Monday, September 8, 2008

New Series: Food Mag Recipe of the Week

Several tedious errands involving lots of waiting rooms meant I got to peruse my October issue of Bon Appetit within a few days of receiving it, rather than several months later as just one magazine in a pile of overdue reading. Which got me to thinking…I get waaay too many food magazines. The answer: no, not cancel subscriptions (as if!), but rather, commit to making at least one standout food mag recipe a week – and of course, share it with you. (By the way, The Bitten Word is a wonderful blog devoted entirely to this noble pursuit).


So, for my inaugural edition, here’s one for “leek confit” that I plan on making tonight, and most likely over and over again, courtesy of the lovely Ms. Molly Wizenberg (found in the October edition of her regular BA column).

Leek Confit

Makes 2 cups
Serve warm with fillets of salmon, in scrambled eggs or pasta, or on crostini with goat cheese.

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
4 large leeks, (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick slices (about 5 cups)
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt

*Pssst – for a video how-to on cleaning leeks, which are notoriously dirty creatures, click here*

Melt butter in large pot over medium-low heat. Add leeks; stir to coat. Stir in water and salt. Cover pot; reduce heat to low. Cook until leeks are tender, stirring often, about 25 minutes. Uncover and cook to evaporate excess water, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve warm.


Do Ahead: Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep chilled. Rewarm before using.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds really good! How did it turn out?

Lisa said...

Hi Tiffany! Thanks for writing. It WAS really good - I had it on goat cheese-topped bread, which was oh so good (see updated pic).

Just a note - I ended up cooking it a lot longer than the recipe calls for, because when I uncovered the pot the leeks were still pretty soupy and not tender enough. Letting it simmer at medium-low heat for another 20 minutes seemed to do the trick, though.