Ticka, ticka, tick, tick, tick…
…sometimes I get these food ideas that just won’t go away. At least half the time they’re bad ideas and I know they’re bad, but I just can’t live with myself until I see them through. Ideas like trying out dirty-looking restaurants, having blue cheese for breakfast, or making a dish that involves hard-boiled eggs even though I loathe hard-boiled eggs. Matt calls it “pulling a Sarah”.
Well, guess what. Once in a while, “pulling a Sarah” pays off. Pays off big.
Remember last week when I made a squash and leek galette? I took a bunch of pictures of leeks that I thought were really pretty. And then I could not, not, not stop thinking about leeks vinaigrette. Leeks vinaigrette are a French classic; braised or boiled leeks dressed up with a mustardy vinaigrette and chopped egg. I’ve seen leeks prepared like this in a hundred magazines, cookbooks, and blogs made by everyone from Julia Child to Molly Wizenberg, but I’d never made them myself.
Why hadn’t I? Well, who makes leeks? Just leeks. Not me. For me, leeks normally play a supporting role, not the lead. And more importantly: hard-boiled eggs. They remain one of the few foods I really cannot bring myself to like. But I just couldn’t get the image of braised leeks out of my head and rules have exceptions. Occasionally, exceptional exceptions.
Leeks vinaigrette are one such exceptional exception. Even though I’d never had them before, they transported me. I served them as a first course before roast chicken and potatoes and I may as well have been dining in a Parisian bistro rather than my kitchen table in Minneapolis.
