Grow your own
Charred leeks with romesco-style sauce recipe
There’s something very satisfying about growing something from scratch, and even more so when you can eat or use what you’ve grown to cook with. Whether that’s digging up potatoes with a rake, rifling through the soil for shallots (I remember doing this with my Grandad) or shelling freshly picked pea pods and nibbling down the firm green peas inside. But if like me you are a bit short of garden space – I live in a second floor flat – then short of getting a nearby allotment, it can be a little tough to grow your own grub. That said, I’ve been investigating what I can turn my green fingers (I hope I’ve inherited these from my Grandad) to on my one metre-square balcony, and kitchen windowsill.
Herbs are the obvious choice when it comes to kitchen gardens, but thanks to a little book called The Windowsill Gardener (a little housewarming gift from my Mum and Dad), I’ve realised there are so many edible things you can grow when you have little space: leafy greens such as baby spinach, beansprouts, cress, chillies, potatoes, fennel, garlic and more.
The thing that really caught my attention – perhaps unsurprisingly – is the way you can regrow certain vegetables from themselves. By that, I mean, you can replant the root of a used leek or celery and it will regrow a new leek or celery. Simply keep about 2cm of the bulbous root bit – that most of us throw away anyway – and place it in a saucer of water on a sunny windowsill and it will start to grow roots – and somewhat miraculously – it will sprout new leek leaves from the middle in a matter of days. When the roots have established themselves, you can replant in a deep pot with soil until it’s ready to use again.
In my never-ending quest to reduce food waste and use up any leftovers, to know that I don’t always have to pop the end of a leek in the kitchen waste bin fills me with a little bit of joy. Incidentally, did you know that you can use the very green bit of the leek at the other end? A lot of people throw this away too, but it’s no different to the whiter part really, it just needs a little more attention. It’s ideal for putting into stocks (use it to secure a bouquet garni) and soups, as the longer, slower cooking time softens up the slightly more coarse leaves. You can use them wrap around food to protect it when cooking, such as fish in the oven. Or you can use them as a substitute for fried onions to top hot dogs or on top of soups to bring a slightly more subtle oniony flavour.
The Recipe
Charred leeks with romesco-style sauce
Talking of leeks, today’s recipe really puts them centre stage, and with barbecue weather upon us, this is prime for your table. Every year I try to go to a calçotada – a Catalan feast that showcases calçots when they are in season – at Brindisa restaurants in London. Calçots are from the onion family and are a bit bigger than a spring onion or scallion but smaller than a leek.
Typically, they are charred over wood fire grills until the outer layers are completely blackened, then they are wrapped in newspaper for about 10-20 minutes to steam. When ready, you peel off the outside layer, dip the end in romesco sauce and dangle it into your mouth. It’s not an elegant affair and certainly not a clean one, but then this is about eating products out of the ground, cooked simply and then eaten joyously, so why would you want it to be anything other than sensory and rustic?
Often you’ll drink wine from a porrón – it’s trickier than you might think as my terrible demonstration here will attest to.
Anyway, I thought that if you can do it with Catalan calçots, why not Welsh leeks? Typical romesco is made using ñora peppers (the ones used to make pimentón) and while you can get them in some supermarkets, it can be a little tricky, so this recipe uses more readily available bits and pieces without (I hope) losing any of the flavour. It’s also another way – yes another – to use up some stale bread.
Ingredients (serves 4)
8 cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 slice stale bread – about 40g
100g blanched almonds
2 roasted red peppers from a jar – about 120g
Hefty pinch of salt
1 ½ tsp smoked pimentón (paprika)
2 tsp sherry vinegar (or red or white wine vinegar)
100ml olive oil plus extra for cooking
4 small young leeks
Method
Firstly, make the romesco by heating a little oil in a large frying over a medium heat. Add the cherry tomatoes and unpeeled garlic cloves and fry for about 5 minutes until the tomato skins have blistered. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool.
Tear the bread into small crouton-sized pieces and add to the pan along with the almonds. Keep moving them around so that they toast but don’t burn – about 5 minutes.
Carefully squeeze the garlic out of its skin – if should be soft – and add it to a blender or food processor along with the tomatoes, bread, almonds, peppers, salt, smoked pimentón, olive oil and sherry vinegar. Blitz until you are left with a vibrant quite coarse dip. You an use a pestle and mortar or a sturdy bowl and the end of a rolling pin if you don’t have a blender. I like the romesco thick but you can add more olive oil if you want it runnier. Set to one side while you prepare the leeks.
Carefully trim the top green part of the leeks and save for using another time – such as for your barbecue hot dogs. Leave the root end on (so the leeks don’t come apart as they cook) and give them a good rinse.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil – big enough to hold the leeks. I use a wide frying pan. When the water is boiling, add the leeks and cook for about 6-8 minutes until tender. Remove from the pan and dry using kitchen paper.
Heat a griddle pan with a little olive oil and when hot, char the leeks. You could do this under a hot grill or on the barbecue.
To serve, slice the leeks open lengthways and scoop out the silky smooth middle and dip in the romesco. Alternatively cut into small lengths and dip them or slather in the romesco. I discard the tougher outer layer but you can eat it if you want to.
You could also cook the leeks completely on the barbecue – they’ll need a good 15 minutes or so to make sure they are tender on the inside. This recipe makes more romesco than you need but it will keep in the fridge for about a fortnight and it’s lovely with crudités (fresh crunchy sliced red pepper is a fave) or with grilled meats or simply spread across some crusty bread.
If you try the recipe out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen.
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
First up this week is Lucie Jones from Pentyrch in South Wales. Some of you might remember her from series six of the X Factor, where she wowed the judges in her audition with a beautiful rendition of I will Always Love You, or from her leading West End roles. This song is from when she represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017 where she came a respectable 15 out of 26. The second song this week is a cheery little folk number from Gwenan Gibbard from the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales.
Never Give Up On You by Lucie Jones
Gwcw Fach by Gwenan Gibbard
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl.
Jones O Gymru crisps
Who doesn’t love a bag of crisps? To my mind, they are even better when care has been taken in their preparation, and Jones O Gymru crisps are just that. They are made with 100% Welsh-grown potatoes, hand cooked and dusted with Halen Môn Sea Salt. The company claims to be the smallest crisps company in the World. The crisps themselves have a great crunch and come in a range of flavours from salt and vinegar to sweet chilli.