Potato Crust Quiche - Canadian Bacon Leek

I make quiche every year for our Christmas Day brunch.  The boys demolish a few bowls fresh berries that my dad brings and slurp milk while we open presents.  Once the boys start playing with their new loot I wander into the kitchen with my dad and we get brunch going.  It's fun to cook with my dad.  He spent no time cooking when I was a kid. He taught himself some simple cooking since my mom moved away to take care of ailing grandparents.  He watched his farm mama cook and bake and preserve and bake and cook and cook some more as a child, so I'm sure all that exposure made it easy for him to pick up a few pans and get some grub on the table.  His job?  Frying bacon.  My job?  Warming quiche and making grapefruit and orange fruit salad.

Triple batch
Never make just one quiche.  Quiche is a labor of love.  It requires a crust, cooking, shredding and mixing ingredients in separate stages and bowls.  If this lazy cook is going to go to all that trouble, I'm eating quiche for more than one meal!  I made three and stashed two in the freezer (in glass Pyrex pie plates).  Boy were those good on all those busy Spanish class nights when I didn't have time to cook a hot meal for dinner.

This recipe comes from the Breakfasts and Brunches book out of the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library line of cookbooks.  They are some of my favorite cook books.  Back in the day before kids and real food when more discretionary income wasn't getting sucked up by school supplies and grass fed beef, I used to frequent Williams-Sonoma.  Now that store is off limits, lest my food budget tank for the month.

Williams-Sonoma's version has a pastry crust vs. mashed potato crust.  But I was looking for a short cut to making my own dough and rolling it out, so I decided to try for a tater crust.  This is perfect for a gluten free quiche.  I have done a hash brown crust before and liked it better than mashed potatoes.  Mashed is so much easier, plus a great way to use up left over mashed potatoes.

The quiche was tasty with the potato crust, but not divine as it is with the pastry crust.  Anything with Gruyere (affectionately called "stinky cheese" by the boys) tastes great.  The boys and hubby requested a return to the pastry crust next year.  My photos are horrid compared to those in the Williams-Sonoma book!  We got a new camera for Christmas and I'm still learning how to get good photos from it.....

Canadian Bacon Leek Quiche with Potato Crust
Ingredients - quiche
6 slices Canadian Bacon, cut into thin strips
1 TBSP butter
1 leek, washed, cut crosswise into thin slices, include tender green tops
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
6oz shredded Gruyere or Jarlsberg cheese
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Ingredients - crust
1-2 cups left over mashed potatoes
1 egg beaten, mixed in.

Directions:  Brush pie plate with butter/oil.  Press potato and egg mixture into a glass pie pan in a smooth thinish layer.  You're making a crust, not a foundation.  Bake for 30 minutes until golden at 350.  Apologies, I forgot to measure how much potato mixture I used for each pie plate.

Meanwhile, over low heat in a flat bottomed pan, add Canadian bacon, cook for a couple minutes.  Remove from pan.  Melt butter in pan and cook leek slices until tender, about 10 minutes.  In a bowl beat the eggs.  Add half-and-half, salt and pepper, combine.  In another bowl combine the shredded cheese with cornstarch.  Put the bacon, leeks and cheese on top of the potato crust.  Fill with egg mixture, gently stirring to combine.  (If you are making just one you can mix meat/veggie/cheese into the egg mixture before pouring).  Bake for 40-60 minutes until set (a knife inserted will come out clean).  To freeze, let quiche cool completely before putting in large zip top bag.  To reheat, defrost quiche in frig, then warm in oven for 30-40 minutes at 250.

Note:  I use a deep glass pie pan and need an extra egg and sometimes a bit more milk/cream to fill up the quiche.  You can substitute all or part milk for the half and half.

Leeks
Can I just love on leeks for a minute?  Leeks are amazing.  Leeks are green onions on steroids. Leeks, in my opinion, don't get enough plate time in the average cook's kitchen. You should all rush out to the store and buy a bundle.  Yeah, they are a little pricey (and gritty, see here for best washing method), but worth the indulgence on occasion.  Use them in a leek recipe, or just use leeks as you would onion in any old recipe. Leeks happen to be my "gateway" onion.  Readers know that as a recovering picky eater, I was already blogging before I learned to eat any and every onion ever served to me.  I tolerated leeks and green onion tops long before I'd eat a yellow onion. 

Farmers are you reading this?  Why don't you guys grow more leeks, tons of leeks, so the common family cook can afford to use them on a regular basis.  I know I'd buy them every week if they weren't three times the price of an onion.

Kid Appeal Tip  If your kids are suspicious of new vegetables take them shopping with you to buy leeks.  Have them find a bunch of green onions in the produce section.  Then ask them to see if they can find another bundle that looks similar to green onions but a different size.  Watch them marvel at the two vastly different sizes.  Ask a bunch of questions like "What do you suppose a leek field looks like?  What about a green onion field?"  "How do you think the farmer harvests leeks?"  At home, invite them to help (or watch) you wash them and slice them.  Leeks are fun to investigate with their white rings and long green tops.  Kids are more likely to sample food they've purchased and prepared. 

Don't Toss the Tops
Never never, I tell you, never throw away leek tops.  They add amazing flavor and flavanoids to any broth or stock.  Save those leek tops in a freezer bag and stash them in the deep freeze.  Drop them down whole in your next batch of veggie/chicken stock or toss them in (whole)  in the soup pot 10 minutes before serving.  Fish them out before serving. They are in there to flavor the broth, and add tons of nutrients.

This recipe is participating in Real Food Wednesday.

How do you do leeks?