It’s been a long time since I made a quiche, and I’m not sure what first inspired this one, but it seemed to be a good use for the various spring vegetables that have been collecting in the fridge. I did some searching through cookbooks and online to check on the proportions of cream to egg, and found that many of the quiche recipes seemed unnecessarily complicated, and that opinions varied about blind baking the crust. When I found this simple Jane Grigson parsley quiche recipe (via Nigel Slater) it seemed the perfect starting point, and I was happy to err on the side of simplicity.
I preheated the oven to 350ºF but increased the temp to 375ºF during cooking as it didn’t seem hot enough. For the pastry I was using a larger flan dish so I increased the quantity. I used 160g of all purpose flour, 75g salted butter, 1tsp powdered sugar, 1 small egg, a pinch of salt and 1tbsp of water. I rolled it out into a thin sheet and placed in into the removable based greased flan dish.
I substituted the chopped onions in Jane Grigson’s recipe with a mixture of Wayward Seed baby leeks (125g) and foraged ramps (200g) and sauteed them until soft. Raw ramps have a very potent flavor, but cooked they have a mild but distinctive leeky-garlicky flavor. I spread this mixture into the unbaked pastry shell.
Then I made the rest of the filling(again increasing the quantity but keeping the proportions) 375ml of Snowville Creamery heavy cream; 3 beautiful 2Silos eggs, salt and pepper, 3 tbsp of finely chopped parsley and 2tbsp of finely chopped chives from the garden, some grated lemon zest, salt and pepper. I poured this mixture over the leek and ramp base.
On top I placed some Anderson’s asparagus, which I had blanched for 1-2 minutes. I cut the fatter spears in half lengthwise and left the skinny ones whole. Then I dotted Lake Erie Creamery chevre between the asparagus spokes and baked the quiche for 40 minutes, until it was set in the middle.
The pasty was light and crisp without being crumbly and didn’t suffer for not being baked blind. A basic quiche recipe is extremely versatile with different fillings and served with a salad or two makes a perfect al fresco lunch. I served it with lettuce mix from Combs Herbs a homemade balsamic dressing.
Sources for most of the ingredients were the Greener Grocer, the North Market Farmers Market and Curds and Whey. You can get a preview of Jane Grigson’s Good Things, and read her introduction on google. I highly recommend any of the books written by her, or by her daughter Sophie Grigson.
