Quiche Maraîchère For National Pie Day

National Pie Day is January 23rd and instead of a pie in the traditional sense, I'd like to share a quiche recipe with you. Quiche is a savory pie, after all!

This one is from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table Cookbook which is filled with wonderful recipes.  I found the recipe on several...other... websites,  so I hope Dorie doesn't mind that I'm sharing it here.

I brought this quiche to a New Year's Eve party as an appetizer and I received lots of compliments on it!  It was so delicious, I made it again for my husband and myself for dinner with a simple side salad.

First the pie/tart crust is baked then heaped full of delicious sautéed vegetables - a mirepoix of sorts. Then, it's filled with an egg and cream mixture and baked.  At first I was surprised at how little egg is actually in the mixture but went ahead with the recipe as written at it turned out perfectly.. Rather than Dorie's recipe for tart dough, I used my own Flaky, Tender No-Fail pie crust recipe that I got long ago from a friend,  but you can find Dorie's tart shell recipe on one of the sites I referred to above or simply use your favorite recipe for pie crust.

After the filling is baked, a layer of grated Gruyère cheese is added to the top and then returned to the oven to melt to a golden brown.  Now that's my kind of pie!

Quiche Maraîchère
Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan
Printable Recipe

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2-3 celery stalks, trimmed and cut into a small dice
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, quartered lengthwise, washed, and thinly sliced
2-3 carrots, trimmed, peeled, and finely diced
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely diced
salt and pepper
1 9-inch tart or pie shell partially baked and cooled (watch careful that your crust doesn't contain any cracks or the filling will ooze out. Add a scrap of pastry to the crack and bake a little longer, if necessary)

2/3 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup grated cheese, preferably Gruyère

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced vegetables and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, just until barely tender. Season with salt and pepper, then remove the vegetables to a bowl and let cool.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 F degrees. Put the crust on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spoon the vegetables into the tart shell and even them out. They should almost fill the crust. Whisk the the cream, egg, egg yolk together, season with salt and pepper, and carefully pour over the vegetables. Depending on how your crust and filling, you may have too much custard. Pour in as much custard as you can without it overflowing and wait a few minutes until it has settled, then add more if you can. Very carefully slide the baking sheet into the oven.

Bake the quiche for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and bake for another 5 or 10 minutes, or until the cheese is golden (the filling should be puffed all over - especially the center), browned, and set. Note: This took a little longer in my oven.

Transfer the quiche to a rack, remove the sides of the pan, and cool until it is only just warm or until it reaches room temperature before serving.
   
Always Flaky and Tender No-Fail Pie Crust

Printable Recipe

This recipe makes enough crust for 1 single crust pie and 1 double-crust pie (3 crusts) and is easily cut in half or even thirds if you care to do the math.  You never have to worry about over-working this pie crust dough - it turns out beautifully flaky every time.

4  cups all-purpose flour
1  Tablespoon sugar
2  teaspoons salt

1-3/4 cups cold shortening

½ cup ice water
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 large egg

Stir together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening. Mix liquid ingredients together and stir into flour mixture. Divide into 3 portions and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out on a well-floured surface.

Save scraps to fill any cracks in the crust, if they develop while baking.

Pear Tart with Pecan Crust

I seem to be a little fruity lately. Enjoying a lot of fruit in desserts, that is!

This past weekend, we had friends over for dessert after eating at one of our favorite restaurants together on Saturday night.  One of those friends had given me this recipe for pear tart that she was served at a relative's home recently.  She gave me the recipe and I thought I'd surprise her by making it. I'm sorry I don't know the original source of the recipe. I tried a web search but never found an exact match.

The pecan crust is simply patted into a tart pan with removable bottom.  Pears are sliced and tossed together with sugar, cornstarch and ginger.  The recipe called for dried ginger but I decided to use lots of crystallized ginger instead. Next time, I think I'll add some freshly grated ginger along with the crystallized ginger.

The juice from the pears and the cornstarch combine while baking to make a thickened sauce around the pears that was delicious.

A quick, simple and lovely recipe that is a great way to use the beautiful fall crop of pears that you'll find at the farmers' markets and grocery stores right now.

Pear Tart with Pecan Crust
Printable Recipe

You will need a tart pan with a removable bottom. Mine was about 9-10" wide.

For the Tart:

2 heaping teaspoons of crystallized ginger, chopped fine
2 tablespoons corn starch
2/3 cup sugar
6 pears (I used Bartlett but Anjou and Bosch would work well also), peeled, cored and cut into thick slices

For the Crust:

1/2 cup pecans, chopped fine in a food processor
1 cup flour
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine the crust ingredients in a medium bowl and cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork. Pat firmly into the bottom and sides of a tart pan with removable bottom.

Put the pear slices into a large bowl and add the sugar, corn starch and ginger and toss until mixed together.

Place the pears in concentric circles in the prepared tart crust starting at the outside and placing largest end of each slice toward the outside of the tart, placing them as tightly together as you can. Continue with a second row overlapping the first row by about one inch. Continue until the tart pan is full of pears, using small pieces to fill the center.

Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before serving.