Nutmeg Mushrooms Baked Into Quiche and a Mushroom Farm Tour

Mushrooms are the perfect addition to a quiche. Today I made Nutmeg Mushrooms and layered them on top of a quiche with caramelized onions,  diced ham, and Cabot Alpine Cheddar Cheese.  I’ll be sharing the recipe for both the Nutmeg Mushrooms and the quiche, but first let me tell you about the latest adventure touring a mushroom farm!

Aren’t these gorgeous?  They were grown just a few miles from our avocado ranch in north Escondido, California.

Yesterday I  made a visit to Mountain Meadow Mushroom Farm with the Les Dames d’Escoffier of San Diego.  Here we are, still wearing our hair nets after the tour.  It was so exciting to see how they grow mushrooms right here in San Diego county,  and each of us on the tour came home with a bag of the freshest local mushrooms picked the same day!

The first step in the process is to make the compost that will go into the rooms where the mushrooms will grow.  They start with hay,  and mix it with some other ingredients to make the compost.  One of those ingredients are almond husks, seen in the photo above.  The almond husks provide nitrogen.  Isn’t it great how the unused shells from the almonds we enjoy are used to help grow mushrooms?

There are many steps to get the compost ready for the mushroom “spawning”,  and it requires detailed attention to exacting standards.  Want to know more?  Check it out here: 

The most exciting part of the tour was our visit to the room where the mushrooms were ready to pick!  The workers will pick 10,000 pounds of mushrooms from the room on the first day,  6,000 lbs. on the 2nd day, and 4,000 lbs. on the 3rd day.   That’s 20,000 pounds of mushrooms from one room!  (there are multiple layers of mushrooms growing from floor to ceiling.)

I wondered if there was a way to combine mushrooms with fresh nutmeg so I did an online search and found several recipes for Nutmeg Mushrooms.  I grated 1 tablespoon of fresh nutmeg and sliced up a pound of the mushrooms.  Then I added 1/2 cup of white wine and let the wine come to a boil.  The mushrooms cooked in the liquid until the wine had reduced, and then the mushrooms browned slightly.  I caught The Farmer tasting those sweet little mushrooms before I could use them in the quiche!  No wonder; they were tasty! (I may have snagged a few myself.)

I sautéed a  sweet onion with a little olive oil in the same pan where the mushrooms had cooked,  so that the remaining flavor of the mushrooms would be absorbed into the caramelized onions.

I filled my quiche shell beginning with onions, then diced ham, grated Cabot Alpine Cheddar cheese, and finally poured in the beaten eggs mixed with half-and-half.

Those tasty little Nutmeg Mushrooms went right on top of the quiche, followed by another cup of grated cheddar.  (See all that fresh nutmeg on those mushrooms?)

Pop it into the oven and bake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees F.  That’s all there is to it.  But wait!

I had some pie crust dough left over, so I rolled it out and made an apple hand pie.   Two pies went into the oven today!  (Diced apple, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter — then fold the dough over the apple mixture.)  Hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream for my son and The Farmer (they shared the hand-pie), plus Nutmeg Mushroom Quiche for tomorrow’s breakfast!

Nutmeg Mushrooms and a Quiche   Author: Mimi Holtz Recipe type: Quiche Cuisine: American Prep time:  30 mins Cook time:  60 mins Total time:  1 hour 30 mins Save Print Nutmeg mushrooms on top of this quiche! Amazing flavor plus caramelized onions, ham, and cheddar cheese. Ingredients

• 1 uncooked 9' pie shell
• 1 lb. crimini mushrooms, sliced
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated nutmeg (or ground nutmeg)
• 1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup diced ham
• 2 cups grated Cabot Alpine cheddar cheese, divided
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup half and half

Instructions

1. In a skillet, stir the mushrooms, nutmeg, and white wine.
2. Over medium heat, bring the wine to a boil and simmer until the wine has reduced.
3. Stir the mushrooms until they begin to brown.
4. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet and let them cool.
5. In the same skillet, stir the onion sliced with the olive oil over medium heat until the onions turn golden brown.
6. Let the onions cool completely.
7. Place the cooled onions into the prepared pie shell.
8. Sprinkle the diced ham on top of the onions evenly.
9. Sprinkle 1 cup of the cheese on top of the ham.
10. Beat the eggs with the half and half.
11. Gently pour the egg mixture into the center of the filled pie shell.
12. Spoon the nutmeg mushrooms onto the top of the egg mixture in a single layer.
13. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the mushrooms.
14. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 60 minutes or until the quiche is puffed, golden brown, and a table knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
15. Cool the quiche for at least 10 minutes.
16. Quiche may be refrigerated and reheated before serving.

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Disclosure:   I received cheese from Cabot Creamery Cooperative and flour from King Arthur Flour so I could participate in #QuicheFeast, a food blogger promotion.  Frieda’s Specialty Produce sent me some fresh nutmeg in a box of products to use in recipe development. I was not required to write this post, nor was I compensated.  All opinions and experiences are mine.