Sometimes you just know something is too pure and good to use for a particular purpose and should be celebrated through its true purpose.

This can be a fine wine that you know should be enjoyed with those lovely steaks rather than merely consumed 😉 Or it might be a special cheese you save for pairing with that wine rather than using in a sauce. Both wine and cheese are relevant to this story but let’s start with the wine.

Oh dear spillage on my vintage rug! Google suggests bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar, so a quick run to the local shop but they only offered a premium baking soda. I felt a strong sense of guilt spreading the first batch of paste onto the spillage and decided to sacrifice further staining time to source a less pure version of the household substance. I needed to bake something mentioned on the tin of this fine white powder.

You may recall I mentioned I always buy oatcakes from the fish van. Well I am absolutely delighted to say that my first batch of oatcakes had a pretty good likeness. Not exactly, but rather good.

My motivation to go ahead and make my oatcakes came from the baking bowl I was using to make shortcrust pastry for the quiche I was preparing using leftover broccoli from our previous dinner of minced beef parcels. Well, the bowl was floury and ready for its next project so in goes my favourite porridge oatmeal which I always have anyway; teaspoon of that white powder; some butter and water to bind and then roll, cut and bake. Perfect enjoyed with the Gorgonzola I used in the broccoli quiche, paired with a French red.

This pastry project resulted from Pete’s Yorkshire Puddings last Sunday, which are normally glorious, but last week, the puddings were more like pancakes. Reason? The only oil we had was olive oil. No use. We both recalled using vegetable oil before had delivered good results and agreed it was the oil’s heat properties which were critical. It’s funny how things happen in our kitchen, but this Yorky disaster led me to have a bash at making my own pastry again, which I hadn’t done for some years – having relied on shop bought pastry. Talking about different fat’s heat properties took me back to my school days when we used lard in pastry making and I wondered if lard would be a good base for cooking the Yorkies.

Half fat to flour I always remembered; and half butter, half lard in that. Tips of fingers to make breadcrumbs; bind with a little water; rest, roll then bake blind. I did pop to the shop to buy a lovely 8 inch flan ring of the steel variety. I do think steel equipment is best for baking. I also bought some nice blind baking beans.

Pouring a mixture of 3 large eggs and medium tub of cream seasoned over the broccoli and Gorgonzola laid nicely in my pastry case gave me a great sense of satisfaction. It felt good to rekindle my school learned cooking skills. I baked the quiche for half an hour or so and let it rest before cutting. We ate it warm though.

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The full story of the inspiration for me to make a broccoli quiche goes back to last week when we talked about meals we grew up with, including what we call a “Mince Round” – basically a mince meat pie. I picked up some steak mince and shop bought puff pastry and made mince squares or parcels, which we thoroughly enjoyed served with broccoli, some of which was left over.

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And so my appreciation of different types of fats having their own purposes inspired me to use the leftover broccoli in a quiche and brought pastry making back to my kitchen. This week also reminded me how finer versions of some things can greatly enhance our culinary experiences and habits, if used in the way they were intended which led to my mastering one of my favourite things, oatcakes.