Coronation quiche recipe: what the food critics say

The Royal Family has served up a quiche recipe for next month’s coronation celebrations. Personally chosen by The King and Queen Consort and created by the royal head chef Mark Flanagan, the “coronation quiche” is made with spinach, broad beans and tarragon.

From coronation chicken to platinum pudding, royal occasions “demand a signature dish” and King Charles III’s coronation is “no exception”, said Caroline Davies in The Guardian. It is hoped that the “suggested centrepiece” will feature on menus at coronation big lunches, street parties and community events on 6 May.

Will this “Quiche Le Reign” prove a match for coronation chicken from Queen Elizabeth’s crowning in 1953, asked Rebecca English, royal editor of the Daily Mail. Served hot or cold, it was chosen because it is a “good sharing dish” to take to a street party. It also suits a “wide variety” of dietary requirements and preferences and is “not too complicated to make or require costly or hard-to-source ingredients”.

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Charles ‘loves anything with eggs and cheese’

Anyone expecting a classic British recipe “might be surprised” by Charles and Camilla’s choice of a French-inspired quiche, said The Telegraph. While “taking inspiration” from across the Channel may “raise an eyebrow” with some, others saw it as “another symbol of the close ties between Brits and their French counterparts”.

Quiche may be known as a French dish, but is said to have “actually originated in Germany in the Middle Ages”, said ITV. The word “quiche” comes from the German “kuchen”, meaning cake.

It comes as “no surprise” that the king has picked quiche to celebrate his coronation, said former Buckingham Palace chef Darren McGrady on Twitter. The queen “loved chocolate”, but the king “loves anything with eggs and cheese”.

Dish ‘falls flat’ among punters

“Let’s be honest”, coronation chicken was “always going to be a tough act to follow”, said The Guardian’s “cookery queen” Felicity Cloake. But this quiche sounds “genuinely like something I’d like to eat on an early-summer Sunday”. Giving it a “test run” before the big day, the result is that the dish is “so packed full of vegetables” that it’s “more like a spinach pie than a quiche”.

For a “variety of reasons”, the coronation quiche has “fallen flat among punters” and has become “something of a viral laughing stock online”, said Lexie Cartwright on news.com.au. Not least because of an egg shortage in the UK, which is set to leave retailers with a “supply issue” over the next few months, Poultry World added.

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Recipe: how to make the coronation quiche

This deep quiche has a “crisp, light pastry case” and “delicate flavours” of spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon, said the Royal Family website. It can be eaten hot or cold with a green salad and boiled new potatoes. Use a 20cm flan tin.

Ingredients: serves six

For the pastry

• 125g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 25g cold butter, diced
• 25g lard
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Or 1 x 250g block of ready-made shortcrust pastry

For the filling

• 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

Method

To make the pastry

• 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

To make the quiche

• 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.
• 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.
• Preheat the oven to 190°C.
• Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, before removing the greaseproof paper and baking beans.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C.
• Beat together the milk, cream, eggs, herbs and seasoning.
• 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.
• 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.
• Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until set and lightly golden.