What, besides dirt that's impossible to remove, is there to not love about leeks? They're like onions without the bite, plus some spinach.
I've played around with leeks a lot and found that they're as versatile as they are funny to anthropomorphize. Though most chefs would say "discard" if you asked them to free associate a word with leek greens, I'm a big fan. You can blanch them and crisp them in hot oil as a garnish, you can chop them up and add them to a soup, or you can do my absolute favorite thing to do with either part of a leek. If you've read the title to this post, you know what that is.
A warm mound of leeks and eggs is the most comforting breakfast imaginable. Disagree? What, do you think French toast is? You're wrong: it's leeks and eggs.
Leeks and eggs are like peas in a pod, only better, because they're two things and because they're better than peas. They go together perfectly, and I could waste your time by describing exactly how and why, but instead you should just go make some.
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Recipe: Scrambled Eggs and Leeks for Two (People)
Leeks (about half of a normal sized leek or five inches' worth or 3/4 cup chopped)
4 eggs
a pinch of salt
a pinch pepper
a pinch of your cheek, to know that you're not dreaming
1. Slice the desired amount of leek once down the middle and then chop into half circles, about the thickness of a Necco wafer.
2. In a deep bowl, pour cold water over the chopped leeks and thrash them around to remove the dirt. Once the dirt has settled, skim them from the surface and rinse again.
3. Warm a glug of olive oil or a pad of butter in a pan, enough to cook both the leeks and then the eggs. Add the leeks. Cook until tender but not crispy.
3. Add the whisked eggs, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring, to achieve a custardy, small curd scrambled egg. Serve with toast.
4. What else do you need to know?
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2 comments:
If the usual running water between the layers trick isn't working for you, you can get the dirt out of leeks by treating them like spinach.
Halve them lengthwise and cut them in half-moon pieces, and then soak the pieces in cold water in the bowl of your salad spinner like you would spinach leaves. Fish them out and put them into the spinner basket, dump out the sandy water and spin them dry, if they have to be dry. The sand should stay behind in the bowl.
I just decided on whim to add some stirfried leeks on top of boiled egg on toast. It was lovely, so thought I'd google to see if this was a common combination. Lovely to find your enthusiastic words!
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