I’ve been making breakfast quiche consistently since I started the nutrition component of my dental hygiene education a few months ago and it’s started feeling quite bland. But the other day I saw an Instagram post by Pajamas and Jam Eatery that had my mouth watering. Fennel, goat cheese and caramelised leek quiche. I just had to try something similar, and boy, am I glad I decided to mix things up from my usual combination of broccoli florets and cubed ham.
For one, this quiche is simply bursting with flavour. Fennel has a distinct snap of licorice to it. But it’s hard to come by. Yet another reason I’m considering making my local farmer’s market a regular haunt when the grocery store isn’t stocked for my whims. I decided to add the bacon to balance out the sweetness of the caramelised leeks with some saltiness. Then, with the aroma of the cooked vegetables filling my kitchen, I couldn’t hide it in a thick pastry crust, but luckily I had some leftover phyllo in the freezer. Perfect for containing the filling without disguising any of the flavours.
Ingredients
- 3 sheets phyllo pastry
- 3 leeks
- 1 fennel bulb
- 6 rashers of bacon
- 1⁄2 cup goat cheese
- 1⁄3 cup Sauvignon Blanc
- 3 eggs
- 3⁄4 cup whole milk
- 1⁄3 cup heavy cream
- salt
- pepper
- paprika
Directions
Separate the green leaves from the white stalks of the leeks and rinse well. I prefer to chop the stalks into centimetre thick rings and then chop the entire stalk in half lengthwise before rinsing. Leeks can trap a lot of dirt between their layers and I find it easier to rinse them well when they are nicely separated. Then, do the same for the fennel and set aside. Tip: save the roots of the leek and put it in water on your kitchen windowsill to proliferate. This works with any sort of onion.
Chop the bacon into morsel-sized pieces and in a large skillet, cook until crispy. Set the bacon to one side and divide the bacon fat in half. Use half to grease a glass oven dish and use the remaining half to cook the leeks.
Bring the skillet back up to heat and cook the fennel and leeks. Season with salt and pepper while stirring, and add a little bit of the Sauvignon Blanc at a time to keep everything nicely moist. When they are on the verge of caramelizing (about 20 minutes), spread them out flat in the skillet and let them continue to cook for another 10 minutes until nice and golden.
Lay out two sheets of phyllo pastry in the greased glass dish. It’s very flaky so two sheets will do for the base. It also puffs up a little bit in the oven. Ladle the caramelized fennel, leeks and bacon into the dish and cover with the goat cheese, smoothing it out over the filling with the back of a spoon.
In a separate glass dish, combine and whisk together the eggs, milk, cream and seasoning. Pour the filling over the back of a spoon so it spreads out evenly across the filling, and cover the dish with the remaining phyllo sheet. Let bake for 45 minutes at 350° Fahrenheit or until the eggs are fully cooked and the phyllo is golden brown.