Recipe: Leeks with Mustard Butter
An Ode to Vegetables is not just a cookbook. Alice Zaslavsky shows how to get even more out of vegetables by varying your cooking techniques. Besides steaming and blanching, you can also confit, sear, roast, deep-fry, braise or caramelise many vegetables. From radishes out of the oven to these leeks with mustard butter: eating vegetables every day becomes three times as delicious with this cookbook!
Alice: “Although it is true that leeks are a milder, more floral alternative to onions as a base for savoury dishes, leeks can also stand on their own as a side dish and even as a main course. Leeks are like the girl with glasses and a ponytail who takes both off to reveal her true beauty. Only leeks rarely shake off their gritty side without a little struggle, so make sure you soak the leeks one extra time, friend.”
How to make the leeks with mustard butter
- Cut the leeks into 5-cm pieces, taking as much of the light-green part as possible. Pierce the outer leaf with a fork and soak the leeks in a large bowl of water for at least 10 minutes. Shake each leaf of the leek as if you were shuffling a deck of cards while rinsing the leeks under the tap.
- Meanwhile, fill a pan three-quarters full with well-salted water and bring it to the boil over medium heat. Put the dark leek pieces in the pan so they can add their flavour to the boiling water (or put them in the stock bag and freeze them). Cook the light-coloured leek pieces for 10 to 12 minutes, until tender. Plunge the leeks into cold water for 5 minutes to keep their colour fresh.
- Melt the butter in a pan while the leeks cool and stir in the wholegrain mustard, garlic, capers and brown bas- terd sugar. Taste to see whether the mustard butter is seasoned properly. Add a pinch of salt if the capers are not salted.
- Toss the leeks in the mustard butter for 3 to 4 minutes to make them even softer and allow them to soak up the sauce, making sure all the pieces are well coated. Taste to see whether the leeks are seasoned properly and serve.
Title: An Ode to Vegetables
Author: Alice Zaslavsky
Price: €40
Publisher: Good Cook
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