Tag: leeks

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sole turbot with leeks, potatoes and thyme

Make this if you have dinner guests you want to impress, but you don’t want to be stressed. It turns out so pretty with surprisingly little effort and tastes delicious. Like with all of Judy Rodger’s recipes, the quality of the ingredients is really important because there are so few of them. Find the freshest fish and the richest butter you can and you won’t be disappointed.

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Sole Turbot with Leek and Potato Stew, adapted from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook
2 – 6 oz pieces of white fish 1-1/2 inches thick (we used turbot, but sea bass or black bass are also good options)
1 lb yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 1/2 cup leeks or spring onions (we used half and half)
a few sprigs of thyme
1 cup chicken stock
a splash of dry white vermouth
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
a trickle of white wine vinegar

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Season the fish lightly with salt; set aside. Preheat your broiler and place a rack about 6 inches from it.

Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes, until the potatoes are soft on the outside. Drain the potatoes well and place them in a large ovenproof saute pan. Add the leeks, thyme, chicken stock and vermouth. Set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add four tablespoons of butter and swirl the pan to melt the butter.

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Reduce the heat to low and add the fish fillets. Baste them with the buttery broth.

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Place the fish under the broiler and cook until the surface is lightly gratineed, about 6 minutes. The liquid should be boiling. Cook a minute or two more and remove from the oven.

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Set the fish aside in a warm place. Place the saute pan on a burner over medium heat to thicken the potato stew, about 3 minutes.  Add the butter and a little white wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.  Place several ladles of the hot potato and leek stew on a plate. Top with the fish fillet and serve.

sole-potatoes-leeks-5-Emily

 

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linguini with fresh ricotta, leeks and mushrooms

What do you do when you’ve got several cups of fresh, homemade ricotta? Make a delightful pasta! This dish is quick, delicious and reheats amazing well (for pasta, at least).

Linguini with Fresh Ricotta, Leeks and Mushrooms

2 leeks, sliced and rinsed of their grit
1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (We used button mushrooms and shitakes)
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 T cream
salt and pepper
1/2 lb linguini or other dry pasta
a few generous dollops of fresh ricotta per serving

Preheat an over to 350 degrees. Put on a pot of water to boil.

Slice the mushrooms and arrange them into a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake the mushrooms until they are shriveled, about 15 minutes. This makes them extra flavorful.

Meanwhile, gently saute the leeks in the butter and oil over medium low heat. After the leeks are soft, add the cream. Add the pasta to the boiling water. Reduce the leek and cream mixture just slightly. Add the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. After the pasta is al dente, add it to the sauce. Toss to coat. Plate the sauced pasta and top with a few generous dollops of ricotta. Not gorgeous, but delicious!

-Emily

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leek and tomato chowder with dover fillets

Remember these georgeous leeks from our CSA box?

We got around to using them this past Sunday in a delicious soup. I wanted something with leeks and tomatoes, Jordan wanted fish. This soup was our delicious compromise. It is also a really quick dish to throw together and only uses one pot, a bonus for a Sunday night.

Leek and Tomato Chower with Dover Fillets

According to Jordan, something becomes a chower when you add potatoes to it. I decided to not verify the accuracy of this statement because I like it’s simplicity. Isn’t he cute?

2-3 large leeks, sliced and rinsed of their grit
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 medium potatoes, diced 1 carrot, diced
1 quart vegetable broth
1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
A bay leaf, chili flake, salt, peper
2 – 3 dover fillets, or other mild, flakey white fish
Lemon, for serving

Sautee the leeks in a little butter and olive oil until they are soft. Add garlic and carrots and sautee for a few more moments.

Add tomatoes, chili flake and a little salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Add broth, bay leaf and potatoes. Cook for another 15 – 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Salt and pepper the fish fillets. Lay them on top of the simmering soup. Let them sit their quietly poaching for about 6 minutes, or until the fish is opaque. Serve with a squeeze of lemon and some fresh bread.

This soup was delicious, fresh and seasonal. I also have to say that I am pretty impressed with Jordan’s ingenuity on the fish-cooking method. It was perfectly moist, the delicate texture was preserved, it looks awesome and was super easy. Can you ask for more?

