A dish with no name?

Flamiche -- Gratin Aux Poireaux (Leek Gratin)

Oh no!!! This was one of the best tasting things I've made so far and I don't know what to call it! Here's the deal -- While reading through my copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" the other day, I came across the section called "Gratineed Dishes." Julia went on in that section to explain, "Any of the quiche mixtures...may be baked in a shallow fireproof dish or pyrex pie plate rather than a pastry shell. They then officially become gratins." Wow! That's awesome. You see, although I really love quiche, at the moment my French pastry making skills take me a couple of hours to have a pastry shell ready for the contents to be poured in and baked. I'll do it again but I simply don't have the time to spend doing that on most days. Instead, I can use a pie plate, call it a gratin, and have dinner ready sometime close to dinner time. Woooohooooooo!

So, as I was driving home from work I was trying to think of something I could make with the three giant leeks I had left from when I made the Potage a la Cresson. When I looked at Julia's cookbook I came across a a very simple recipe for a leek quiche. But wait! Julia said I could pass on the pastry shell and turn it into a gratin! Thanks, Julia! Dinner on time and I didn't even cheat since I had official permission from Julia.

Here's how easy this was to make. I sliced up my three remaining giant leeks (about 3 1/2 cups) and boiled them in just 1/2 cup of water. I really thought Julia had made a typo in the book when she said only 1/2 cup of water which barely covered the bottom of the pan. Surprise! She was right (as she always is). As soon as the heat was turned on high and the water began to boil, the moisture in the leeks began to come out. So, I began filling the kitchen with a trail of steam that leeked out (I'm absolutely hilarious sometimes, eh?). The leeks sat there boiling away with the lid on until the water was almost all gone and then left over a low heat to "stew" for another 20 minutes.

Let's talk about that for a minute. What exactly does Julia mean when she says I needed to let the leeks "stew?" A stew is meat, vegetables, and sauce all cooked together. Not exactly sure what I was supposed to do so I left them cooking on a low heat for 20 minutes until they were very tender. It worked so I think I did okay.

As they finished cooking I prepared the mixture to be poured into the pan -- 3 eggs, a cup and a half of cream and some spices. After they were beat together, the leeks were mixed in a couple of spoonfuls at a time. That concoction was then poured into the buttered pie pan. Then it was gadget time -- I got to use my mandolin again to grate the cheese. The cheese (Swiss Geuirre) was the key ingredient to this dish because of the cheese's wonderful flavor. The cheese was also the magic of the dish. As you can see in the last preparation photo below, the cheese was sprinkled evenly over the top of the pie plate after the liquid mixture was poured in. That was it, the cheese just sat there. As it baked (at 375) though, the cheese all slowly sank down into the top of the dish and it formed a wonderful cheesy layer just below the top and on the top.

At the end of 25 minutes I removed the it from the oven and it was done perfectly. It even looked nice! Now on to my title question what was the name of this dish? The quiche version would be called "Flamiche - Quiche Aux Poireax. Julia didn't give me any instruction regarding the changing of a name when making it a gratin. Based on my complete ignorance of French, I decided I could combine the words and just add the German words. That's how I came up with the name of Flamiche -- Gratin Aux Poireaux.

Wnatever it should reallyvbe called, this was delicious! The leek didn't have a really strong taste in this dish. The dish was light and fluffy and was simply delicious. The cheese added wonderful flavor but didn't create a super gooey texture. This gratin had that special quality that made you want to finish it all at once. It was that good!

If you do speak French, please let me know the correct name for what I made. If you don't know the right name, try making it and eating it. If you get stressed over not knowing the exact name...get over it, your dinner is getting cold!

In the meantime -- bon appettit!