Potato and Leek Galette...and Listening

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Cooking is relatively easy.  Listening is hard.  


I repeat...Listening. is. hard.  


I have always wanted to be a better listener to others.  Time and time again, I fail rather  miserably in that category.  Look at me.  I am such a chatterbox, word warrior, sentence streamer... that I have to resort to talking to the World Wide Web.  Seriously!


The advice I have been told over and over again by mothers who have gone before me and reared teens is that the key is:  Listen to them. 


Sheeeeesh.   Like I said, this potato and leek galette is easy!  Listening... is a challenge.  What they didn't say to me is that listening involves hearing what your KIDS' interests are, not what I would prefer discussing.  My kids' eyes glaze over when I get tickled by how expertly I diced my onion and want to demonstrate for them my newfound technique.  Where is their fascination with my budding culinary talents?

My eyes glaze over when I am excitedly approached and  eagerly engaged in a scene by scene description of the current novel  or heroic deed  of "Vorax the Brave" in the latest video game.  Whether it be play-by-play of Vorax's escapades within the medieval lands or scene-by- scene of the tortuous struggles by "Saffron the Light" throughout the novel, its not always easy to engage actively in your teens' world of hobbies.


But I'm working on it... the "glazed eyes" that is.  Video games and fantasy fiction just aren't up my alley!  I'm working on being a better listener; just like I am working on mastering recipes that strike my fancy; just like I am working on mastering photography so that one out of 5 photos I submit to food publications don't get rejection e-mails.  


(To my fellow food bloggers...don't you just hate those rejection e-mails?  Ouch.  Oh that could be a lament for another article...)

Anyway, just as I am listening with my eyes to the nuances of light on the tip of a frosted cupcake and with my nose to the just right smell of baking bread, I am working on listening to my teens.

Now, a little about this galette.  It is delicious.  Who doesn't like crisped potatoes and leeks sliced in a pancake round?  My biggest piece of advice making this is to be sure (REALLY SURE) that you use a a non-stick pan.  Are you listening?  Hmmmmm??  If not, return to the top of this article and re-read.  I took a risk and thought I could flip the galette easily enough.  Nope.  Need a non-stick pan.  See?  I didn't listen!   Sigh.

This would make a great appetizer for a small group.  Its a nice little savory to cut into wedges for a party.  The colors are pleasing but the aroma is what is enticing. 

Enjoy!  I'm going to go now and hear what my kids have to say... about Vorax... and Saffron!

Potato and Leek Galette with Watercress
(adapted from Martha Stewart Living, April 2011)




Prep Time: 10 minutes      Total Time:  20 minutes
Yield:  Serves 4


Ingredients:






1 large russet potato, peeled and grated (1 1/2 cups)
1 small leek, white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced crosswise and rinsed well
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup watercress, trimmed
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Recipe:

Place potato in a bowl of cold water, and let soak for 10 minutes. Drain well in a salad spinner or squeeze in a clean kitchen towel to remove excess water. Combine potato, leek, flour, nutmeg, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Scatter potato mixture in skillet, and press lightly with a spatula to make sure it holds together. Cook until underside is golden, about 6 minutes. Flip. Raise heat to medium-high. Cook until underside is golden, 4 to 5 minutes.

Turn out galette. Toss watercress with lemon juice and 1 1/2

teaspoons oil, and place on top of galette. Slice into 8 wedges.

Leeks in Olive Oil

market booty

I have just staggered back flushed with success from the weekly market here in my immediate area of Selami Çeşme, and behold my booty. Now, I defy anybody not to feel inspired just by looking at that. There is a kilo of spinach, roots and all, in the plastic bag which I will prepare for tonight; next to it, a marul lettuce and some beautiful rocket. I see the tomatoes are becoming those standard greenhouse ones but I had one for lunch and it tasted fine. The little cucumbers are just how they should be: crisp and crunchy. I broke my own rule with the figs:  I know the season is finished but I just couldn’t resist them, and then I bought them from a stall I never usually use.  Fatal. Usually one can choose one’s own produce but these figs were too far away for me to do so.  As a result, the  stallholder slipped in a couple of duds. Live and learn. The plums are fabulous and the grapes – well, just look at them! I couldn’t resist the beetroots either. The little bags are dried mint, peppercorns, and kuş üzüm, the dried little currants for use in pilafs. You can buy as little as you like which is very handy with herbs and spices.  It is a good idea to have a look at those on your own shelves from time to time and chuck out the ones that have been there rather too long: they lose their oomph over time.

I didn’t buy leeks as I bought some just the other day: the first ones of the season, actually. Here is what I did with them: zeytinyağlı pırasa, a very typical olive oil dish for this time of year and one of my favourites.   Very healthy and tasty. You will notice that for a change there are no onions included in the ingredients. This is because leeks themselves belong to the onion family so no need for more.

                                                                           Ingredients

Serves 6

1 kg leeks/pırasa

2 carrots

1 tbsp rice, washed

4 lumps of sugar

½ cup olive oil

Juice of  ½ lemon

2 cups hot water

1 tbsp salt

cutting on the diagonal

Method

§  First cut off all the dark green, leafy bits of the leeks and discard. Wash the remaining part well and slice on the diagonal. Put the slices in a bowl and cover with cold water along with the lemon juice.  If you followed Jenny’s tip, simply take your carrots out of the fridge and slice in a similar way.Otherwise, trim , peel, and wash as usual before slicing in diagonals.

§  In a pan, gently heat the oil and stir in the carrots. Cook for 3 – 4 mins.



cooking everything together



§  Add leeks, rice, lump sugar, and salt and mix together. Add the 2 cups hot water. Cover the pan  with a lid and cook on a low heat for 50 mins.

§  Let cool before transferring to a serving dish. Remember that a shallow one is more typical.

                             Extra lemon juice may be passed round as it goes well with leeks.

Tip

1.       All these olive oil dishes or meze are always served cold. It is only when there is meat in them that they are served  hot. Go easy on the rice: if you add too much, it turns into a glutinous mess.



2.       Note the size of these Turkish leeks. I seem to remember that the ones available in the UK are a different breed and are much bigger. That’s fine but wash very carefully as grit can be entrenched in the leaves, and make sure your slices aren’t too thick. I slice the leeks first and then wash, just to be safe.

3.       I learnt most of these dishes by osmosis really.  Well, a combination of my lovely mother-in-law and An American Cook in Turkey. For a long, long time, there were no good Turkish cookbooks available and obviously no internet.  But in the interests of this blog I have been checking with actual Turkish recipes. This one comes from Modern Türk Mutfağı by Alev Kaman, an excellent Turkish cook book.