Why you should probably not taking cooking lessons from me

[klwilliams]

The CSA box came today, and I got leeks, small red potatoes, chard, asparagus, 2 kiwis, carrots, onions, and a lot of garlic. So I decided to make leek and potato pie. I looked on the internet for recipes, printed out a couple that looked good, and mixed and matched as needed.

I sliced some of the potatoes and the leeks into fine slices, then boiled them (separately) for about ten minutes. In that time, I sliced up one of the onions (the long skinny kind) and 4 leaves of chard (without the stems). I also made a white sauce, since that seemed the best compromise based on what the recipes called for, plus I had the ingredients and knew how to make one. I mixed all of the veggies up in a bowl, then poured them into the pre-made pie crust, poured the white sauce over all of it, added nutmeg, salt, and pepper, put the top of the crust on, and put it in the oven. I'll find out how it is in about 20 minutes.

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Next time try sauteing the potatoes and leeks in olive oil and a bit of butter instead of boiling. Adds extra flavor.

I love sauteed leeks. Mmmm leeks.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Good idea.

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

+1

Careful when sauteeing or frying leeks - they are surprisingly delicate and will scorch easily. Cook them on a relatively low heat. (Did you notice the wonderful aroma when you boiled them? Don't cook too much or you lose that.) Potatoes OTOH develop best flavor when cooked hot enough to brown.

In general, avoid boiling vegetables, unless the idea is to extract the flavor (as when making stock). When you do boil, as with potatoes, it's best to leave them whole and unpeeled so you lose less flavor and nutrition to the cooking water. Remember this in winter, when your CSA box will be filled with bushels of kale, and you look up recipes on the Internet, all of which tell you to boil the stuff for some absurdly long time. Don't.

[edanam.livejournal.com]

sauteed leeks with a white wine sauce is fabuloso.

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Oh, I gotta make me some of that!
Sauteed leek, potatoes, white wine and all!

[tafelspitz.livejournal.com]

Leek Confit is sweet and savoury at the same time. And it makes the house smell good as it slowly cooks. Dinner last night was pizza dough spread with leek confit garnished with sockeye lox and creme fraiche.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Creme fraiche was the ingredient I didn't have for the pie last night.