When I am out of inspiration but want to make something nice and with an “ooh” factor, I make quiche. Or a tart. Or whatever the hell you want to call it.

I used to think of quiche as being something that hoity-toity cuisine dined on, possibly because my childhood came from a steady supply of boxed macaroni cheese and Pop Tarts. My mom made quiche many, many years ago and my father and I were merciless about not being interested (to which I would apologize to my mother for that – that was a shit thing to do to her). I’ve since thought of quiche as being either the preserve of the poncy, or something with 4 times the daily recommended calorie intake (you can never really get past the anorexia. Not really.) If you can either get it at the Ritz (or even La Madeleine) then I’m out.

When I moved to Sweden I was introduced to what they call “paj” (pronounced “pie”, so don’t get hung up on the “j”). Paj was like a lighter, easier quiche. I was home one day and bored, so upon finding a recipe for this I was hooked. I’m not crazy about the heavy, cream, heart attack inducing quiche. But I do love me a good paj.

Here in the UK they call these tarts, which is a monikey I am unable to use without sniggering like an immature asshole. But tart/paj/quiche light has become something we make occasionally in this house (and which Alastair plans on submitting to the local fete this year). The brilliant thing about this recipe is that you can use anything you have in the fridge for it (you may have twigged that my recipes tend to rely on this “anything goes” mentality. You would not be wrong.) Paj is great with roasted vegetables, cheese, mackerel, some folks like the chicken and sweetcorn idea, you name it. Versatile.

This, then, is my recipe that I made this past week for salmon and broccoli quiche. It does not have to be fattening and artery clogging, there are alternatives.

For the crust you can use store-bought crusts, which to be honest is what we often do because they taste just as nice. We didn’t happen to have one of those in the freezer, though, so I made my own.

The crust:

200g/7oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
100g/3½oz butter, cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing
1 free-range egg yolk
a little water

Lop them into a bowl and mix by hand if you can, or if you have bad joints like I do then a mixer is what you want. Mix the butter and flour together until they resemble fine sand.

Then add the egg yolk and water until it becomes a ball. Roll it out and fit it into a pastry dish, pierce it with a fork, and bake it for about 15 minutes on 200C/400F/Gas 6.

While that’s cooking, it’s time to party with the rest of the quiche.

I used:

4 salmon fillets
1 pack of broccoli
4 eggs plus the egg white leftover from the crust
1 carton fat free yogurt (400g)
1 tsp paprika
and a tiny sprinkling of cheese for the top (I had some Lincolnshire poacher that went on).

Pop the salmon in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil, some salt and pepper – it can go in with the crust baking, or it can go in before and it can cool down.

It should be cooked enough so that it’s not raw but not browned (around 15 minutes).

You then flake it and put it into the bottom of the cooked crust.

Then make the filling in a bowl by hand if you’re able to use a spoon, or if you’re feeble like me you go back to your mixer.

Combine the yogurt with the 4 eggs plus the egg white, a pinch of salt and pepper, and the teaspoon of paprika. If you like things with flavor, I’d say go for a tsp of salt. I don’t like salt and I don’t like the twins to have it either, but I confess that paj/quiche/tart can do with more salt than I usually use.

It will come out looking like the pink fluoride stuff the dentists used to put in trays around your teeth and make you sit there, foaming at the mouth with it, for 30 minutes. Luckily it tastes nicer than that.

We had a load of broccoli that I bought because I am a reduced whore. Wait, that came out wrong – our local shop puts loads of things on reduction by the end of the day, and I can spot those red “Reduced” stickers at twenty paces now.

So if you have some type of vegetable, you too can attempt to be a pretentious goober and “artfully arrange” them on the top. Or just fail miserably like I did, and make it look like a 3 year old did it.

Bake at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for about 30 minutes, until the top is set. Hopefully you’ll remember to cover it with foil until the last ten minutes (like I didn’t) so you don’t carbonize the broccoli. Although I did remember to put my small handful of cheese on it at the end, so clearly my priorities need some work.

It’s lovely with some boiled new potatoes and salad.

And it goes really quickly in this house.

-S.