How to Quiche

So. The other week my pal L. dragged me to the film Julie & Julia and I wound up tracking down the original blog The Julie/Julia Project. I can't claim to be that impressed by Ms. Powell's writing - she has some odd quirks which irritate me, although she does have a unique and interesting way of writing about food that doesn't just involve writing down her recipes. A week later I am still dreaming about food (this afternoon, for example, I dreamed of avocados. Weird.) and craving quiche. Mushroom quiche, specifically, until I tracked down this recipe online and decided that mushroom and leek quiche would be the thing.

No, I don't own a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I should probably amend that someday. But my goal for the year is to master Indian cooking, not French, so maybe next year.

Quiche aux Champignons et Poireaux

Ingredients

• Two leeks (white/white-green parts only - see note)
• 6-7 biggish crimini mushrooms
• Pinch salt
• 1 1/2 T. butter
• A few T. Marsala wine
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 c. skim milk (this - more than the vegetarianism or anything - is heresy to Ms. Child. And I apologize.)
• ~1/4 c. grated Jarlesberg cheese (I hated this until very recently - like our date night to a local Scandinavian restaurant last Friday. Apparently it is no longer nasty-strong. When did that happen?)
• A crust of some sort

Methodology

1. Pre-bake the crust. If you are me and using a pre-made pie crust, don't fuck it up, by which I mean, put it far enough up the sides of the pan that it won't shrink back when you bake it.
2. Saute the leeks and mushrooms in butter. Add a splash of Marsala to deglaze the pan. When leeks and mushrooms are tender, put them into the pie crust.
3. Whisk together the milk and eggs, add a bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of cheese. Pour it into the crust. Here is an important tip: if the crust has shrunk, don't add so much milk that it overflows the crust and goes back into the pie pan behind it.
4. Sprinkle the top with cheese.
   
5. Put it in an oven preheated to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes (though our oven runs hot, it actually took this long to start getting brown on top.

Notes

• I always wonder how much of the leek to cut up, so I go to about two inches below the beginning of the first leaf, where it's green-white. Cut off the roots, then slit the leek down the center as far as this point and make a second slit perpendicular to the first. Then slice up the leek to the end of the slit and put the pieces in a colander or bowl. Wash now, because leeks are like the Catholic School girls of the vegetable universe - very dirty.
  
• Was that a poor simile? I've never actually met a Catholic School girl.
  
• Maybe I've met one. And she does have a pretty kinky sex life, but she wasn't at Catholic School for long.
• The quiche was excellent. Next time I'll use port instead of Marsala because it will have a slightly stronger taste. Also more salt.
• This page is about to get all sorts of weird Google hits. Oh dear.