This Side of the Pond

It turns out there is a limit to my parents’ patriotism. You could draft them for national service, you can tax them for the good of the republic, but a line must be drawn at fava beans.

In fact, I’m not even going to share with you the kind of language that came out of my mother when I informed her that she’s going to have to eat some.

The official dish of the Coronation of King Charles III has been announced and it contains – you guessed it – fava beans, along with tarragon and spinach.

I’m not exactly sure why this is the case. None of these are ingredients I would particularly associate with Britain, let alone its head of state.

Opting for something called Coronation Quiche in the first place is already a surprise. Quiche is, after all, a French dish, and nothing is going to change that – not even the efforts of whoever added a section on its Wikipedia page to make sure we all know that the English were using eggs and cream baked in pastry hundreds of years before the French are believed to have used the name.

I suppose fava beans do have a long history on the isles. We call them “broad beans”, because they’re broad compared to other beans (obviously), and they were apparently among the first crops introduced to Britain by Neolithic farmers, five millennia ago.

We were one of the last to get spinach, on the other hand – it’s believed to have originated in Iran and moved across the world, getting to the UK in the 14th century.

The official coronation website isn’t much help: it simply describes the dish as, “A deep quiche with a crisp, light pastry case and delicate flavors of spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon”. This tells me the “what”, but doesn’t do a lot to answer the “why”.

I did a little digging and, according to a former royal chef, the quiche is definitely to the new king’s tastes. Apparently, he “loves anything with eggs and cheese”, which is not an opinion I can fault.

It’s certainly easier to make than the dessert monstrosity that was chosen for Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee, and it uses easy-to-find and inexpensive ingredients. Many are suggesting this was Charles’s point all along: he wanted something that’s accessible to anyone even in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and – because it’s mostly vegetarian – can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

It was devised for the Coronation episode of the “Big Lunch”, a regular event that was conceived by the Eden Project to bring neighbors together to, “boost community spirit, reduce loneliness and support charities and good causes.” Queen Consort Camilla is the patron of this project.

The reaction to the quiche that will be its centerpiece has been, it’s fair to say, mixed. While some people are fine with it and many of them probably weren’t planning to make one anyway (though they might pick one up at Marks & Spencers in a fit of patriotism the day before the coronation), there are also those like my mother.

In summary, my mother has decided that she would rather be hung, drawn and quartered than take a bite of that filth. The beans, she says, can be stuck where the sun don’t shine, and spinach is just “slimy green sludge”.

Her words, not mine – I do apologize for the vitriol. She is clearly not as adventurous as her monarch, despite sharing his opinions towards eggs and cheese.

Quiche is actually one of her favorite dishes, although she much prefers the quiche Lorraine version, which features ham or bacon. If it wasn’t for those pesky beans, I’m certain she’d have been all over this recipe.

I don’t think it sounds too bad, myself, although I won’t be telling my mum that. If you have more culinary bravery than my parents – and, let’s face it, who doesn’t? – then here is the recipe for Coronation Quiche to try for yourself:

Make your shortcrust pastry by sieving 1 cup of all-purpose flour and a dash of salt into a bowl, then adding 1/8 cup of diced cold butter and 1/8 cup of lard. Rub the mixture together to create a breadcrumb-like texture, then add two tablespoons of milk a little at a time to bring the ingredients together as a dough.

Cover the bowl and rest the pastry in the fridge for between half an hour and 45 minutes.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the pastry into a circle that’s a little larger than your quiche dish (which should be 8 inches in diameter). Line the tin with the pastry, making sure there are no holes or tears, then cover and rest in the fridge for another half hour.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the dish from the fridge, cover the pastry with parchment paper and weigh the paper down with baking beans. Bake the pastry blind for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and take off the paper and beans.

Reduce the oven temperature to 320 degrees F.

Beat together half a cup of milk, two medium eggs, three quarters of a cup of heavy cream and a tablespoon of fresh tarragon. Season with salt and pepper.

Scatter a quarter cup of cheddar cheese across the pastry base. Top with a cup of cooked spinach and a cup of cooked fava beans, then pour the liquid mixture over the top and give it a gentle stir if needed to make sure the filling is evenly dispersed.

Sprinkle another quarter cup of cheddar cheese over the top, then bake for 25 minutes until set and lightly golden.

Serve warm or chilled with boiled new potatoes and a green salad, but not to my mother. She won’t eat it, and nobody needs to put up with that sort of language about a bean.