Tag: leeks

Leek love

Every greengrocer and farm shop seems to be selling leeks at the moment.  I love them – so easy to grow and so much you can do with them. Ever heard of potato and leek soup? I thought so! But how often do you cook leeks in other recipes? Have you tried them in pasta, stuffing, or risotto?  If I had my way, we’d all be eating leeks more often. They’re incredibly versatile, adding unique, sweet, and mild onion flavour to a huge range of dishes. This vegetable  seems humble, but there’s so much that it can do.

Sometimes, I make up a recipe that is so ridiculously non-challenging and moreish, that I just have to pass it on and this is one of them.

Ailsa’s Cheese and Leek Pate

  • 1 leek
  • Large knob of butter
  • 2 – 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 200g packet of cream cheese
  • Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Cut the leek up into thin slices – I cut down the middle and then slice.  Melt a little butter in a pan with some salt and coarse pepper.  Saute the leek and garlic very slowly until soft (keep an eye on it and move around the pan as you don’t want it to burn).  Put the cream cheese in a bowl, tip over the hot leek and blend with a stick blender until pate-like. Put into a small bowl and seal with some melted butter (if you want to be super-posh in your serving, line a small tin with cling film and spoon it in – when set in the fridge you then tip it out and slice like a cake on a plate with salad and bread).  Personally, I just eat it almost immediately with crusty bread/toast/or favourite crispbread!

Leek and Potato Soup (couldn’t really miss this out!) with cheesy mustard croutons

  • 10 grams butter
  • 2 leeks
  • 1 teaspoon dried tarragon (optional)
  • 1 large potato
  • 500 ml stock with boiling water and a stock cube
  • 30 grams watercress (optional)

Melt butter in a large pan and add chopped leeks and tarragon. Add the chopped potato and stock.  Bring to boil and cook until potato is soft.  Add the watercress if using, simmer for 3 minutes and blend till smooth. Preheat grill to high and toast 2 slices of bread/baguette until crisp.  Spread each slice with some Dijon mustard and top with some grated cheese (any kind you like). Put the soup into a bowl and top with a cheesy crouton and serve.

Leek risotto with poached egg

  • 60 grams frozen broad beans or peas, cooked
  • some butter and oil
  • 2 leeks
  • 20g / 4 oz Arborio/ risotto rice
  •  glass Dry white wine (don’t worry if no wine, just make up with extra stock)
  •  1 pint hot chicken or vegetable stock
  •  2 Teaspoons butter
  •  2 Teaspoons olive oil
  • A little cream or crème fraiche
  •  60g/2oz grated parmesan cheese
  • juice and zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons parsley chopped

Melt a knob of butter with a little oil and add the thinly sliced leek and cook till soft over a low heat. Increase the heat and add the rice turning it in to the buttery leeky mix.  SLOWLY add the stock (a tablespoon at a time to begin with), stirring all the time in between additions until the rice is soft. Add the beans and/or peas. Remove from the heat and add the lemon, parsley and cheese. Pile into a bowl and top with a poached egg – delicious!

ps this will make more than one portion but it’s a difficult one to scale down. However, it will freeze very well for another day when you may need some comfort food.

Some hae meat and canna eat,And some wad eat that want it,But we hae meat and we can eat,And sae the Lord be thankit.

There are two things which always take me back to my roots and like to celebrate – Hogmanay and Burns Night.  The former has no particular culinary history (a lot of alcohol and emotional singing of Auld Land Syne). The latter, of course, has the Burns Supper. Haggis, neeps and tatties are a given and can really only be served one way – but you may not know the following 2 recipes.

Cullen Skink – a hearty soup made from leeks, onions, potatoes and smoked haddock

  • 50 grams butter
  • 1 small onion and 1 small leek, finely chopped
  • 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
  • 150 ml water
  • 200g (ish) smoked haddock
  • 200 ml milk

Melt butter and leek in a saucepan and cook for about 5 minutes without browning. Add potatoes and cook till soft. In another pan cover the haddock with the milk and cook gently till tender (you can also do this in the microwave). Remove from milk when cool and flake gently into large pieces, removing bones. Drain the potatoes (keeping the water), take out some of them with some leeks and onions and mash the rest. Return the vegetables to the pan with the liquid and add the milk and haddock.  You may need more liquid – you can add some more milk, white wine and/or cream or creme fraiche – whichever takes your fancy. You can also add some chopped parsley and/or chives for a bit of colour. Serve with lots of crusty bread to mop up.

Cranachan – a delicious mix of raspberries, cream, whisky, honey and toasted oats.  What’s not to like?

  • 100 grams porridge oats
  • medium pot of double cream
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons honey to taste
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons whisky (I personally hate whisky but somehow can take it here!)
  • raspberries – fresh or frozen

Heat a heavy based frying pan up and toast the oats until nutty and pale brown (I sometimes add a little demerara sugar so they caramelize but you do have to keep moving them around!). Put to one side to cool. Whip the cream till soft peaks and fold in the honey and whisky. Layer up the cream, raspberries and oats and eat immediately whilst the oats are still crunchy.

ps One of the greatest myths about the Selkirk Grace (heading above) is that it was written by Robert Burns. He was said to have delivered the grace at a dinner party, held by the Earl of Selkirk in 1794. However, at that time, the Selkirk Grace was already 80-100 years old, and was originally called the Galloway Grace or the Covenanters’ Grace. Burns, a well known individual of the time, brought some popularity to the grace, which is why people began to call it the Selkirk Grace, as his speech in Selkirk became well known. Rabbie was known to recite it at many dinners, and so people often mistakenly thought that he wrote it.

Auld Lang Syne (which was written by him) is sung at the end of Burn’s night. A song about forgiveness, friendship, and new beginnings.