Recipe of the day: Black trumpet mushroom quiche

You know how some people get excited buying clothes?  Or electronics?  I get really excited when I find a new and completely useful cookbook.  It becomes an obsession.  I lovingly read it as soon as I get home, turning the pages and salivating at all the pictures, trying to decide which one I am going to tackle first.  Well, that happened to me last week, twice.  I found this great book by Michel Roux called "Pastry".  It is absolutely delicious.  Every recipe is worth a try, and of course, being a book about pastry, they are all low fat/calorie/sugar etc.  (I WISH, now that would be a dream come true.)   And you know that pastry is what the french do best, well, besides champagne, of course!  So, there were so many pastries that I wanted to try, and when I get excited like this, I want to do them all at once, which of course would cause all my family and friends to have a sudden heart attack.

So anyhow, I decided to try the Pate Brisee, which is your basic pastry for quiche.  The recipe was for your typical Quiche Lorraine, but I had some black trumpet mushrooms at home, so I wanted to make a quiche out of them.  What I love about them is that when you cook them, they release their juice and it becomes this thick, rich sauce....and if you add wine, or port or anything that tickles your fancy, some salt and pepper, this by itself can be a sauce for meat, chicken, or pasta.  If you can get your hands on some of these mushrooms, please please please make this quiche!  It is soo easy and you will be so surprised at how absolutely scrumptious this is!  So here you go!

Pate Brisee:

250g Flour (approx 1 1/4 cup)
150g butter (approx 1/2 cup) softened and cut into cubes
1 Tbsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp. cold milk

Place half of the flour on a clean surface and make a well.  Place the butter, egg and the salt into the well and with the tip of your fingers, mix and blend into the flour.  Little by little, add the rest of the flour and blend until you get a grainy texture.  Add the milk little by little and mix with the tip of your fingers until the dough start to come together.  With the palm of your hand, knead until it becomes firm.  Form into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.


Black trumpet mushroom quiche:

375g of Pate Brisee (what you made before)
2 Tbsp butter
2 shallots, cut in half and sliced thinly horizontally
200g black trumpet mushrooms, cleaned of all dirt and roughly chopped
1/4 cup of ruby port
1 egg
2 egg yolks
300 ml creme fraiche
pinch of nutmeg
freshly gound salt and peper
140g provolone cheese, grated

In a large frying pan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add the shallots, and cook until soft, about 10 minutes.  Raise the heat up to high, and add the mushrooms, stirring until they soften a bit.  With the heat on high still, add your port and flambee until the alcohol evaporates.   Cook for another 4-5 minutes, making sure the liquid doesn´t evaporate, turn off heat, set aside to cool.

Roll your dough out to a large circle, 2 mm thick.  Butter your quiche tin, and place the dough into your tin.  Cut the overhanging dough, and press the dough into the sides.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes.   
Preheat your oven to 190º (375 F), with a fork pinch your dough all over, and cover with parchment and fill with pie weights.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce the oven temp to 170º (350 F) and discard parchment and weights (well, save them but just take them off your pastry) and bake for another 5 minutes.  Take out of the oven and set aside while you make the rest of the filling.

In a large bowl, add your egg, yolks, creme fraiche and add your nutmeg and salt and pepper, mix vigorously for about 5 minutes.  Stir in your mushrooms and mix to combine.  Put the mixture into your pre-baked crust, scatter the grated cheese on top, and pop in the oven.  Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the center of your quiche isn't wobbly anymore.  To check if its done, place the knife tip into the center and see if it comes out clean.  Let cool and transfer to a serving plate.

I like to serve it with a side salad of Mache, with just a little extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar and salt and pepper, and a lovely glass of wine......

Bon appetit!