Spice up your family picnic with these tasty Mrs Crunch recipes

IT may be barbecue season but there is nothing more quintessentially British than packing up a picnic and heading to the park, woods or river.

Instead of dishing up the usual sandwiches and chicken drumsticks, take a look at these twists on classics recipes that the whole family can enjoy.

Spice up your family picnic with Mrs Crunch's twist on classical picnic recipes — Spice up your family picnic with Mrs Crunch’s twist on classical picnic recipes

Great value recipes in association with Morrisons

Quiche Lorraine

Serves 8 — cost: £5.67

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking/mixing: 35 mins

TIP: Add in roasted red peppers for a quiche with a twist

For the pastry you need:

180g plain flour
110g cold butter
1 medium egg yolk

For the filling you need:

200g Morrisons smoked bacon lardons
½ tsp olive oil
50g Cheddar cheese
200ml double cream
200ml low-fat creme fraiche
3 medium eggs
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground white pepper
2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 200C/180 fan/gas 6. First make the pastry. Using a food processor blend together the flour, butter, egg yolk and three or four tbsp of cold water until everything is bound together.

Roll out the pastry as thinly as you can and grease a 23cm x 2.5cm loose-bottomed flan tin. Roll the pastry on to the rolling pin then gently ease the pastry into the flan tin working quickly and confidently. Press the pastry into all the edges so it sits snugly to the shape of the tin.

Using scissors, trim the edges so they sit above the level of the tin by a few millimetres and save any excess pastry. Prick the base with a fork and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Line the pastry case with foil and any some dried beans and bake for 5 minutes.

Remove the foil and if there are any holes or cracks, use the remaining pastry to plug them and bake for another 5 minutes.

You can do up to this step at least a day before you need to finish the quiche. To make the filling, heat the olive oil in a shallow frying pan and gently fry the lardons until they start to colour but are not brown or crispy.

Drain on paper towels and leave to cool. When cooled, scatter the lardons and half the cheese, grated, over the bottom of the pastry case.

In a separate bowl, whisk the three eggs together. In another bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix, together the creme fraiche, double cream, nutmeg, thyme leaves, salt and pepper.

Add the egg to the cream mixture and mix well until the mixture resembles a pale custard colour.

Pour the filling into the pastry case and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Lower the oven to 190C/170fan/gas 5 and bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden and set but the quiche still has a very slight wobble to it.

Allow to cool then chill and eat cold.

Loaded loaf

Serves 6 — cost: £5.58

Preparation time: 15 mins

TIP: Layer prosciutto, mozzarella and roasted red peppers for an Italian-style loaded loaf

YOU NEED:

1 large cob loaf
2 tbsp Morrisons The Best red pesto
10 Morrisons red Leicester slices
10 slices of deli ham
10 slices of deli roast chicken
15 sundried tomatoes
1 beef tomato thinly sliced
10 basil leaves
50g rocket
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

METHOD:

Using a sharp knife, take the lid off the top of the loaf and scoop out the bread inside with your hands. Put the bread pieces into a freezer bag and freeze to use as breadcrumbs at another time.

Your loaf should resemble a soup bowl with a lid – you want around 1-2cm of bread in the loaf but a big hollow, which you’ll load with sandwich fillings.
Spread the pesto all over the inside of the loaf and the lid. Gently layer the cheese, ham, chicken, sundried tomatoes, sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper working in layers and pressing each layer down as you go.

You should continue until you have done two or three of every layer – and have around 3cm at the top of the loaf before the lip where the lid goes on.

Combine the rocket and basil leaves together and place as the top layer of the loaf. Put the pesto lid on top and wrap the entire loaf in cling film as tightly as you can.

Place a heavy chopping board on top of the loaf in the fridge so that all the flavours compress and combine and any air pockets to be pressed out.

Refrigerate for at least four, and up to 24, hours. When you are ready to serve, cut the loaf as you would a cake and serve in slices.

Coronation chicken drumsticks

Serves 5 — cost: £3.44

Preparation time: 15mins

Cooking/mixing: 40mins

YOU NEED:

10 chicken drumsticks
4 tbsp mango chutney
170g zero fat Greek yoghurt
3 tbsp mild curry powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

METHOD:

Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line a large baking tray with foil. Put the mango chutney into a bowl and squash any lumps with a fork until smooth.

Add in the yoghurt, curry powder, cinnamon, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined. Add the chicken and toss, making sure that the marinade thoroughly coats all the chicken.