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Not your usual quiche. This one has the great savory flavors of leeks and Stilton cheese. Leek and Stilton quiche is the perfect dinner for a Valentine’s Day date night.
Quiche With Leek And Stilton
Quiche was all the rage back in the 70s. Everyone seemed to be eating it as well as making jokes about it. Eventually it stopped being super popular but it never really went away.
One reason it may have ceased to be so popular is that it is definitely not a diet dish. It’s very rich and calorie packed. However, there’s really no other way to do it.
It is a dish to be enjoyed albeit on an occasional basis. Because of it’s richness a smaller portion does satisfy. Rather than the standard swiss cheese, bacon, spinach combo, this leek and stilton quiche gets it’s marvelous flavor from those two ingredients.
Stilton Cheese: A British Favorite
Second to cheddar, there is no cheese more British than Stilton.
It’s a blue mold cheese much like bleu cheese. In fact, if you cannot find Stilton in your store–and it’ll be in the gourmet cheese section–you can definitely substitute bleu cheese or Gorgonzola cheese. The flavors of those cheeses are all similar. I find that it’s not so much the flavor that varies as it is the texture. Stilton is a lot creamier than Gorgonzola or bleu cheese. So for an eating cheese, I prefer Stilton to the others. However, in this leek and Stilton quiche, it makes little difference which one you use and you don’t use much.
Perfect Pastry
The crust for this quiche is pretty simple and it’s prepared in the food processor. As an aside, the pastry can be made with bread flour (also known as strong flour in UK). I used all-purpose (plain flour in UK) simply because I had no bread flour and it came out fine, so use what you want.
In order to get a perfect looking crust, you can follow the video in my Caramel Crumb Peach Pie. In fact, you might want to switch entirely to a deep tart pan for making all your pies. I have so now every slice is perfect.
The Recipe
Leek and Stilton Quiche
Ingredients
Pastry:
- 8 oz flour
- 4½ oz butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tbs water
Filling:
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 2 leeks thinly sliced
- 2 sticks celery thinly sliced
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 5½ oz Stilton cheese coarsely grated
- 2 tbs chopped parsley
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C.
- Place the flour and butter into a food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and water and pulse until it just begins to ball up.
- Roll out on a lightly floured surface and transfer to a 11-in/28cm deep quiche pan. Press up along the rim them prick with a fork. Chill for 15 minutes.
- Line the pastry with parchments and pie weights (I use dry beans) and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the weights and paper and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until just cooked and pale golden. Remove crust from the oven. Reduce oven temp to 350F/180C.
- To make filling: heat the oil in a large skillet then add the leeks and celery and saute over high heat for a few minutes.
- Lover the heat, cover and simmner for 25 minutes or until veggies are tender. Remove cover and increase heat to high to evaporate any accumulated liquid.
- Beat the eggs and cream together in a medium bowl. Whisk in the salt and pepper.
- Spread the cooked leeks and celery evenly on the bottom of the crust. Top with the cheese and parsley. Pour the custard over the top.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and just set on top. Let the quiche stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Carole from Carole's Chatter says
Sounds fab! Cheers