Nici Wickes: Uses for the whole leek

With the price of food we can’t afford to waste even a bit! Leeks are fat right now and if you’re someone who discards a lot of the green part, listen up. Here’s some fab ways to use them.     

   

Crispy Leek Topping   

1. Thinly slice the green leek tops. Rinse in a bowl of cold water to get any dirt out. Transfer to a towel and pat dry.    
2. Heat a pan to medium, then add in 1 tbsp each of butter and oil. Shallow fry until slightly browned and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. You could add some thyme or tarragon towards the end of cooking. Transfer to a plate and season with salt and pepper.   
3. Use as topper for fish, risotto, salads or cool completely and stir into softened butter to butter crusty bread with.    

   

Softened Leek Compote    

1. Chop green part of leek into 1-2 cm lengths.    
2. Melt 3 tbsp butter plus 1 tbsp of oil in pan. Add the leeks, cover and cook on medium for 20 minutes.  
3. Add in a crushed garlic clove, zest from half a lemon, a splash of white wine and ½ tsp sea salt and pepper. Continue cooking for 15-20 more minutes or until the leeks are meltingly soft. Season to taste.    
4. Stir through pasta along with a handful of grated parmesan, serve on toast (maybe add a dollop of sour cream), smear over a pizza base and top with bacon and cheese for a ‘blanc pizza’, or loosen with some hot stock and treat as you would a soup.    

   

Other uses:    

• Add them to a cheesy quiche / tart.   
• Omelettes love leeks.   
• Saute with mushrooms. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A'd be cook.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Nicky Wicks is here. Good morning, Good morning Jack.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
How are you.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
I'm very very well, thank you. You are dealing with
one of my favorite vegetables this morning, which is a
big care. Do you know what. Here's the thing. I
grew up and I was lucky to grow up in
a household where both of my parents are excellent cooks, right,
and yet if there was one criticism that I would
make of their cooking, at least in the early years
of my life, it's that they had a tendency to

(00:38):
sort of boil vegetables and overcook them to the point
that they get so stringy that one couldn't really digest them.
You know, you end up sort of chewing like you'd
end up chewing it the sort of this protin this
matter for you know what I mean, for like fifteen
minutes of feeling like actually your saliva wasn't breaking it
down at all, and anyway top of the this for

(00:59):
that was leaks. Then then when I started cooking for myself,
I realized that, oh my goodness, if you just dicese
up throwing a good nuttles worth of butter into a pan.
There are few things that are more delicious.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I couldn't agree more because even though you do, you
either want to cook them fast and crispy, which I'm
going to give us the resci before, or slow, which
I was going to give us the RESI before. You're
actually like, they need lots of fat around them, I
think so that they kind of melt, Whereas I think
in our parents' day there was much more of a
tendency to shy away from some of those expensive events.
So we were steaming things, or as you say, a

(01:36):
boiled leak is nobody's friends, let me tell you you know. So, yeah,
I love it. But a lot of people waste quite
a lot of the leak, so they'll they'll use the white,
but we all know we use the white. But they'll
use some of them when it starts to get a
little bit light green, and then the rest of that
extra dark green goes of the compost. And I used
to do the same until a hippy friend of mine

(01:57):
was sort of looked at me with horror and said,
don't you use all of that? I said, yes, to
be discarded, Well absolutely not, No, you don't. So I've
got two lovely little ideas. One's a crispy leak topping.
So with that dark red I mean, I'm going to
say that you'll be forgiven to say, throwing away the
last two centimeters, okay, but thinly slice up all of

(02:17):
the tops of your green leaks. And so this time
you're setting aside the good part, if you like, or
what we thought of the good butt. Rinse them in
a bowl of really cold water, and once they're chopped up,
once they're sliced, because that keeps some of that dirt
and sandiness out of them, put them on a paper
towel or in my case of teatowel, and just pat
them dry. Then heat a pant to medium, and I
think here goes that the kicker is one big tablespoon

(02:39):
of butter, and the same with oil. Shallow fry them
jack until they're brown, just starting to brown, and they'll
go crispy. Now the you could add some tarrigan, You
could add some thyme here, and then season them really
well with salt and pepper. Set them aside. This is
a great top off of fish risotto salads, or you
could call it completely and then stir it into some

(03:02):
softened butter, and you've got what chefs like to call
a compound butter. I eat something that's been flavored and
then you just smear it all over some crusty bread,
maybe a good thick piece of toast, and you are
in heaven.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
I can tell you, Oh, that does sound amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
The other way that I like to do them is
a softened leak compost. That's just a fancy name for
saying some slow coops. So again I chop that green
part up, but this time I'll probably do it in
about one to two centimeters lents melt more butfer. This
time we're using street tablespoons of butter, plus a run
of olive oil and a pan, and then add yourleks
and cook them over a medium sort of heat, and

(03:40):
I put them, put the lid on and keep and
cover them for about twenty minutes. They take a while.
Add in a crushed garlic clove, add in some zest
of a lemon, add in a splash of white wine,
put a salt and pepper, maybe even some cream or
some cream fresh, and then cook them for another fifteen
to twenty minutes. But you're not doing you're doing other
things in that time. Yeah, probably go the kids play

(04:00):
sport at that time. And then the leaks are soft
and melting and a beautiful and I like to ste
this lot through pasta good bit of parmesan. Again, you
could serve it on toast with a good dollar of
sour cream and smear it over pizza based, top it
with some bacon and cheese for a blank white pizza,
loosen it up with some hot stock, and treat it
just as you would a soup. So there's some really

(04:22):
great ideas, you know, put them in a put them
in an omelet salt, hating with mushrooms, put them in
a cheesy keiche, that kind of thing. But we do
not have to be wasting I would say at least
fifty percent of our leaks. So there, you guys.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
You could even do that. You could use the crispy
topping like on a keisha or something. Oh like, you
could combine that. You can have the white part, you know,
in a slow condition and then have a little crispy
something on top of a leak.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Risotto krispy leaks on top. Yeah, honestly, it's fantastic, and
so I you know, if you've been wasting all of
those leaks. This is that. That's the end of it. Honestly,
it's fantastic. I'm like you, I love a leak. I
think they're a very underrated vegetable superb.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Thank you so much, Nicky. Well, we'll put those two
separate recipes up on the News Talks You'd be website.
No excuse for throwing away all that green goodness.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Fantastic.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio