These don’t take nearly as long as you’d expect, and they’re simply delicious. The sweet softness of caramelised onion pairs nicely with the sharp tang of the blue cheese, but the biltong’s salty attitude (and a bit of texture) is crucial in bringing them all together. Of course, you don’t have to make these into mini quiches: one large one would work just as well.

Whenever you consider cooking with biltong, there will be those who claim (noisily) that biltong can only be eaten in one way: out of a bag, into a mouth, with as little delay as possible. Ignore these people, and carry on as you were: they’ll change their minds when they taste this. (Lock them out of the kitchen if necessary though, because they’ve already got their eye on your raw ingredients).

Mini quiches with blue cheese, caramelised onion and biltong

All those folks who said that baking with biltong is stupid? They seem to want to get back into the kitchen now. Funny, that.

Ingredients:

– 1 roll of phyllo pastry
– 50 grams of blue cheese
– A generous tablespoonful of butter
– 8 – 10 onions, depending on their size (sliced)
– 50 grams of sliced biltong (I cut mine into even finer specks, for ease of biting)
– 4 eggs
– Splash of milk

Method:

• Melt the butter and a glug of olive oil in a large saucepan, then add the onions. Keep them on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about an hour, while you get on with the other preparations.
• Take out a sheet of your carefully defrosted phyllo pastry*, leaving a damp tea-towel over the remaining ones so that they don’t dry out. Brush it with a little melted butter or oil, then layer another piece on top of it. Continue in this fashion until you’ve got a stack of four sheets.
• Using kitchen scissors, a pizza-cutter or a sharp knife, cut the phyllo into three strips, and then cut each strip into three pieces.
• Squish each square into a place in a muffin-tin.
• By now, your caramelised onions should be a deep golden colour. If they aren’t quite done yet, mix in a teaspoonful or two of sugar and pour yourself a glass of wine: they shouldn’t take more than another 15 minutes.
• Crack four eggs into a large bowl, add a splash of milk and your cooled caramelised onions. Beat this mixture together, then spoon it into your phyllo shells.
• Sprinkle some biltong into each case, top with some crumbled blue cheese, and bake for about ten minutes (or until the egg is set and the pastry golden).
• Enjoy!

*Notes from past experience:

Phyllo pastry must be defrosted slowly, in the fridge, for at least eight hours. You can’t get smart and try to defrost it quickly by putting it straight into the sink, because all the lovely papery layers stick together in strange places. You will be forced to try and painstakingly separate them, which is about as fiddly as open heart surgery and doesn’t pay nearly as well. Besides, once you’re done you’ll have sixteen half-shredded pieces of phyllo and high blood pressure, neither of which are very useful. If you want to whip this up at a moment’s notice, rather say a few Hail Rosemarys and buy some pre-made pie crusts.