tarte au chocolat, Gâteau aux carottes a la américaine, apple crumble, Queen Victoria Sandwich (which we describe as Le Gateau de préférence de la reine Victoria), Scones (I showed them some that I had just freshly baked), and cup cakes. One of them then asked for croissants which although we occasionally serve these for breakfasts (in the main we serve freshly baked scones with cream and home made jam), we do not generally serve them as I do the baking and croissants are not one of my spécialités. Plus the boulangerie across the road make such good ones that why should I seek to relicate.. We are after all A Taste d'Angleterre and yes I know we do serve some French inspired patisserie, but in the main we are about offering the visitor something a little different so even our french inspired chocolate gateau have our own spin on them so to speak...I anyway and much to my chagrin sent them off to the aforementioned boulangerie...
I sometimes think that we ought to take out shares with our local office de tourisme for all the directions we give out....
I am feeling in a Greek mood at the moment....so much so that I found myself buying a large piece of organic feta cheese earlier today, plus some fresh spinach and even some vine leaves that I proceeded to fill with a savory rice. With the feta and the spinach today's quiche is Quiche aux épinards with feta et un soupçon de noix de muscade, otherwise known as nutmeg.
Usually I make my own pastry..and of late with my son recently having been diagnosed with diabetes 2 I've been making it with semi-complet or complet farine de blé (so half-wholemeal/wholemeal). Today however I used for the base for our Quiche du Jour a packet of puff pastry (Pâte feuilletée). It turned out if a little rustic looking, rather well.
Method and ingredients for today's Quiche du Jour:-
Line a deep quiche tin with the pastry and pre-bake until a light golden brown and puffy.
In a basin whisk a small pack of whole cream, a cup of whole milk, 8 free range eggs and throw in a couple of handfuls of some thoroughly washed baby spinach. Beat the mixture with a fork and season with black pepper then crumble in 3/4 block of 200g of organic/bio Feta Cheese and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Add to the pastry case and grate some nutmeg on the top. I am not quite why it is that nutmeg works so well in a spinach quiche, but it just does.
Bake in a pre-heated over at 180c for around 40 - 45 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Serve with a crisp green salad with a lemony dressing made with 2 tbs of freshly squeezed lemon juice, a tsp of Dijon mustard, 4 tbs of olive oil and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Here in France one of the best sea salts available is the traditional French fleur de sel viz le Guérande. The latter are often sold in little cloth bags which makes the salt even more special I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment