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Leeks on Toast
Trim leek down rather short, wash, boil in salted wated till just tender. Drain, lay on slices buttered toast, sprinkle with salt, pepper and chopped parsley, add dash lemon juice and dot of butter.
A plain vegetable supper dish that depends almost entirely on how the leeks are cleaned and how far they are cooked.
- Wash properlyGrit hides in the layers where the white meets the green. Split the trimmed leeks lengthwise and fan them under running water, or soak halved leeks in a bowl of water and lift them out rather than pouring off.
- "Trim rather short"Cut away the root plate and the tough dark green tops, leaving the white and pale green: roughly 6 inches of usable stalk from a medium leek. Trimming to a uniform length matters because uneven pieces cook unevenly.
- Just tender is the hingeWhole leeks in simmering salted water take 8 to 12 minutes depending on thickness; test with a knife tip at the thickest part. Past that point they collapse into strings and shed water onto the toast.
- Drain hardBoiled leeks hold a surprising amount of water. Stand them on a folded towel for a few minutes, or the toast will be sodden before it reaches the table.
- The toastUse a firm close-crumbed bread, cut thick, toasted dry and then buttered while hot. Thin sandwich bread will not carry the weight.
- Quantities and yieldThe original gives none. Figure two medium leeks and one slice of toast per person as a light main course; the lemon juice is a dash, meaning a squeeze from a wedge, not a spoonful.
- Worth addingA little grated hard cheese under the broiler for a minute, or a spoonful of the cooking liquid reduced with butter, turns this from a side into a supper without changing its character.
Vegetables served on buttered toast were a standing device in English and American household cookery: the toast absorbed the liquid, stretched a small quantity of vegetable, and made a hot dish that needed no sauce and no meat. Leeks were an inexpensive vegetable that stored well through the winter, and are long associated with Welsh cooking, where the leek has served as a national emblem since at least the sixteenth century.