The Vegetable-Led Plate · Starter
Leeks Vinaigrette
- Easy
- 20 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with a briny, maritime salinity, acid holding everything up to the light, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 8 slim leeks, about 1.2 kg untrimmed
- 2 litres water
- 20 g fine salt
- 20 g Dijon mustard
- 30 ml sherry vinegar
- 90 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 25 g shallot, very finely diced
- 15 g capers, rinsed and chopped
- 10 g flat parsley, chopped
- black pepper
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: mustard
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Trim the roots flat but leave the root plate attached, cut off the coarse dark green, then split each leek lengthways to within 2 cm of the root and fan the layers under cold running water until no grit remains.
- Simmer in the salted water 12 to 16 minutes, until a knife tip enters the thickest white and meets nothing; a leek that squeaks against the teeth is undercooked, not al dente. 16 min
- Lift onto a tray lined with a folded cloth, cut side down, lay another cloth on top and press with a light tray for 10 minutes. 10 min
- Whisk the mustard with the vinegar and a pinch of salt, then beat in the oil in a thin stream until it thickens, and stir through shallot, capers and parsley.
- Arrange the halves still warm, spoon the vinaigrette along the length and leave 20 minutes before serving so they drink it in. 20 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Salted water & the float test 188 recipes
- The water was salted before anything went in, and tasting it confirms it: seasoned on the tongue, with the salt dissolved rather than sitting on the pot floor.
- There is enough water, hot enough, that the pot returns to its boil quickly after the food goes in and never stops moving.
- Where the dish uses the float as its signal, the signal is obeyed: the pieces rise and they come out then, not several minutes later once something else was finished.
- Nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot or welded to itself, and the water has not thickened into a cloudy sludge.
- Drained on a bite rather than on the clock: resistance at the centre, with no chalky raw core.
Where it goes wrong The pot was too small and the water unsalted, so it never recovered its boil: the food sat in slack water, went gummy at the surface, and comes out bland in a way that no sauce afterwards can fix.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre)
- Also Right
- Grüner Veltliner
- From the Taps
- Berliner weisse
- Zero-Proof
- Cucumber-lime water
Green plates want green wines: vinaigrette’s acid meets its match, and the difficult vegetables surrender to Grüner.
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