I was first introduced to this dish when our son was at nursery school – he is now 23 and I am still cooking it! It is from the Cranks recipe book.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 30-40 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
125g millet
600ml water
75g butter or margarine
2 medium leeks sliced
1 large carrot grated
4 sticks celery thinly sliced
300ml milk
25g plain flour
3 tbs parsley, chopped
grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
125g cheese grated
Method
Cook the millet in the measured boiling water until just tender and all the water has been absorbed. Melt 50g butter in a saucepan, add the prepared vegetables ansd saute for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, melt the remaining 25g butter in a saucepan and add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the milk, parsley, lemon juice and rind and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes before adding half the grated cheese. Combine the cooked millet, vegetables and cheese sauce, season to taste and transfer the mixture to an ovenproof serving dish. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over and bake in the oven gas mark 5/180°C for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.
This is the one vegetarian recipe that our student son requests when he’s home! It’s adapted from a favourite Sainsbury’s cook book by Rosamond Richardson.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Ingredients
450g leeks, washed and cut into slices
100g rice, washed and cooked
1 tbsp chopped parsley
100g Cheddar cheese, grated
2 eggs, beaten
knob of butter
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
2-3 tbsp parmesan, grated
salt and pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 200 C/gas mark 6. Sweat the leeks in the butter until tender. Mix with the rice, cheddar, chilli powder, parsley and seasoning to taste, followed by the eggs and mix well. Put into a buttered heatproof dish, sprinkle with the parmesan and bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown.
I usually serve it with jacket potatoes, carrots and peas.
A recipe from Lucas Hollweg’s Good Things to Eat. Make sure the leeks are totally soft before you add the mussels, he advises.
Serves 4 as a first course, 2 as a main
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cookings: 15 minutes
Ingredients
4 rashers streaky bacon, sliced into 5mm strips
a couple of good knobs of butter
1 medium leek, white and pale green only, sliced
2 garlic cloves
2 bushy sprigs of thyme
125ml dry white wine or dry cider
1kg mussels, debearded and scrubbed
freshly ground black pepper
a handful of fresh tarragon leaves, chopped
5 tbsp double cream, if you like
Method
In a large saucepan, fry the bacon with a knob of butter for a minute or two, then add the remaining butter and turn the heat down to low. Stir in the leek, garlic and thyme, cover with a lid, and sweat gently for 5-6 minutes, or until softened but not brown.
Add the wine and mussels, season with pepper, then cover and turn up the heat. Give the pan a vigorous shake, then cook for 5 minutes, or until the mussels have opened. Throw away any that don’t.
Now you can
EITHER stir in the tarragon, then serve immediately, ladling the shells and juices into bowl
OR strain out the mussels with a slotted spoon and bubble the juices for a minute or two to thicken slightly, then add the cream and bubble for 1 minute more. Tip the mussels back in, along with the tarragon, and stir until everything is warmed through and coated in the sauce.
Ever since coming to live in Cornwall I’ve encountered few homegrown Cornish fish soup recipes.
This is disappointing, as my Scottish upbringing means I LOVE soup. I make vast quantities of it from the contents of my weekly veg box.
So this week’s local food recipe is a type of chowder named after the small town of Cullen on the Moray Firth in Scotland. My thoughts always stray towards this hearty soup-stew in the cold dark days between New Year and Burns Night on 25 January.
It’s traditionally made with Finnan haddie (unboned cold-smoked haddock from Findon near Aberdeen).
In the absence of Finnan haddie, make sure you buy pale straw-coloured undyed smoked haddock – not that nasty yellow stuff you get in supermarkets. And of course use the leeks, onions and potatoes from this week’s vegetable box.
This version of Cullen skink, from Felicity Cloake’s series How to cook perfect in the Guardian, is as near as you’ll get to the real thing. For the purists among you, leave out the leek.
Skink, by the way, is an old Scots term for soup or broth. It comes from a Scandinavian word meaning “essence” apparently.
Serves 6
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: around 30 minutes
Ingredients
500g undyed smoked haddock, skin on
A bay leaf
Knob of butter
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 leek, washed and cut into chunks
2 medium potatoes, unpeeled, cut into chunks
500ml whole milk
Chives or parsley, chopped, to serve
Method
Put the fish into a pan large enough to hold it comfortably, and cover with about 300ml cold water. Add the bay leaf, and bring gently to the boil. By the time it comes to the boil, the fish should be just cooked – if it’s not, then give it another minute or so. Remove from the pan, and set aside to cool. Take the pan off the heat.
