This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe from My Paris Kitchen follows a theme that’s close to my heart: “Feed the Future”, the focus of this year’s Food Revolution Day. Over the past three years, those of us who were working through Around my French Table did our bit by participating virtually in Food Revolution Day – a day of global action created by Jamie Oliver and the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation to engage and inspire people of all ages to learn about food and how to cook it. This year, the main goal is to get everyone, everywhere to join Jamie’s revolution on Food Revolution Day (today) and beyond! – together we can make a big difference and can change our food system for the better!
As a Food Revolution Ambassador for Canada, my job is to promote the cause year round, but also to host events on, and leading up to, Food Revolution Day and encourage others to as well. As many people are perhaps not able to do an “in person” event, I thought it might be fun to get some global participation with the Cook the Book Fridays crew taking part virtually, just like we did in 2013, 2014, and 2015).
To support this year’s theme, Jamie’s put together what he’s calling a starter Pack of recipes – ten delicious, nutritionally balanced recipes, each covering a different skill and technique that can give anyone the confidence to cook good, real, healthy meals for themselves and their families, for now and the future. Jamie has spoken about the idea of ten recipes to save your life since his TED talk in 2010.
Today, for Cook the Book Fridays we’re all cooking the dish we’ve deemed a “must know” starter French recipe – QUICHE! David’s recipe for Ham, Blue Cheese and Pear Quiche (p 155) includes a pastry crust recipe – something I believe really should be in everyone’s repertoire whether they are French or not! Now, I could have taken the easy way out and simply cooked the quiche for myself – or friends (my latest Cookbook Book Club was a meal entirely from My Paris Kitchen!). But those of you who have been following this blog for a while will not be surprised to learn that not only did I make this quiche for my friends, but I also taught two separate groups of boys to make this recipe – in under an hour!
David’s pastry recipe is very similar to my “go to” recipe so we made David’s recipe with one class and mine with another. We played with flours too – using some whole wheat with my youngest students…
Working with muffin tins made David’s pastry much more work-able (I had some trouble with covering a 9″ pan as much as David said it would with the full-sized one) and little hands always love playing with pastry!
With kids, if you are pressed for time (ahem!) the press-in method is always a great go-to technique!
In terms of the fillings, I gave the boys a lot of choices. There was David’s combo of ham, blue cheese and pear and a couple of the boys bravely tried the “mouldy cheese” (!). Others were intrigued with the combination of cheese and fruit and were very happy to give that a go. THIS. THIS is what it’s all about. Giving kids options and letting them explore and figure stuff out on their own.
I made sure they chopped everything very small so it would fit in the muffin tins…
(And after they were done filling their quiches, they got to test various taste combinations – there were a few leftovers so what better way to combine hungry tummies with food education?!)
Then we got to filling our quiches…
(everyone got shallots in their quiche – it was my one “must try” but since “its just onions” noone protested too much!)
While we waited, one group made another batch of pastry and the others who didn’t have time in their session, helped clean the lab. All good, both important parts of food education 😉
The waiting time in cooking is the hardest part for kids but they were all rewarded with these beautiful quiches…
So very pretty!
Most of these didn’t make it off the school property – they boys couldn’t wait to eat them. That would be a huge win in my books!
So no, we didn’t make David’s quiche to the letter this week (even I didn’t for Cookbook Book Club!). What I did do was:
- Showed kids how to make pastry from scratch.
- Introduced kids to a bunch of different flavour combinations.
- Encouraged kids to try something different and told them it was ok if they didn’t much like something.
- Made kids think that making quiche from scratch is a totally normal sort of thing.
Viva la #FoodRevolution, right? This is what it’s all about.
Thanks David for providing a wonderful “must know” recipe in My Paris Kitchen. For what it’s worth, quiche would for sure make it into my “Starter Pack” of recipes!
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Get the recipe for David’s Ham, Blue Cheese and Pear Quiche on p 155 of My Paris Kitchen.
Get more information about the Food Revolution here!
Purchase My Paris Kitchen for yourselves on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store closest to you) Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository then join us over on Cook the Book Fridays!
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “My Paris Kitchen” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing do. All opinions 100% my own.
What a great post. I love making quiche and this is the first time I have made such a tall one. I usually make the Julia Child one, with 3 eggs and them cream until you reach 250 to 300ml.
Those little quiches look fabulous, and what a great way to teach how to make them!
Impressive mini quiches. The pictures of little hands making and shaping the crust dough give me great hope for the future. Not a chance that these children would not have a healthy cooking habits. Thanks for all the good work!
How great that the kids were so engaged in the making of the mini quiches. I love that they got to pick their own fillings.
How great that the kids were so engaged in the making of the mini quiches. I always enjoyed when mom and I cooked together.
I just love seeing kids learning and cooking their own food. How wonderful! They did a fabulous job…and their quiches look perfectly delicious!
I love seeing what you make with les petits chefs! So cute that they might not have lasted past the time to go home. You are a wonderful teacher! They’ll remember and use these life skills forever. FWIW, I made a 9.5-inch springform pan and the crust covered it fine. I even doubled the sides for strength.
Seeing those little fingers doing their food magic just made my day. It’s late here and you are my last comment. I have been thinking of you all day as you wind up this year’s commitment to FRD. It’s such a wonderful project and Jamie is a role model to admire. Like Betsy, I had no trouble with my pastry. In fact everything about the recipe worked except I needed to cook it 30 minutes longer. The altitude caused some of it but we all had to cook it longer. Have a good trip to DC. It’s a crazy place these days. And, job well done, my dear. As always, very proud of you.
Very cool. Love seeing what the boys make.
Great to see the kids in the kitchen! You rock!
A great post! You did a superb job of teaching the kids how to make quiche. They will definitely remember their first hands-on lesson on quiche making! Thumbs up to you, Mardi!
Wonderful! I love when you share your adventures with your little guys. I think it is a perfect dish to use – I really believe it’s one that anyone should know – so economical, can use simple ingredients, and is always delicious and impressive.
I love your mini quiches (of course you went there), I think it made it so individual and less daunting (pastry – I made it myself!!). Great, great, great. All the way around. Thanks for keeping us going along with you these past 4 years. I need to download (again) Jamie’s must-know recipes. His food is always wonderful.
Thanks again!!!
Excellent post, Mardi
I halved the recipe and went the mini quiche route, too. I love, love, love how much those kids learn in your class. Choosing ingredients, taste-testing with each other, pastry skills – it’s incredible and a perfect way to mark Food Revolution Day.
Beautiful photos and I love the mini quiches. Fantastic!
How very cool, Mardi! And I love the whole letting them choose their filling so they can experiment with flavors and have such a big stake in the finished product. I know that is exactly why you did it, but I still want to say rock on!!
Recipe following is highly overrated.
I kind of wanted one of those mini versions for myself – especially with the different cheese 🙂
I always enjoy your enthusiasm for this event and look forward to seeing it pop up every year.
I love the mini quiches! Great idea, I froze my leftovers for a quick lunch to grab during the week, but individual quiches are fantastic. I love this event and plan to time it better for next year to involve my grandsons
What an awesome class! I love the variations too! How wonderful they are learning to cook and eat well (and healthy!) for themselves.
Great job the boys did with this dish, I like mini versions of stuff!