Outrageous Mushroom Quiche

This is not your grandma's quiche. This quiche is a deep dish, heavenly delight that will transform your ideas of traditional quiche. My inspiration for this quiche came after reading Art of Pie: A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life by Kate McDermott. Her take on baking pies and making crust is less exact than what we've been told about the science of baking and it allows for some freedom and creativity. McDermott has a simple list of rules when making pies and Rule #1 is my favorite: "Keep Everything Chilled, Especially Yourself."

Whenever a recipe of mine calls for a pie crust I start to get a little anxious and nervous, especially now that our family is gluten free. Will it taste just as good as a regular flour crust? How long do I knead the dough? How big is "pea-sized" crumbs? Is that too much ice water? Will the dough crack when I roll it out? After reading Art of Pie I found myself actually wanting to make a pie crust and I really enjoyed it this time. Who cares that it didn't look perfect and that little edge fell over on top of the quiche while baking? I think it adds charm and my family saw the love I put into making their meal, after all, isn't that the most important part of cooking for others?

For the Outrageous Mushroom Quiche recipe, use your favorite All Butter Pie Crust recipe. My favorite gluten free recipe can be found at kingarthurflour.com, just remember that when making a savory pie crust omit the sugar or reduce it to a small pinch. Taking some advice from Art of Pie, I remembered to keep myself chill this time and I gave myself extra time to let the pie shell chill for a couple of hours before filling and baking, this helped to keep the butter cold and resulted in a flakier crust.

In this recipe, I used two different kinds of mushrooms, cremini and shitake, but you can use any type you have on hand and what fits with your budget. If you like morel mushrooms and can stomach the $70 per pound price tag, then go for it, the world is your oyster. I chose the cremini because it is relatively inexpensive and has more flavor than a white button mushroom and the shitake mushrooms add a lot of flavor and keep their shape in the cooking process.

Let's talk about the custard for a minute. Most quiche recipes I've found and tried use a high ratio of egg to cream leaving your quiche tasting like a rubbery scrambled egg. This recipe has a higher cream to egg ratio which results in a silky, fluffy quiche, think creme brulee or panna cotta creaminess. Is your mouth watering yet?

Outrageous Mushroom Quiche
Ingredients:
All Butter Pie Crust recipe for one 9 inch crust (see above link to kingarthur.com)
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 pound shitake mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed and large caps torn in half
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 Tbs. butter
2 small shallots, minced
1 large sprig fresh thyme
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup Gruyere or Swiss cheese, finely grated

For the custard:
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
a pinch nutmeg

Directions
Roll out pie crust to about 12 inches and press into a 9 inch spring-form pan, allowing the crust to stick up above the sides slightly. Loosely cover pie shell with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. When oil is hot, add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and let brown until softened slightly, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and add butter, shallots, and thyme to pan, cooking for 5-8 minutes or until the shallots are translucent and the thyme leaves are beginning to fall off the stems. Let cool completely.

In a blender, combine all of the custard ingredients and blend on high for 1 minute until very frothy. Retrieve the pie shell from the ridge and layer 1/3 cup of cheese on top of the crust, then sprinkle half of the mushroom mixture on top of the cheese. Slowly pour half of the custard on top of the mushrooms being careful not to move the mushrooms around. Sprinkle another 1/3 cup of cheese, then top with the remaining mushrooms, pour remaining custard over the mushrooms, and finally top the custard with the last 1/3 cup of cheese. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the center is set and only slightly wobbly. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes or to room temperature and serve.

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

My family loves spaghetti, especially the kids, but I get tired of the traditional meat sauce made with ground beef. My recipe uses 3 different kinds of pork: pork shoulder, sausage and pancetta; and it can feed a crowd, a minimum of 10 people. Since our family loves spaghetti so much, I will use half the sauce on the day I cook and freeze the other half for when I don't have time to cook. Also, this recipe can be made in the slow cooker, on the stove top, or in the oven; it's super versatile for whatever fits your needs.

