Fancy Pants Egg Tart

My husband often says that the caliber of cooking has gone up around our house in the past few years. He would be right and it is largely thanks to the cooking-our-way-around-the-world project and the influence of blogs and magazines.  

I was reading my April 2013 Canadian House and Home magazine and saw this scrumptious looking recipe for a Mushroom, Leek, and Egg Tart. I loved how pretty it looked in the magazine and the recipe seemed doable so I decided to get the ingredients and give it a try. There always seems to be something that I switch up in a recipe and this one was no different.  I couldn't find any puff pastry at the grocery store so I used phyllo dough instead and thankfully it worked - because I really wasn't sure how similar they were.

This is the recipe for you if you want to impress the pants off your guests (and I guess that would depend on who your guest is, whether that is what you want to do).  It tastes so good and doesn't involve any tricky cooking, but makes you feel like you have just opened a bistro. 

MUSHROOM,LEEK, AND EGG TART
Ingredients:
olive oil for brushing and drizzling
salt and pepper to taste
2 portobello mushrooms (about 1/2 lb total)
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme flakes
454 gm phyllo dough sheets
1 tablespoon butter
2 leeks (white and light green parts only), sliced
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
6 large eggs (the original recipe called for only 4 eggs, but I wanted to serve 3)
coarse sea salt

Method:
1.  Preheat the oven to 400F
2.  Brush the mushroom with oil.  Place on a parchment lined baking tray (I had to resort to foil), stem side up.  Drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper, and scatter garlic and thyme over top. Bake until tender (20-25 minutes). Remove from oven, discard garlic and thyme, and thickly slice.
3. Meanwhile, heat butter in a pan and add leeks.  Add a splash of water and cover the leeks.  Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, discard any liquid in pan, and then cool.
4. Cut phyllo dough to just slightly larger than the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Place in the bottom of the pan bending the edges of the phyllo dough up slightly around the sides to form a lip.  Spread leeks over top, leaving 6 wells for eggs.  Arrange the mushrooms on top of the leeks. Brush edge of phyllo dough with egg yolk.  
5.  Bake 15 minutes.  Remove from oven. Crack 1 egg into each well (I had the eggs already cracked and waiting in 6 little dishes so the phyllo dough wouldn't cool down). Bake until egg whites are set , but yolks are runny (about 10 minutes).
6.  Sprinkle eggs with coarse sea salt.  Serve immediately.

Definitely a good recipe to file away for that moment when your heart is set on both cooking a yummy brunch and wanting to look like a top notch chef.