I have always loved the French approach to family food. Well balanced, fresh ingredients, often bought at a morning market, and prepared simply using recipes that have been favourites for generations.
Poireaux vinaigrette is a perfect example of this. Leeks with a vinaigrette sauce. One of the most traditional starters for a French family meal.
I remember the very first time I was served this at a family meal when I was a teenager in France as an exchange student. I had never seen leeks served whole before and I had no idea how to eat them.
The mother of the family kindly helped me out, serving me several whole leeks across the width of my plate, and ladling a little mustard vinaigrette over the centre.
Today this is still one of my preferred starters to a meal, or even as a light snack, maybe with cured ham or some grilled salmon. The poached leek has a delicious sweet flavour that goes perfectly with a balsamic or mustard vinaigrette.
It could not be easier to prepare. Simple remove the outer leaf or two from the leak and cut the top off, leaving only an inch or two of green leaf. Remove also the white roots from the base of the leek without cutting too far into the leek so it doesn’t fall apart during cooking.
If the leeks are very big, they can be cut into half lengthwise, otherwise leave them whole.
Wash and place into a steamer, steam over boiling water until they are completely soft. If you don’t want to steam they can be dropped into boiling water, just be careful they don’t come apart.
Serve warm or cold , accompanied with a vinaigrette of your choice, either mustard or balsamic vinegar with olive oil, and sprinkle lightly with rock salt.
This is chic enough to serve at a dinner, and simple enough for a family meal, in fact it is probably perfect for most occasions!
25 comments
This looks quite interesting Sharon. I’ve never had leeks, looks like a very healthy hors d’oeuvre with a vinaigrette sauce. Thank you for the recipe.
I can almost smell them…..it sounds wonderful!!
This is a dish I haven’t had in a long time. Your leeks look young and tender, perfect for your appetizer.
Leeks. Lovely post. I will make this recipe. Your words and photos immediately tripped some wonderful memories and I referenced this post and your blog on my blog today.
Thank you.
I love leeks and it takes me back to 60s university days when I was the first roommate home so would cook Friday dinner for my three male roommates. (I hasten to add that they cooked on other nights – well it was Women’s Lib in those days!) Our favorite was leeks wrapped in ham with a cheese sauce, and sometimes parsley potatoes on the side. it was so delicious and set the weekend off to a great start figuring out what we would do with our two days off from classes.
Now I am older and more sophisticated (ha), I must try leeks cold with a mustard based vinaigrette as that sounds equally delicious.
Lovely and simple. Sounds delicious.
This sounds very delicious! Merci beaucoup for the recipe!
Yum yum! how good it is!
In France, we are also egg mimosa, is a hard-boiled egg mashed with a fork that we are rain leeks;
it’s delicious too!
Thank you … and good appetite to you and your friends
Mariecapucine
An egg mimosa sounds wonderful, but I don’t understand the post…please give the recipe!
My good guess is that “Mariecapucine” is referring to the practice of dicing a boiled egg very finely (if you have an egg slicer, simply slice the egg lengthwise before turning it and slicing it in the other direction) and then scattering the tiny bits of white&yolk across the top of the leeks. Don’t fold them iunto the leeks, or the yolks will dissolve into mush. The “Mimosa” term refers to the color of mimosa flowers….not the American cocktail.
Email me privately (dterrydraw@aol.com), and I’ll send you the recipe for my favorite leek recipe……Dori Greenspan’s mustard/leek tart. The filling is basically a mustard based, light custard, topped with thinly sliced, previously steamed batons of carrots and leeks which radiate like spokes from the center (so, it’s delicious AND lovely to look at). It’s a variation on the traditional (and also very good) Dijon-mustrad and fresh-tomato tart, and it works perfectly once the season for tomatoes is gone by. It’s an EASY and elegant lunch, served with a lightly-dressed salad (no need for bread, since it’s in a tart-shell).
I love leeks (never had or saw them until I was twenty-something), but here in America they’re not only prohibitively expensive (a fact which chronically mystifies my French partner and in-laws) but, also, usually of poor quality. I’ve tried growing my own, but it just doesn’t work where I live.
Thanks, Sharon, for the good post.
—-david Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
David, I am so surprised that leeks would be considered an expensive vegetable. Here they are a staple of any self-respecting vegetable garden and always among the best priced vegetables at the market
thank you for helping my readers with their recipe requests! 🙂
Sharon
xx
What David Terry said about leeks. The ones available here, especially in stores, tend to resemble baseball bats and taste about the same.
I’ve only used them for leek and potato soup. Assuming I can find some thinner and tastier, I’m going to try your excellent recipe.
