I was 3 years old when I first helped my mum to make a quiche, or so I've been told. I was 'helping' kneading the dough, & probably eating little pieces of it too. I had to ask my mum for her recipe because we always make it at random, adding a little bit of this & a little bit of that. She really had to think about it, which is the reason why there's one spoon of this & one spoon of that. 

In our house we seem to have this 'weekly meal pattern', we don't follow it strictly of course but it just happens. Quiches are for wednesday lunch. We eat it with a big bowl of leafy green lettuce & a side of cheese. Today was no exception. Mum made the dough, because she makes it best, & I was in charge of the rest.

We had some juicy red peppers left in the fridge so I decided to make a variation to our usual 'quiche lorraine'. You can of course adapt it to the inside of your fridge. The classic quiche lorraine is made only with lardons, not even cheese on top, but I believe no cheese is just non-sense.

Ingredients:

- 200g of plain flour

-20g of butter

- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

- roughly 3 tbsp of warm water

- a pinch of salt

- 2 medium eggs

- 250ml of milk (you can do half milk/half crème fraiche)

- 200g lardons (or small pieces of bacon)

- two (or three) big handfuls of grated Emmental (or cheddar)

- one medium red pepper

- a pinch of nutmeg

- salt & pepper

Notes

>> Preheat your oven at 180 degrees C (with fan)

>> Combine your flour, salt, oil & melted butter. Mix well (with your hands). Don't knead it for too long or it will get too hard.

>> Add roughly 3 tbsp of warm water. Add one after the other until you have a nice stretchy dough that doesn't stick. If you've put too much, just add a bit more flour.

>> Place your dough on a light floured surface. Roll out your pastry to the size of your tart pan. Line your pan with butter or parchment paper. Carefully move your pastry from the table into the pan. Cut the edges.

>> Place your naked pastry in the oven for roughly 10 minutes.

>> While this is happening, cook your lardons in a hot pan, chop your peppers at the same time - multitasking - (and whatever else you want to add, I wanted onions but Lizzie hates them..) once the lardons are cooked, keep the grease & chuck the peppers in (it will give them a delicious flavour) cook them until they soften a bit.

>> Beat your eggs, with your milk (or milk/cream), nutmeg, salt & pepper.

>> By now you should have taken your pastry out of the oven, it should only start to golden a bit on the edges. Distribute your lardons & peppers on the pastry, pour your egg mixture in. Add your grated cheese on top & pop it in the oven for half an hour or until it's set & golden.

Bon appétit!