Melt the butter in another pan on a medium-low heat, and add the onion and the leek. Cover and allow to sweat, without colouring, for about 10 minutes until softened. Season with black pepper.
Add the potato and stir to coat with butter. Pour in the haddock cooking liquor and bay leaf, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the potato is tender.
Meanwhile, remove the skin, and any bones from the haddock, and break into flakes.
Lift out a generous slotted spoonful of potatoes and leeks, and set aside. Discard the bay leaf. Add the milk, and half the haddock to the pan, and either mash roughly or blend until smoothish.
Season to taste, and serve with a generous spoonful of the potato, leek and haddock mixture in each bowl, and a sprinkling of parsley or chives.
or ‘Poireaux au vin rouge’ – a recipe from Elizabeth David’s classic French Provincial Cooking. She explains that, ‘Unexpectedly, perhaps, when wine is to be used in the cooking of leeks, the French always use red rather than white wine … It is a dish of particularly beautiful appearance, with the green of the leeks and the dark purple of the wine sauce.’
Preparation and cooking: 20 minutes
Ingredients
500g leeks
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1 wineglass of red wine
2 tbsp meat or vegetable stock (or water)
salt
Method
Choose smallish leeks if possible, all of a size. Having cut them down almost to the white part and cleaned them thoroughly, put them side by side in a frying pan in which you have heated the olive oil. As soon as they have taken colour on one side, turn them over. Season with very little salt. Pour over the wine (look out for the spluttering), let it bubble, add the stock or water, cover the pan and cook at a moderate pace for 7 to 10 minutes, turning the leeks over once during the process. They are done when a skewer pierces the root end quite easily. Put the leeks in a shallow dish, cook the sauce another few seconds until reduced and pour it over the leeks.
A recipe from Skye Gyngell’s How I Cook. It specifies small leeks but works just as well with larger ones although they’ll need to be cut up a bit smaller than she suggests! It can be prepared ahead and reheated just before serving.
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking: around 40 minutes
Ingredients
12 small leeks
50g unsalted butter
bunch of thyme
60g freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Method
First trim off the top of the leeks, leaving only a small amount of green, and trim the root end. Now slice the root lengthways into quarters, cutting almost but not quite through to the base. Rinse well under cold running water,shaking to loosen any dirt.
Lay the leeks in a medium, shallow pan and pour in just enough water to cover.Bring to the boil over a high heat, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the water has reduced by a third. Add the butter and thyme and continue to cook until almost all the water has evaporated, leaving glossy, sweet, soft leeks. Discard the thyme.
Scatter over the parmesan and season generously with pepper, adding a little salt only if needed. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.
A recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new River Cottage Everyday cookbook. ‘Soft, buttery, wilted leeks bring a lovely sweetness to any kind of lightly cooked cabbage or greens,’ he says. ‘Easy to throw together, can be made with different seasonal green throughout most of the year and works as a side dish to everything …’ It’s just got to be worth trying.
Serves 4
Preparation and cooking about 15-20 minutes
Ingredients
about 500g leeks
a knob of unsalted butter
1 savoy or other green cabbage, 2 heads of spring greens, or a few bunches of curly kale
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Trim the leeks, slice them finely (maximum 5mm) and give them a good rinse to get rid of any grit. Heat the butter in a large frying pan or wide saucepan and add the leeks with a pinch of salt. Let them cook gently for 5-6 minutes, stirring or shaking the pan occasionally, until wilted and tender.
Meanwhile, grim and coarsely shred the cabbage, greens or kale. Cook lightly – in either a steamer or a large saucepan of salted water – for 3-4 minutes, until wilted and tender but not too soft. Remove from the heat immediately, drain well and let the excess moisture steam off for a minute or so. Then add to the pan of buttery leeks, along with some more seasoning, and stir over a low heat for about a minutes until thoroughly combined. Serve straight away.
In theory you can use any leftovers for bubble and squeak … but in practice there rarely are any.
This recipe from Nigel Slater’s Tender makes a beautifully creamy risotto. And it’s dead easy too – no celery or onion to chop, just the leeks to slice. A good farewell to one of our winter stalwarts which won’t be around much longer.
