While I was in St. Louis subliminally trying to convince Ree Drummond that I’m the next big thing in blogging, I happened across a local food publication called Feast. I don’t know if St. Louis is unique in this, but they have several awesome local magazines. So when I saw Feast while grabbing coffee on my way out of town, I snatched it up and read it all the way home (I wasn’t driving). It might be my culinary inexperience talking, or maybe my lingering nightmarish GRE study sessions, but to me with this dish, quiche is to tart what stromboli is to calzone. Or I guess if I were really speaking in GRE terms:
1. Quiche:Tart::
a. stromboli:calzone
b. Clive:Lassie
c. Neil:gasbag
d. Jessica:Cristina Yang
Okay, I don’t know what I just did. But nonetheless, the point I’m trying to make is, short of kitchen hardware, this really could be a tart or a quiche, it just comes down to container and size. Kitchen dish logistics aside, I’m hoping this tart-quiche, in all it’s Spring root vegetable glory, will kick what’s left of winter’s ass. This grey, wet weather is bumming us out. We’re ready to garden. After tons of research, we finally bought bikes. Clive needs a dog park again because apparently he is part Tasmanian Devil (video coming). The house is stuffy. The garage is a mess. We need Spring!
Ingredients:
Adapted from Feast
For the filling:
1 lb fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Granny Smith apple, julienned
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup white wine
6 eggs
¾ cup Greek yogurt
12 ounces sharp white Cheddar, shredded
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the crust:
For the crust, I used the super simple, much healthier olive oil tart crust from Chocolate & Zucchini. Sans butter and containing all of five ingredients, it’s a win and tastes so good.
Directions:
1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Fill a large pot ¾ full with water and bring to a boil.
2. Slice leeks lengthwise, root to tip, and rinse under cold water. Thinly slice the white and light green parts and place in boiling water for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove leeks and drain in a colander (do not pour out water).
3. Return water to a boil and add fingerling potatoes. Cook until tender and drain.
4. In a large skillet, heat butter until melted. Add leeks and apples and sauté. Add cooked potatoes and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add black pepper and white wine and cook until wine is evaporated. Set aside to cool.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, Greek yogurt and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add leek and potato mixture to egg mixture and stir to combine.
6. Pour mixture into the prepared olive oil crust shell (lined in a tart or pie pan of course) and bake until set and lightly browned, about 45-50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Eggy. Cheesy. Creamy. And without the cream, definitely lighter. Everything you could ever want in a quiche…tart. We even had extra filling so we popped the leftovers in our ramekins and had it for breakfast the next morning. You’ll never see Neil or I complain about unexpected extra food.
What did catch us off guard though was how much making this quiche-tart would end up trashing our kitchen. Completely trashed. It looked as if it had been assaulted. Worth it still? All the way.
