The King and Queen Consort have personally chosen a recipe for ‘Coronation Quiche’ to mark their coronation.
The royal couple shared the recipe, which features spinach, broad beans and tarragon, on the Royal Family’s official Twitter account.
A palace chef, dressed in a white uniform, embroidered with the late Queen’s EIIR cypher, and a chef’s hat, was shown making the quiche in a video posted on social media.
The Royal Family’s website described it as “a deep quiche with a crisp, light pastry case and delicate flavours of spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon”.
“Eat hot or cold with a green salad and boiled new potatoes – perfect for a Coronation Big Lunch!”
The recipe is by royal head chef Mark Flanagan and was chosen by the King and Queen Consort in collaboration with him.
Former Buckingham Palace chef Darren McGrady said the King’s choice came as no surprise because Charles “loves anything with eggs and cheese”.
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Mr McGrady, who worked for the late Queen for 15 years, said he had made quiche for Charles many times.
“It’s no surprise that King Charles III has shared Coronation quiche to celebrate his Coronation,” he tweeted.
“His mother, The Queen loved chocolate, but The King loves anything with eggs and cheese.
“Made this for him many times… especially with salmon he’d caught in the River Dee.”
125g plain flour
Pinch of salt
25g cold butter, diced
25g lard
2 tablespoons milk
*Or 1 x 250g block of readymade shortcrust pastry
125ml milk
175ml double cream
2 medium eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
Salt and pepper
100g grated cheddar cheese
180g cooked spinach, lightly chopped
60g cooked broad beans or soya beans
Serves six.
1. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl; add the fats and rub the mixture together using your finger tips until you get a sandy, breadcrumb-like texture.
Add the milk a little at a time and bring the ingredients together into a dough.
Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.
2. Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a little larger than the top of the tin and approximately 5mm thick.
3. Line the tin with the pastry, taking care not to have any holes or the mixture could leak. Cover and rest for a further 30 minutes in the fridge.
4. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
5. Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, before removing the greaseproof paper and baking beans.
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C.
7. Beat together the milk, cream, eggs, herbs and seasoning.
8. Scatter 1/2 of the grated cheese in the blind-baked base, top with the chopped spinach and beans and herbs, then pour over the liquid mixture.
9. If required gently give the mixture a delicate stir to ensure the filling is evenly dispersed but be careful not to damage the pastry case.
10. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until set and lightly golden.
Buckingham Palace said the quiche was chosen because it worked as a sharing dish, can be served hot or cold, suits a wide variety of dietary requirements and can be easily adapted to suit different tastes.
The palace also said it tasted delicious and had the benefit of not being too complicated and not requiring costly or hard-to-source ingredients.
Quiche is known as a French classic, but is said to have actually originated in Germany in the Middle Ages with the word quiche coming from the German word for cake: “kuchen”.
Great British Bake Off contestants have made quiches in the past as part of 1980s-themed challenges.
Even cookery queen Delia Smith has struggled with soggy-bottomed quiches and her website contains advice on how to avoid the problem.
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Smith wrote for a recipe for Quiche Lorraine: “For years I’ve been experimenting with this type of recipe to eliminate, forever, the problem of the soggy pastry base that seems to plague so many people, myself included.
“I will stress that the container must be metal, not porcelain or glass.”
The Coronation Big Lunch aims to bring neighbours and communities together to celebrate the coronation on 6 May.
The Queen Consort has been patron of the Big Lunch initiative since 2013.