Enough for 2
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: about half an hour
Ingredients
2 medium leeks
about 50g butter, plus a walnut-sized lump to finish
300g arborio rice
a glass of Noilly Prat (or white wine)
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
6 thin rashers of pancetta (or streaky bacon)
3 tbsp grated parmesan plus more to finish
Method
Wash the leeks thoroughly, splitting them down their length and rinsing under a cold running tap, then slice them finely. Melt the butter in a wide, high-sided pan over a low heat and add the leeks. Let them soften without colouring, stirring from time to time. [A lid can help prevent burning or a piece of greaseproof paper on top – just don’t let them brown.]
Stir in the rice, then pour in the Noilly Prat or wine. Let the mixture boil until the alcohol has evaporated, then tip in the first ladleful of hot stock. Continue stirring, adding stock as and when the rice has absorbed almost all of the previous ladleful, till the rice is plump, tender and yet has a little bite left in it – a process that will take about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, grill the pancetta or bacon, or cook in a non-stick frying pan, until truly crisp. Cut into pieces the size of a large postage stamp, leaving a couple of rashers whole. Fold the cut pieces into the risotto.
Stir in the walnut-sized lump of butter, adding the 3 tbsp of parmesan as you go. Divide between warm dishes and finish with a piece of pancetta/bacon and more grated parmesan.
This recipe by Allegra McEvedy was in yesterday’s Guardian. She says it’s “good for three days, during which time I would keep it out of the fridge, but covered, for instant passerby snacks”.
Makes eight fat slices in a fluted tart ring with a push-up base (28cm x 3.5cm). Takes an hour.
Ingredients
1kg leeks
100g butter
bunch of fresh thyme stalks, tied with string
6 eggs
300ml double cream
1 tbsp smooth Dijon mustard
180g of smoked cheddar, grated
1 pkt (500g) shortcrust pastry – or make your own
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 170C/340F/gas 3. Roll out the pastry and line your tart case with it; always keep a little ball of pastry aside for emergency repairs after blind baking, rather than lobbing the trimmings. Stick in the freezer for about five minutes to firm up.
Trim the leeks; if they are thick then quarter them lengthways before slicing roughly 1cm thick, thinner ones can just be halved lengthways before slicing. Then wash them thoroughly – there’s nothing worse than biting on grit.
Melt the butter in a wide pan on a medium heat, then add the leeks. Turn the heat up to high, add the thyme, season and put a lid on.
Take the tart case out of the freezer and bake blind for 10-15 minutes. Once it is beginning to brown, mix the yolk of one of the eggs with a tablespoon of cream, brush this all over the base, sides and crown of the tart and put back in the oven for a couple of minutes until shiny and golden (now is the time to plug any holes with that spare ball of pastry).
Stir the leeks regularly for a further 20 minutes (keeping the lid on between stirs) or until they are well softened and all the water has come out of them. Turn the heat down if they are starting to catch.
Crack the eggs into a big mixing bowl, including the lone white, and whisk in the cream and mustard. Stir in the cheddar and then tip in the hot, softened leeks, discarding the bunch of thyme. Season well, ladle the mix carefully into the tart case and cook for about half an hour, until light golden brown on top, and the egg has set. Let it sit for 10 minutes before tucking in.
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook
Serves 6-8
Preparation: 1½ hours (including 1 hour chilling of pastry)
Cooking: 30 minutes
Ingredients
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
285ml single cream
salt and black pepper
4 leeks, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
200g soft goats’ cheese
For the pastry:
120g butter
½ tsp salt
200g plain flour
Method
First make the pastry. Sift the flour with the salt and work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add just enough cold water to bind it together. Roll out and use to line a 23cm flan dish. Put this in the fridge for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Prick the base of the pastry case with a fork and bake blind (cover pastry with greaseproof paper weighed down with baking beans or rice) for 20-25 minutes. Remove the beans/rice and paper and allow to cool. Leave the oven on.
When the pastry has cooled a little, spread Dijon mustard over the base. Beat together the eggs, extra yolks, cream and seasoning. Fry the leeks in the oil gently until they’re soft and put them in the pastry case. Crumble the goats’ cheese over the leeks and pour over the egg mixture. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tart is set.
