We’re a skip and hop away from Easter and for me that’s not far from the whole season changing with regards to food. As soon as I start seeing daffodils or any narcissus I want to say goodbye to the winter, start thinking about spring recipes and lighter meals but the thing is we’re not quite there, we’re inbetween, the sun might have come out this week but the temperature didn’t match. I’m still cooking cold weather dishes..oh well…at least I can enjoy the spring yellow flowers on my windowsill and the extra daylight.
Leeks play a big part in my family’s diet but as an ingredient along with onions and carrots making soups, casseroles, stews. This dish where the leeks are the main player is one that I cook often to serve alongside roast meats or grilled fish. In the autumn I like to serve it with roast lamb. The leeks are cooked until they’re creamy soft and the flageolet beans with the tarragon have an affinity with the leeks. I’m not the biggest fan of raw tarragon, find the taste like raw celery can overpower everything else but when used like this, a sprig left intact simmering with the leeks, it adds a light fragrance, more of a background flavour. If you like your tarragon to be stronger then add some chopped tarragon in the very last minute of cooking.
Any Beans Will Work
I have used other beans as in the picture above, cannellini, it works well with any beans. I like flageolet in this because their distinctive flavour stands out. Staying in a French farm a few years back I remember being served a leg of lamb with flageolet beans, perfect combination. I have memories visiting French supermarkets buying large tins of flageolet beans to bring them back home. The quality of the tinned beans were excellent, I haven’t yet come across a brand here that matches it. Try different brands of the tinned beans because there is a difference in quality, I’ve found Tescos own are slightly better quality than Waitrose, which is very odd because normally it’s the opposite. By all means cook dried flageolet beans they’ll have the best flavour…for convenience a tin is very good.
Cooking the Leeks
I have made this dish with or without butter, with or without the white wine, and I make it without the cream most of the time, it’s entirely how you like it. The leeks will discolour because cooking them with the lid will do that but this is a dish of taste rather than looks. Cook your leeks to your liking, I like mine soft. The idea of this dish is to cook the leeks in very little liquid just enough to start the cooking and letting the water in the leeks cook the rest.
Creamy Leeks, Flageolet Beans with Tarragon
3-4 leeks chopped
450g / 1 tin of flageolet beans
1-2 large sprigs of tarragon
15 ml / 1 tablespoon of white wine or water
25 g / 1 tablespoon of butter
15-30 ml / 1-2 tablespoons of cream – optional
Put all of the ingredients except the cream in a pan with a lid on put it on a simmer let the leeks collapse, stir occasionally. If the leeks are getting too watery take the lid off and let the liquid evaporate. When the leeks are just about soft enough to your liking you can add the cream if using, bring it to the boil and serve.
