For weeks I have been wanting to write you down the recipe for this simple wild garlic quiche, yet somehow I always did other stuff first. But now, here I am, at my desk with a glass of wine, the evening is slowly drawing in and outside the wind tussles the fresh growth on the trees and shrubs, as if it means to mirror these wild days. I still sense a lot of things that are out of tune, but I equally sense renewal and exuberance, suave, mild beauty as opposed to the harsh and stern aesthetics of the wintery months.
And indeed it is a time to celebrate, rebirth of nature and all that, and then on a very personal level too, big time in fact, because I am going to write a book! Actually I’m already on it, and it’s a bit scary really because it is all so new and I’m working on a super tight schedule but it’s absolutely fantastic, absolutely overwhelmingly fantastic, writing and photographing and recipe testing, in short all I ever wanted to do, probably since my very early childhood days when my kind school teacher put a lined notebook into my little hands so that I could write up all those stories that swarmed through my colourful world.
On another note, even more good news are on as Europe is slowly opening up and the workshop schedule will finally be kept though start a little later than anticipated. Currently I still have free spots on the following dates:
Three days culinary immersion
Ride of the Valkyries: 15 – 17 October 2021)
One day culinary immersion
I’d love to hear from you and welcome you into my house, so feel free to drop me a message at hello@lespoissonchats.com if you are interested in joining. Furthermore I still take on groups up to six participants for private events and can arrange dates throughout August and September, just get in touch with me and I’m sure we can work something out.
And now to the recipe, wild garlic season here is still on, so in between hailstorm, thunder and rain, when the sun dared to peek out from behind the clouds, I ventured out into the forest on the other side of the river and picked armfuls of wild garlic, very happily inhaling the typical aroma of garlic and rich earth and fresh sap running down the gnarled bark of the trees. Home again, I made this super simple wild garlic quiche with fresh cheese and lemon, perfect for this kind of changing weather.
What you’ll need
- 500g of very good puff pastry, I source mine from my bakery
- Plenty of freshly foraged wild garlic, say a big bouquet
- 400g freshly made faisselle or ricotta
- 1 teaspoon of dried lemon zest or fresh lemon zest of half a lemon
- Seasalt and pepper
- 1 egg, stirred well
How to cook it
Preheat the oven to 200°C with the fan on.
Roll out the dough to about 2mm and transfer on a baking tray laid out with parchment paper. Cut the edges in a 45° angle into 1cm stripes, about 4cm long.
Put four or five nice leaves aside, also stems with wild garlic flowers, if you have any. Then finely chop the rest of the wild garlic and mix in a wide bowl with the faisselle and the lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper and spread out evenly on the dough. Don’t put any filling on the borders where you made the cuts. Then tress the stripes around the border and brush with the egg. Decorate with the leaves and the flowers you set aside. Bake golden for 25 minutes.
How to eat it
Such a simple thing, this quiche, it makes a very nice lunch along with a carrot or tomato salad.
Les Poissonchats 