How to make the official Coronation quiche

For the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, Coronation Chicken – cold chicken in a curry cream sauce with a well-seasoned dressed salad of rice, green peas and mixed herbs – was invented to feed the foreign guests who were entertained at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.

The recipe is by royal head chef Mark Flanagan and Buckingham Palace said it 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. Plus Charles is known to love cheese and egg dishes.

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!”

Quiche is known as a classic French dish, but is said have actually originated in Germany in the Middle Ages with the word quiche from the German kuchen, meaning cake.

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. Smith wrote for a recipe for Quiche Lorraine: “For years I’ve been experimenting with this type of recipe to eliminate, for ever, 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 recipe says the dish serves six. It also includes double cream.

The Duke of Edinburgh and Coronation Big Lunch Ambassador Dame Prue Leith with the official coronation quiche

1 x 20cm Flan Tin

Ingredients:

Pastry

125g plain flour

Pinch of salt

25g cold butter, diced

25g lard

2 tablespoons milk

Or 1 x 250g block of readymade shortcrust pastry

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

1. 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

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.