The missing ingredient

This weekend has been spent baking…

This quiche is the first creation from the baking recipe book I received from my birthday. The actual quiche should contain samphire. I have never heard of this until now and could not find it in my local Sainsbury’s.

Good old Wikepedia tells me this about samphire

Rock samphire, Crithmum maritimum is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in the United Kingdom. This is probably the species mentioned byShakespeare in King Lear.

Golden samphire, Inula crithmoides is a coastal species with yellow flowers that grows across Eurasia.

Marsh samphire is another name given to the edible glassworts, genusSalicornia.

Samphire is commonly used to describe plants from the Australian genus of succulent coastal plants Tecticornia, and from the cosmopolitan genus Sarcocornia.

Originally “sampiere”, a corruption of the French “Saint Pierre” (Saint Peter), samphire was named for the patron saint of fishermen because all of the original plants with its name grow in rocky salt-sprayed regions along the sea coast of northern Europe or in its coastal marsh areas. It is sometimes called sea asparagus or sea pickle.

In Norfolk it is commonly called sampha [sam-fa]. In North Wales, especially along the River Dee’s marshes, it has always been known as sampkin.

All the plants bearing the name are annuals that begin growing in late autumn and vegetate throughout the winter until the first warm weather arrives. Then the first stems and internodes form, and by mid-spring the plant measures 6 to 8 cm.

So establishing that this ingredient was not an option – I bought some asparagus.

The end result – very tasty…

The nicest part?

Cooking in the kitchen with my lovely companion.

He made the accompanying salad while I made the quiche.

It felt like a nice team effort.