Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Leeks, mushrooms, asparagus

I suppose this is one of those dishes where an exotic name (preferably in an obscure language) is appropriate. But I decided just to be prosaic. It's more one of those, "What do we have lying around?" kinds of dishes. It turned out well, and got the "We can serve this to people" accolade.
To get the asparagus to behave, I cooked the stem ends for a minute before adding the tips.

Ingredients

2T Unsalted butter
3 leeks, white and light green parts, rinsed, and chopped finely
6 oz mushrooms, sliced (We had some white and some cremini, so used both)
1 minced jalapeno pepper
12 oz fresh asparagus cut into 2" lengths
2 T Port (I would have preferred a medium dry sherry, but port was what I could find)
2T water
2 dozen cherry tomatoes, halved
salt/pepper to taste
Sea salt to sprinkle for extra crunch

Method

Melt the butter over low heat in a large skillet. Add the leeks and sweat them (adding a little salt) for 4 or 5 minutes, taking care not to brown them. Move the leeks to the edge of the pan, and place the mushrooms in the center, turning up the heat a bit. Cook the mushrooms until they have driven off most of their moisture. Combine the leeks and mushrooms, add the port and the asparagus stalks. Put the lid on the pan and steam gently for a minute or so. Add the water and the asparagus tips, steam for a further 2 minutes with the lid on the pan.
Turn off the heat and immediately add the cherry tomatoes. Stir to combine and serve.

We had this as a main course, but it would make an excellent side dish, perhaps in a warm salad, or as a bruschetta on grilled baguette slices. 

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