Quiche: Three variations

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Quiche is the best thing to do with eggs, as far as I’m concerned, and the best quiche recipes I’ve ever seen are in Thomas Keller’s Bouchon cookbook. (Bouchon, the restaurant in Napa, where we’ve been twice, and Las Vegas, where we’ve never been—go figure!—is worthy of discussion on its own, but not today…) We’ve made them a few times. Most recently, when Nat and Shannon visited in spring, we made the quiche Lorraine, with its onion confit to die for. It was Shannon that requested the recipe. I’ve tried to summarize our three favorite variations (and you can, if you want, make two versions at once).

The three variations are quiche au Roquefort et aux poireaux (Roquefort and leek); quiche Lorraine (bacon and onion); and quiche forestière (wild mushrooms).

The quiche au Roquefort et aux poireaux is a great quiche if you like blue cheese. You could substitute another high-quality blue cheese like Point Reyes blue, of course. I’m always tempted to add bacon to anything with eggs, but I should try to restrain myself.

The quiche Lorraine, as you might guess, is probably my favorite. And, as I suggest above, it’s the onion confit even more than the bacon (!!) that makes it great. And then there’s bacon. This was the last quiche recipe we’d tried because we just added bacon to the other quiche recipes from that book, as I noted above. It was actually a revelation: the onion confit was onion heaven (it’s also a separate recipe). The bacon we used happened to be remarkable, too; we couldn’t find slab bacon, so we bought a package of ends and pieces, and cut the ends into lardons, and it was unusually tasty.

Finally, the quiche forestière is no slouch. If it wasn’t a great quiche, I would have dropped it out, but it really is worth making.

Note that you need to make the quiche batter recipe and the quiche shell recipe, too. The recipe for the crust is much better than any prepared crust I’ve seen anywhere, so go for it! If you make the quiche Lorraine, the onion confit is also a separate recipe (and a recipe worth using for other purposes, as a garnish for chicken or pork, for example). The recipe for the crust is much better than any prepared crust I’ve seen anywhere, so go for it! All these subrecipes are very simple, so don’t let them intimidate you.

This recipe makes one large quiche, with 8 to 10 servings.

INGREDIENTS

Quiche au Roquefort et aux poireaux (Roquefort and leek variation)	Quiche Lorraine (Bacon and onion variation)	Quiche forestière (Wild mushroom variation)
3 pounds leeks (about 5) 6 ounces Roquefort cheese, crumbled (about 1⅓ cups)	1 pound slab bacon, cut into lardons about 1½ inches long and ⅜ inches thick ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 teaspoons chopped thyme ½ cup grated Comté or Emmentaler cheese 2 cups onion confit	2 pounds mixed mushrooms (oyster, trumpet, cremini, porcini, chanterelle, shitake), cleaned Canola oil 1½ teaspoons kosher salt ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 3 tablespoons minced shallots 1 tablespoon thyme leaves ½ cup grated Comté or Emmentaler cheese, plus ¼ cup to top the quiche

DIRECTIONS

For Roquefort and leek quiche filling:
Cut off the dark green leaves from the leeks and discard. Cut off and discard the root end and bottom 1 inch of each leek. Cut the leeks lengthwise in half and wash well under cold running water. Place cut side down on a cutting board and slice crosswise into ¼-inch-thick slices. (You should have 4 to 5 cups packed leeks.)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the leeks and cook for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain the leeks and spread them on a baking sheet to cool. Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 325°F.

Squeeze the cooled leeks to remove excess water and dry on paper towels.

For bacon and onion quiche filling:
Put a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread the bacon on a baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minute, or until is has rendered its fat; the bacon will not be crisp at this point. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. Combine the onion confit and bacon in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme, then stir together until warm, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

For wild mushroom quiche filling:
The amount of mushrooms may seem like a great deal, but the mushrooms will reduce by half when cooked. Pat the mushrooms dry, if necessary, then trim away any tough stems and tear larger mushrooms into smaller pieces. It is important to cook each type of mushroom separately, as cooking times will vary. Divide the salt, pepper, butter, shallots, and thyme proportionally according to how much of each type of mushroom you are using.

Coat a large sauté pan with a thin film of canola oil and heat over high heat until the oil begins to smoke. Add the first batch of mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and sauté for about a minute. The mushrooms will absorb the oil and should not be weeping any liquid at this point. Add the butter, shallots, and thyme; toss and sauté until they are cooked thoroughly, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain the mushrooms on paper towels and cook the remaining mushrooms, wiping the pan with paper towel between batches.

Assembly and baking (for all variations):

Scatter half of the cheese and half of the quiche filling evenly into the hot quiche shell (still on the jelly roll pan—you’ll want to bake the quiche on the pan to minimize the mess in case the quiche leaks).

Blend the quiche batter again to aerate it, then pour in enough of the batter to cover the ingredients and fill the quiche shell approximately halfway. Top the batter with the remaining filling and cheese. Blend the remaining batter once more and fill the quiche shell all the way to the top (if you don't have a very steady hand, you might spill some of the batter on the way to the oven; fill the shell most of the way, then pour the final amount of batter on top once the quiche is on the oven rack). For the wild mushroom quiche, top the quiche with the extra ¼ cup cheese.

You may have some batter left over. Bake for 5 minutes. The filling level will drop. Pour in the remaining batter to fill to the top; there may be a little left over.

Bake for 1½ hours, until the top of the quiche is browned and the custard is set when the pan is jiggled. Remove the quiche from the oven and let stand at least 15 minutes before serving, or cool, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 day, or up to 3 days.

Once the quiche is thoroughly chilled, using a metal bench scraper or a sharp knife, scrape away the excess crust from the top edge. Place a large bowl upside down on a work surface and place the quiche pan on top of that. Gently remove the outside ring, working it free in spots with a small knife if necessary. Return to the refrigerator until ready to serve.

To serve, heat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with lightly oiled parchment paper. Using a long serrated knife, and supporting the sides of the crust with your opposite hand, carefully cut through the edge of the crust in a sawing motion. Switch to a long slicing knife and cut through the custard and bottom crust. Repeat, cutting the quiche into 8 to 10 pieces. Place the pieces on the baking sheet and reheat for 15 minutes or until hot throughout. To check, insert a metal skewer into the quiche for several seconds and then touch the skewer to your lip to test the temperature of the quiche.