-Emily

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leek bread pudding

One of our favorite things is a nice loaf of fresh sourdough.  Another one of our favorite things is how versatile the leftover bread is when it gets stale.   Normally we just make toast with it, but I was inspired by Thomas Keller’s leek bread pudding from Ad Hoc at Home.  My sister and her boyfriend Kyle gave Emily and me this book as a gift.  After my sister confessed to reading the entire thing, she turned to page 213 and informed me that I must make this beautiful side dish.  The recipe calls for brioche and serves twelve, so I made a few minor changes.  With about half of an Acme sourdough batard leftover and leeks from our CSA box, I got to work.

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Slice the leeks and clean them in a bowl of cold water; the grit will fall to the bottom and the leeks will float.  When you’re confident that they are grit-free, add them to a dry saute pan over medium-high heat.  Season and stir until they release liquid (it won’t be much), then lower the heat to low, add about two tablespoons of butter, and stir to create an emulsion.  Cover and stir occasionally until the leeks are very soft.  Once they are done, taste and season with salt and pepper.

While the leeks are getting soft and sweet, cut your bread into one inch cubes and place in the oven and brown on both sides.  When the bread is toasted and the leeks are done, mix the two in a bowl and add a tablespoon of chopped chives and a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves.

Now that you’ve got your bread and your leeks, you need some pudding, right?  Kinda.  It’s a custard and while that sounds difficult, it’s actually really easy.  Whisk together one egg, one cup of whole milk, and one cup of cream.  Add a very small pinch of nutmeg and a generous pinch (maybe a half teaspoon) of salt and some fresh pepper.  That’s it.

Next, you need some cheese for extra decadence.  The recipe calls for comté or emmentaler, but any semi-soft, flavorful cheese will work.  I had some cave-aged emmentaler on hand, so I used that.  I shredded it all and got about half a cup.  Butter an appropriately sized baking dish (I used a medium sized, round casserole) and put about a third of the cheese on the bottom.  Then place about half of the bread mixture and top with another third of the cheese.  Then add the last of the bread and pour in the custard until there’s about half an inch of bread poking out of the top; you can push the bread into the custard a little bit if it looks like there’s not enough custard.  Here, the recipe says to let the bread pudding sit to absorb the custard for about 15 minutes, but Emily and I don’t really like a super gooey texture, so I just topped it with the rest of the cheese and threw it in the oven.  Bake until the center has set up and the top is browned, about 45-60 minutes.

Conclusions:

It was very tasty, you don’t have to be very precise with it, you can switch thing out if you need to, and it make a great side dish.  The cookbook says it can be a main course, but that seems like a bit much.  It would be fantastic with any hearty fall or winter meal, but it may overshadow the main course.  As a matter of fact, I can’t remember what we ate this with.  I guess that means it was a winner, right?

-Jordan

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buttermilk reincarnated: vichyssoise

Remember that leftover buttermilk from my butter-making experiment? Well, I just couldn’t let it go to waste and so I spent a little time browsing for buttermilk recipes online. After sifting through dozens of buttermilk fried chicken and buttermilk pancake entries, I found … vichyssoise with cauliflower and buttermilk. First thought: “Yum!”. Second thought: “Thank you Martha!”.

Vichyssoise with Cauliflower and Buttermilk, adapted from Martha Stewart Living
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
5 leeks, white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced and rinsed well (about 3 cups)
1 white potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Freshly ground white pepper (I used black because I didn’t have white, but the white would make it a prettier soup)
Large pinch nutmeg
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets (about 4 cups)
Coarse salt
3 1/2 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
1 cup buttermilk (ta-da!!)

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add potato, a generous grinding of pepper, and the nutmeg, and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in cauliflower, a large pinch of salt, and 3 cups stock. Simmer, partially covered, until cauliflower has softened, 12 to 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove 2 florets, and transfer to a cutting board; thinly slice lengthwise. Set aside for garnish.

Working in batches, puree vegetable mixture in a blender (I used an immersion blender-much easier), filling no more than halfway each time. Return to pan. Stir in buttermilk and remaining 1/2 cup stock.  Season again with salt and pepper. Serve hot or cold, garnished with cauliflower slices.

Hot this is soup referred to as potato and leek soup, cold as vichyssoise … if anyone can explain this to me, I’m all ears.

Conclusions: While not the most photogenic of dishes, this soup is delicious! Quick, easy and really comforting. We ate it for three days and weren’t too upset about that fact.

-Emily