The King and Queen Consort have personally chosen a recipe for “Coronation Quiche” in celebration of the Big Lunches due to be staged to mark their coronation.
Charles and Camilla shared the recipe for the open baked savoury tart, which features spinach, broad beans and tarragon, on the royal family’s official Twitter account.
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 was chosen by Charles and Camilla 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.
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 the 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.”
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.
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!”
A royal aide said the choice was made as “it can be served hot or cold and suits a wide variety of dietary requirements and preferences.
“We look forward to collaborating with chefs and amateur cooks for suggestions on that front.”
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 Coronation Big Lunch aims to brings neighbours and communities together to celebrate the May 6 coronation.
Camilla has been patron of the Big Lunch initiative since 2013.
The recipe says the dish serves six. It also includes double cream.
Recipe
Ingredients
Pastry: 125g plain flour Pinch of salt 25g cold butter, diced 25g lard 2 tbsp milk
Or: 1 x 250g block of ready-made shortcrust pastry
Filling: 125ml milk 175ml double cream 2 medium eggs 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon salt & pepper 100g grated cheddar 180g cooked spinach, lightly chopped 60g cooked broad beans or soya beans
Method
You will need: 1 x 20cm flan tin
1 To make pastry: Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl; add the fats and rub with fingertips to a breadcrumb-like texture. Add the milk a little at a time and bring ingredients together into a dough. Cover and rest in the fridge for 30-45mins.
2 Lightly flour work surface and roll out pastry a little larger than the top of the tin and approx 5mm thick.
3 Line the tin with the pastry. Cover and rest for a further 30mins in fridge.
4 Preheat the oven to 190C.
5 Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15mins. Remove paper and beans.
6 Reduce oven temperature to 160C.
7 Beat milk, cream, eggs, herbs & seasoning together.
8. Scatter 1/2 of the cheese in the base, top with the spinach, beans and herbs, then pour over milk mixture.
9 Stir mixture carefully to ensure the filling is evenly dispersed.
9 Sprinkle over remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25mins until set and golden.
