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Food Combinations: Ham, Leeks and Cheese |
21st March 2007 |
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Why is it that certain dishes become classics, are both memorable and instantly recognizable and others less so? One theory is it's all to do with flavours and textures and tastes that complement rather than cancel each other. Think of roast beef and yorkshire pudding, turbot and hollandaise sauce, rhubarb and custard. Great dishes that work have to be "Horse and Carriage" rather than "Chalk and Cheese". Simon Parkes asks the London Evening Standard's food writer, Lindsey Bareham, how you create a great combination. |
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Ham, Leek and Cheese Gratin |
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Ingredients
Serves 2
200g extra trimmed leeks
salt and black pepper
25g butter
1 tbsp flour
300ml milk
1 bay leaf
150g mature Cheddar
2 slices of decent British ham
1 thick slice of white bread
Method
Trim the leeks and cut them in three to four pieces depending on their length. Agitate the leeks in cold water to remove any grit. Boil the leeks in salted water for 6-10 minutes until tender to the point of a sharp knife. Drain the leeks by standing them up in a colander but save about 4 tablespoons of cooking water. Split the leeks lengthways and lay out, cut side up, in a gratin dish. Melt the butter in your favourite milk pan and stir in the flour. Mix thoroughly until smooth then stir in the reserved water and milk. Add the bay leaf and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir vigorously while you slowly bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 6 or 7 minutes. Grate the cheese and add half to the sauce. Stir while the cheese melts and turn off the heat. Discard the bay leaf. Tear the ham into pieces and stuff them between the leeks. You dont need to be neat about this, just bear in mind that you want most mouthfuls of leek to enjoy some ham too and you also want the cheese sauce to be able to leach between the layers of leek. Season with a little pepper then pour the sauce over the top, shaking the dish so it entirely covers the contents. Break the bread into pieces to blitz into crumbs. If doing this by hand, cut off the crusts and crumble the bread as best you can. Mix the crumbs with the remaining cheese and scatter it over the top of the gratin. Pre-heat the overhead grill and cook until the cheese and crumbs are an appetising golden carapace. Serve immediately.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Lindsey Bareham
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