Have I mentioned how I loathe the slow cooker? I know some people love their slow cookers, and use them multiple times a week. There are even websites devoted just to those freezer meals you can just drop into the slow cooker when you leave for work in the morning and when you return, dinner is ready. I haven't had such luck with my slow cooker.  I've tried just about every kind of cuisine in mine and I've been met with less than stellar results. Some meals were even inedible. Yes, after a few bites and we had to throw out the whole pot of dinner and eat scrambled eggs.

This is not one of those recipes. This Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce is amazing and you may never go back to the jarred, store-bought sauce ever again. I also like to make the sauce in my Dutch oven and bake it very slowly in the oven, but this requires me to be present during the cooking process, so I will only do this on a lazy weekend.

Let's talk about our ingredients.... Buy the high quality Italian tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes, if you opt for the better tomato your sauce will thank you. (That's also my favorite can opener from Joseph Joseph; it's one of the coolest kitchen gadgets.)  Also, go for real pancetta; bacon will not be an equal substitute. For one, it's too fatty or greasy and the smoky flavor will overwhelm the sauce. This pre-packaged, chopped brand of pancetta is great because it's one less thing for me to prep.

Start your recipe off by browning all of the meats in a skillet. First, brown the pork shoulder, then the Italian sausage, and last the pancetta. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker or if making in a Dutch oven, remove to a large plate.

Chop the Onions, Carrots and Garlic. Saute in the same skillet with a pinch of salt until soft.

Deglaze the pan with some red wine, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. 

Add the canned whole tomatoes and mash with a potato masher to break them up into bite sized pieces. Add tomato mixture to the slow cooker. 

Now pour the tomato puree in the skillet along with the fresh herbs. Bring to a simmer and add to the slow cooker. 

This is what your slow cooker should look like. It will be very full. I also like to use these slow cooker liners so clean up is really easy. 

Cook on low for 4 hours. Remove the large pieces of pork shoulder and shred into bite-sized pieces. Remove the herb stems from the sauce. 

Return the the shredded meat to the slow cooker and simmer for another 30 minutes while the pasta cooks. 

Since our family is gluten free, we like to use this type of gluten free pasta found at Trader Joe's. We have tried just about every brand out there and this one is the closest in flavor and texture to regular wheat pasta. 

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients:

4 lbs. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 3 inch pieces

1 lb. Italian sausages, sweet or mild, removed from casings

3 ounces pancetta, chopped

1 large yellow onion, diced

3 large carrots, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup dry red wine

1 28 oz. can whole Italian or San Marzano tomatoes

1 28 oz. can tomato puree

1 rosemary sprig

2 thyme sprigs

salt and pepper, to taste

2 lbs. spaghetti 

Parmesan cheese, for garnish 

Directions:

In a large skillet or Dutch oven, working in batches, brown the pork shoulder. Remove to a slow cooker or large plate. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat and brown the Italian sausage, breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon. When fully cooked through, remove to slow cooker or plate. Pour off all of the accumulated fat and brown the pancetta until crisp; remove to the slow cooker or plate. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the skillet. 

Saute the onion, carrot and garlic for 3-5 minutes, until softened. Pour in the red wine and scrape up any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add in the whole tomatoes and crush with a potato masher. Bring to a simmer, then pour into the slow cooker. 

Add the tomato puree to the skillet along with the whole herbs, bring to a simmer and pour over the meat in the slow cooker. Turn slow cooker on low and cook for 4 hours. 

Remove large pieces of pork shoulder from sauce and shred into bite sized pieces. Return the meat to the sauce and simmer on low for 30 more minutes while the pasta is cooking.

Just for fun - Our little girl (when
she was a baby) enjoying her spaghetti. 

Cook pasta according to package (note: Our family only cooks 1 pound of pasta and freezes half of the sauce for another day.) Drain and return to the pot. Spoon 2-3 cups of sauce over the cooked noddles and stir to coat all of the noodles. Divide pasta into bowls and spoon additional sauce over noddles. Top with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.