The venue was Kitchen Stadium. The event: Battle Leek.

Ok, so it wasn’t so much a stadium as a nook, and less a battle then a friendly, collaborative luncheon. But there certainly were plenty of leeks.

My friend Sarah joined me at the market on Sunday. Although Sarah is a woman of many talents, she is my food friend. She is one of the few in my circle of friends that truly understands my love of brussel sprouts and really smelly French cheese. She and I spend hours perusing each other’s cookbooks or talking about the finer points of pudding or crust. We tell each other what we made for dinner the night before, exchanging secrets about risotto the way some women lean in and exchange information about their lovers or their date from the night before.

Our cooking styles are completely different. Sarah finds a recipe she likes and follows it to the letter. She measures out all her ingredients ahead of time, puts her mise en place in small glass bowls, just like they do on the cooking shows. She times things exactly, and her dishes always come out flawless.

On the other hand, I usually get an idea in my head of how I want something to look or taste and then I find a recipe that sort of comes close, and then I just wing it. Sometimes my dishes come out spectacularly, meeting and exceeding my expectations. Sometimes they are spectacular failures. That’s the risk when you’re just throwing things into a pot.

Sarah and I strolled through the crowded market contemplating what to buy for our lunch that afternoon. Sarah was drawn to the mushroom stand — the small green boxes filled with tiny buttons, dark grey trumpets, shitakes, huge portabellos and small white creminis. I was giving the eye to the fat red sweet potatoes. And then we rounded the corner and came across a big pile of leeks. Their green leaves descended into fat white bulbs reminded us of spring and sweetness, and we loaded up. 


In the end, Sarah paired hers with the mushrooms that had called to her earlier, and stuck pretty closely to her chosen recipe. I bought a smoked, salty ham steak from the pork stand to pair with my leeks, and pretty much winged the recipe until it matched what I had in my head. These dishes represent our cooking styles and complement each other, too. Sarah’s soup brings out the onion flavors of the leek, and my quiche makes the leek’s sweetness sing out. They make a fabulous lunch when paired together.

Who won the battle? You be the judge.

Sarah’s Mushroom and Leek Soup Adapted from Epicurious.com

Serves 2. Takes 45 minutes, 20 of which are inactive.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 ½ Tbsp butter
• ½ lb wild mushrooms (we used enoki, which were meaty and stayed crisp, but I think any mushroom would be delicious in this recipe)
• 2 large leeks, white and pale-green parts only, cut into ¼-inch slices
• 4 cups vegetable stock (homemade is best, but canned or boxed will do)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Juice of half a Meyer lemon (a regular lemon would do just fine, too)

Using an electric mixer, or your giant arm muscles if you feel strong, beat the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add half the thyme. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

In a soup pot, heat half the butter until hot but not smoking. Cook the mushrooms over medium-high heat, until lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and set aside.

In the same pot, heat the rest of the butter. Add the leeks, cover, and cook until soft, stirring frequently, about five minutes. Add back the mushrooms, sprinkle with the flour and stir until the flour is evenly distributed and cooked through. Add the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the rest of the thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover with the lid ajar, and simmer for 20 minutes. Take the soup off the heat, and finish with the lemon juice.

To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with a dollop of the thyme cream.

Francoise’s Leek and Ham Quiche

Serve 6 to 8. Takes 2 hours, one of which is inactive.

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 2 c. all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp. thyme
• 10 Tbsp butter (1 ¼ sticks), chilled and cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup ice water
• Dried beans or lentils, for blind baking

For the filling:

• 1 c. ham, cut in small cubes
• 2 large leeks, cut in thin strips
• ½ tsp thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup shredded gruyere, or another sharp cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1 c. whole milk

You can use your favorite short crust or enriched crust (pate brise) dough here, or even store-bought crust. But I think you owe it to the happy pig that gave his life for this quiche to make a crust from scratch. It is not hard and the quality will be infinitely better.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and thyme. Sprinkle the butter over the flour; then, working quickly and with your fingertips, work the flour and butter together. You want to pick up small handfuls of flour and butter and your thumb across your fingers, rubbing the butter into the flour. Do this until there are all different sized pieces of butter mixed into the flour.

Add the ice water, then bring the dough together on the side of the bowl. Flatten into a disc about an inch thick, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 10-inch removable-bottom tart pan. Remove the dough from the freezer and place on a well-floured surface. With a floured rolling pin, roll it out until it is large enough to fit into the pan. Lift it up over the rolling pin, place the dough in the pan and press into the pan. The good news: this is the bottom crust! If the crust rips, cracks or breaks, patch away. No one will ever know.

Pierce the crust with a fork three or four times, line with foil or wax paper, and fill the tart pan with dried beans or lentils. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, remove the beans and the wax paper, and return to the oven for five more minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, and let cool. You have just successfully made a crust from scratch, and ‘blind-baked’ it!

Cool the oven and reset to 325 degrees.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the ham through, rendering some of the fat. When the ham is browned and smells tasty (about five minutes), remove from heat and set aside.

In the same skillet, add the leeks, thyme, salt and pepper. If not much fat came out of the ham, you may need to add a bit of butter or oil to the pan. Cook over medium-low heat until the leeks reduce in size and become sweet and soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and let them cool until you can touch them with your finger (you don’t want to cook the eggs with the residual heat).

Beat the eggs together with the milk. Add the cheese, leeks and a pinch more salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cooked ham evenly over the crust, then pour the egg and leek mixture over the ham. Distribute it evenly, then bake in the oven until the top is lightly browned and then eggs have set completely, about 40 minutes.

Serve warm, or at room temperature.