Okay, folks….
Turns out that Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for “Gerard’s leek and carrot/mustard tart” is, as is everything else in this world, on the internet.
for the “back story”, go to:
https://doriegreenspan.com/2010/10/french-fridays-with-dorie-gerards-mustard-tart-the-back-story.html
For the actual recipe, go to:
https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/the-bakers-apprentice-mustard-tart/
I would advise you to AVOID AND IGNORE most of needless nattering and tiresomely neurotic chattering of the food “blogger” who wrote the second article….just go to the part about the “filling”. Quite frankly, I’ve always used a pre-made pie/tart shell (I’m usually in a hurry), and no one’s yet died of culinary or aesthetic shock. It’s wonderful dish, and one of those I always make ahead-of-time when I know I’m going to be having houseguests for several days and have to give them SOMETHING nice for one of their several lunches. It also serves nicely as a light dinner.
There are, all done and said, folks who can manage to take a recipe for something that OUGHT to be fun and simple….and somehow make it seem as though you were trying to negotiate a NATO armaments treaty. So….skip most of the second article….go for the guts of the danged pie.
The actual recipe is in Dorie’s award-winning “Around My French Table”, which (as far as I’m concerned) is a recent “must-have” cookbook.
David Terry
dterrydraw@aol.com
http://www.davidterryart.com
I had never ate them till a couple years ago and I like them, I should go to the organic grocery store on the way home and get a bunch
Oh, Janice….the organic grocery store seems to be the only source for good leeks where I live (hence, the high price). I’ve always assumed that, unlike onions, leeks just don’t lend themselves to largescale commercial growing and shipping/storage.
So, in this household, we view leeks as real treats…..rather like buying lambchops or seafood (we live far inland).
—–david terry
Sharon, can you believe that I have never had simple leeks in vinaigrette? I always wonder why so many people bought so many leeks at the market too – I thought “my, they can’t all be making tarts or gratins”! hehehe After 12 years, still a lot to learn…
In our area leeks are pricey and so huge that I cannot imagine them in this dish, even if cut lengthwise. The leeks photographed look like large green onions. Ours look like small tree trunks.
But it sounds delicious.
Eggs Mimosa was a dish the cooking instructor had us do in 7th grade cooking class. The whites of the hard-cooked eggs were diced and put into a cream sauce (the lesson was really on cream sauce – bechamel). The yolks were then mashed with a fork to make very fine bits that were then sprinkled over the creamed egg whites. I don’t believe I ever made it again…
Just found Oeufs Mimosa. Deviled eggs. The yolks mashed with a fork. I rather tink that this is what Mariecapucine is sprinkling over her leeks – just the crumbled yolks.
And as David says, mimosa refers to the yellow color of the yolks. Flowers.
PS. Wrong again. Further research finds Leeks Mimosa and Asparagus Mimosa recipes online. In all the entire hardcooked egg is grated and sprinkled over after the vinaigrette has been drizzled on the leeks/asparagus.
the key phrase is “sprinkled AFTER” the vinaigrette has been poured over the leeks/asparagus/whatever. The “mimosa” is, essentially, a garnish.
As ever….keep it simple (particularly when you happen to have immediate access to the good, fresh stuff at most french markets).
—-david terry
I agree with others. Sounds wonderful, but our leeks are huge….and not particularly sweet and very expensive.
I would be interested in taking part of one of my boxes to grow them.
Do they take all summer to grow?
And the mustard vinagrette sounds so yummy, do have a recipe?
Nancy
wildoakdesigns.blogspot.com
Leeks are grown here as a winter vegetable. I typically buy the tiny leeks (pencil size) late summer and plant them out. We start eating them when they get to about 1″ in diameter, the smaller they are, the tastier!
… who would have thought that such a humble recipe could spark off such a debate! 🙂
thank you for all your lovely comments
Sharon
Aha! Now I know…a winter vegetable!
I will bear that in mind! Thanks!
Nancy
How does one eat this dish, with good manners? Do you peel off a leaf and fold it? I’m going to watch the farmers market for young leeks! Barbara in Mn
This is so fun. I’m new to blogging, but I’m such a Francofile. I have never eaten leeks in this way, but I have had cream of leek soup. It was wonderful. I live in Arizona and I bought some leeks at Walmart yesterday to try this recipe and they were only $2.98 for a cluster of three very large leeks. I understand you remove the outer leaves down to the most tender ones. I’m very excited to try them this way. The béchamel sounds very nice, maybe with a little lemon in it.
My Husband and I Honeymooned in Paris in 1987 and I have been smitten with French culture ever since. Thank you so much for your lovely in sites.
Suzanna