Chicken and asparagus quiche

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Grease a flan or pie tin lightly with oil. Layer one thawed pastry sheet on the base and sides, using off-cuts of the second sheet to fill in any gaps. Keep any remaining pastry for decorating the quiche.

3. Blind bake the pastry. To do so, cover with baking paper and weigh down with dry filling, such as uncooked rice or baking ‘beans’ specifically for this purpose. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the dry filling and baking paper and continue to cook for another 5+ minutes until the base is slightly golden. Remove from the oven.

4. In a frying pan, melt butter and sauté onion and carrot for approximately 5 minutes, until soft.  Spread evenly over the pastry base.

5. Place the shredded chicken over the onion and carrot.

6. If using fresh asparagus, cover with boiling water and leave for a couple of minutes, until it is just tender. Drain.

7. Arrange the asparagus over the chicken, reserving any extra asparagus pieces. You may need to cut the asparagus to fit. 

8. In a bowl, combine eggs, cream, mustard, cheese and any remaining asparagus pieces. Season with salt and pepper.  Mix well. Pour over the flan.

9. Roll or cut any leftover pastry into long strips and use for decoration. Brush lightly with milk.

10. Bake for 30 minutes.

TIP: 

This recipe is for a 25cm pie dish, however if you have a smaller pie dish you may only require 1 sheet of pastry for the bottom layer (allowing for no pastry decorations for the top).

Open the bottom of the tin of asparagus, rather than the top. This will help protect the spear tips.