Wild Leek and Morel Quiche

Eric and I started looking for wild morels last week. We started out at the hot spot we discovered late in the season last year, but we didn’t find anything. That was Wednesday. Meanwhile, our friend Scott McEnaney found 30 morels.

Friday I scoped out another area, only to get skunked again. On Sunday, Eric and I went back to the location I scouted Friday, and we hit the jackpot: We picked 19 morels—a combination of black morels and blond morels. Eric spotted them first, then I started eyeing them. 

I discovered this productive spot while hiking with Toby last fall. Of course, there weren’t any morels then, but there were a lot of ash trees, which, I’m told, is a good sign if you want to find morels in the spring.

While we were foraging for morels, we also picked a bunch of wild leeks. With our bounty, I made a tasty wild morel and wild leek quiche for dinner last night. The April 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living included a recipe for a scallion and wild morel quiche, but I found it a tad too complicated for dinner on a Monday night. So I adapted Martha’s recipe and another quiche recipe to make my special wild leek and morel quiche. Recipe after the jump.

Ingredients:

Pre-made pie crust (I used Pillsbury’s “Just Unroll” pie crust)

2 Tbsp. butter

3 to 4 oz. wild morels, stems removed, halved or quartered

1/4 C chopped wild leeks

3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 C heavy cream

1/4 C whole milk

3 eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 350. Place pie crust in pie- or tart pan, prick with a fork, line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake 20 minutes. Remove parchment paper and pie weights from pie crust and bake another 6 minutes.

While pie crust is baking, sauté morels and leeks in butter until they’re soft.  In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs, heavy cream and whole milk until just combined.

When pie crust is ready, sprinkle cheddar cheese over it, then sprinkle on the morel and leek mixture. Finally, pour in egg-cream-milk mixture and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the quiche is set and browned to your liking.

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