Cheese and onion quiche

The 8 year old vegetarian is giving me a headache; she has also given me an excuse to indulge my latest passion - buying cookery books from eBay. As I usually shop with one eye on the telly, the books that arrive can be a bit of a surprise, but what an education! Anyone for minced tongue and bacon with hot beetroot relish, liver sausage flan or hydropathic pudding?

Today's recipe for cheese and onion quiche is from an old favourite, The Big Food and Drink Book, which accompanied the tv series (remember Jilly Goolden's mad hair and mad wine descriptions?).

No liver sausage in this flan

Cheese and onion quiche   

Ready made pastry

a large knob of butter

225g onions, peeled and thinly sliced

150g Gruyere/Leicester cheese, finely grated (I used half Cheddar, half Gruyere)

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

100ml milk (I used up some double cream mixed with skimmed milk)

Pre-heat oven to 220/gas 7. Fry the onions gently in the butter until they are soft and sweet, but not browned. Line a 20cm (8inch) metal flan dish with the pastry, spread the onions across the base and top with the grated cheese. Beat the eggs, yolk, and milk together and pour them over the cheese and onion. Cook for about 25 minutes, then turn down the oven to 190/gas 5 and cook for another 10 minutes until the top is brown. 

Perfect scones

Hold the front page, I've just found the perfect scone recipe! Not much of a surprise that it comes from Mary Berry, Britain's baking supremo. These are the lightest I have ever made, and were delicious warm with double cream, lemon curd and the remains of some home-made strawberry jam.

Perfect scone

Perfect scones

Makes 8-10:

450g self raising flour
2 rounded teaspoons baking powder
75g butter
50g caster sugar
2 large eggs
225ml milk

Pre-heat oven to 220/gas7. Put the flour and butter into a food processor and whizz until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and whizz for a couple more seconds. Break the eggs into a measuring jug, beat them and add milk to make up to 300ml. Reserve about 2 tablespoons, but add the rest gradually to the dry mixture with the motor running slowly. Soon you will have a soft dough which should be rolled out to about 2cm thick and cut with a 5cm diameter fluted round cutter. Brush the tops with the egg-milk mixture and bake for 10-15 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean tea-towel to keep them moist (her word, not mine). Eat asap.