Leek & mushroom quiche

October 30, 2021

   

Last week while planning the grocery shopping, I decided I felt like a quiche. I wanted crumbly pastry, savoury mushrooms and a creamy filling. I didn't have a particular recipe in mind so I googled "mushroom quiche smitten kitchen". While I don't cook her recipes regularly, Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman has a thorough approach I admire, and she seems to tend mostly towards dairy- and egg-laden, European-style recipes. Sure enough, she had several options for me to choose from and I picked out a Julia Child/Martha Stewart splice from 2007.

I made a head start in the morning, getting a pastry ball into the fridge and cooking the leeks and the mushrooms. The approach was unusual to me - both the leeks and the mushrooms are cooked lid-on with some excess liquid before it's evaporated off. (It's supposed to be port in the case of the mushrooms, but I made do with white wine vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar.) The leeks in particular really mellowed through this process, though I don't think I cooked off quite enough liquid (more about that in a minute).

It was a struggle to stretch the pastry across the full expanse of my pie dish, so in the measurements below I've added notes for increasing its quantity by 20%. Meanwhile, I couldn't pour all of the eggy milk mixture in so I've decreased the milk by 33%! I'm not going to decrease the egg quantity because this quiche needs all the setting help it can get. My first three quiche slices were actually served with a dessert spoon, completely collapsed. I may have brought this upon myself, leaving the leeks too liquid as I mentioned above, and lazily layering them with the mushrooms and then pouring over the eggy milk at the end. If I make this again, I'll properly stir together the leeks, mushrooms and eggy milk as originally instructed, and I've worded the recipe below accordingly. 

As you can see from the cross-sectional photo below, this quiche is more leek than mushroom, and I might tinker with the proportions. That's just about personal preference, though - the flavour of this quiche was already excellent, and I achieved the crumbly/creamy/savoury experience I was hankering for. We've been teaming it with this this spring salad.

   

Leek & mushroom quiche

(slightly adapted from a recipe on Smitten Kitchen, 

where credit is extended to Julia Child and Martha Stewart)

pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour (would try increasing to 1 1/2 cups next time)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

113g butter (would try increasing to 135g next time)

1-3 tablespoons ice water

filling

3-4 leeks, white part only, sliced into rounds

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons butter

5-6 large white mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk (would reduce to 1 cup next time)

1/4-1/2 cup grated tasty cheese

Make the pastry in a food processor. Start by mixing together the flour, salt and sugar. Dice the butter and add it to the flour, processing until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the water, processing between each tablespoon, until a dough forms (I used only about 1 1/2 tablespoons this time). Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, form it into a thick disc, then wrap it in the plastic and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

When the dough is ready, preheat an oven to 200°C. Roll the dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap, until it is large enough to fit your pie dish. Remove one side of plastic and gently ease the dough into the pie dish. Remove the second layer of plastic wrap and tidy up the pastry edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork. Line the pastry with baking paper and pie weights (I have some old dried chickpeas for this task!), and bake the pastry for 8-9 minutes. Remove the weights and baking paper and bake the pastry for 2-3 minutes more, until it is just starting to turn golden. Set the pastry aside to cool a little while you prepare the fillings.

In a medium-large saucepan, place the leeks, water, a bit of salt and 2 tablespoons butter. Set the saucepan over medium-high heat with the lid on, boiling the leeks for about 10 minutes, until all the leeks are very soft. Turn down the heat and remove the lid, continuing to cook and regularly stir the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated - this could take up to 30 minutes. Set the leeks aside in a large bowl.

Return the same saucepan to medium-high heat, this time placing the remaining tablespoon of butter, mushrooms, vinegar, some salt and the sugar into it. Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook for 8 minutes, then remove the lid and cook off most of the liquid. Turn off the heat, and add the mushrooms to the bowl of leeks.

Preheat an oven to 190°C. Whisk together the eggs and milk with some salt and pepper, then pour them over the leeks and mushrooms, stirring them all together. (I actually layered leeks > mushrooms > eggy milk in the pastry and it wasn't ideal.) Gently pour it all into the pastry and level it out. Sprinkle over the grated cheese. Bake the quiche for 25-30 minutes, until puffed and browned.