The market · Alliums · Northern and Central Europe

Leeks

The gentlest allium: long, layered, sweet once it's softened slowly in butter.

sweet · gentle
Leeksat its peak

What to do with it

Classics built on it
HunanHunan smoked porkPork belly salted, then smoked for weeks over a wood fire until dark and firm, sliced thin and stir-fried with garlic shoots or leeks and chilli.No one here has made it yetSichuanTwice-cooked porkPork belly simmered whole, sliced thin, then stir-fried until the edges curl, with chilli bean paste and green garlic or leeks.No one here has made it yetSri LankanKottu rotiFlatbread chopped on a hot griddle with two metal blades, tossed with vegetables, egg, meat and curry gravy.No one here has made it yetProvençalBouillabaisseMarseille's fish stew: bony rockfish boiled hard with olive oil, tomato, fennel and saffron, served with rouille and bread.No one here has made it yetAlsatianBaeckeoffePork, lamb and beef marinated overnight in white wine, layered with potatoes and onions in an earthenware dish sealed with dough, and baked for hours.No one here has made it yetNormanTripes à la mode de CaenBeef tripe and ox foot cooked for many hours in cider and Calvados with onions, carrots and leeks, in a sealed earthenware pot.No one here has made it yetNormanMarmite dieppoiseChannel fish and shellfish — sole, scallops, mussels, prawns — cooked in a broth of leeks and white wine or cider, finished with cream.No one here has made it yetGascon and the South-WestGarbureA thick farmhouse soup of cabbage, beans and root vegetables, cooked with ham and confit until a spoon nearly stands in it.No one here has made it yetNordic and Baltic ryeBergensk fiskesuppeA pale, creamy fish soup of white fish and root vegetables, finished with a little vinegar and sugar, often with fish balls in it.No one here has made it yetNordic and Baltic ryeLohikeittoA creamy Finnish soup of salmon, potatoes and leek in a light stock, with plenty of dill and whole allspice.No one here has made it yet

Goes with

butterpotatocreamcheese

Knowing it

Where to buy
Anywhere. Smaller leeks are sweeter; wash out the grit between the layers.

More alliums, in season with it