Rare and hard to find, leek pearls are the "truffles" of the allium family. These beauties are cleaned and ready for use in recipes!
The aptly named "pearls" are translucent and delicately flavored. Raw, they are crisp with a bright taste and a slight, oniony-nutty bite.
About the only way one can acquire leek pearls is to grow leeks yourself. However, you must sacrifice harvesting them for their stalks and allow them to winter over. At the end of their second season harvest them for the pearls that have now grown above the roots attached to the leek's base. Or, ask CSA farmers or farmers market growers to grow some for you. Leek pearls aren't a quick crop. It takes two years before you can harvest any. Rare, but worth the wait!
Each year I leave a few leeks to overwinter just so I can have them!
Minced, chopped, or sliced - and cooked - even simmered whole in a cream sauce, their subtle flavor is best described as a cross between a very mild shallot and a leek, with a just touch of sweetness.
A very rare, hard-to-find vegetable treat, leek pearls form beneath the ground around the stem-base of a second-season leek. Each leek will usually bear one to four pearls of varying sizes which are ready for harvest in the Autumn after the leek blossom clusters just begin to dry and ripen their black seeds.
Leeks left to over-winter in the garden will bloom the following Spring-into-Summer. In mid-to late-September as the flower heads just begin to dry the leeks may be dug up for their harvest of leek pearls. The parent leek's stem will now be too hard and fibrous to eat, but the attached "pearls" are ready to be pulled away, peeled, cleaned, and used in recipes.
Leek pearls are usually solid, like a garlic clove, without the series of layers formed by shallots or onions. They add their delicate, sweet leek, flavor to sauces, gravies, risottos, and more. Their taste is more refined than that of the leek stalks we are accustomed to cooking and eating.
As with leeks, the pearls shouldn't be over-sauteed, or browned lest they go bitter. And, for me, leek pearls shine in mildly-flavored dishes so as not to lose their taste or aroma among less mild-mannered ingredients.
Below I feature three recipes using this unique and rare vegetable.
Pan-Braised Pork Chops with Vermouth-Leek Pearl Sauce
For each porch chop:
1 boneless, 1/2-inch thick pork chop
1-TBS Light olive oil or coconut oil
Salt & pepper
Heat oil in a skillet. Salt and pepper one side of the pork chop/s and lay seasoned side down in the skillet. Salt and pepper the other side. Fry the pork chop/s until golden and slightly crisped at the edges.
Turn, and cook other side. Remove chop/s from pan and set aside while you make the sauce.
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Vermouth-Leek Pearl Sauce
Minced leek pearls, fresh sage and Italian parsley
3-TBS minced leek pearls
2-TBS vermouth
1/2-tsp each snipped fresh sage and flat-leaf parsley
1/3-cup water
3-TBS light cream
1/4-tsp corn starch mixed with 1-tsp cool water
After removing the chops from the skillet, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner, immediately de-glaze the pan with the vermouth. Add the minced leek pearls and allow to saute in the vermouth briefly.
Minced leek pearls are sauteed briefly in the vermouth used to de-glaze the pan.
Add the herbs, and 1/3-cup of water for each chop you're cooking. Bring the liquid to a simmer. Add the chop/s, place a lid on the pan, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Turn the chop/s and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
Remove the chop/s from the pan and set aside on a plate in a warm oven. Allow the liquid in the skillet to reduce for about five minutes. Stir in the cornstarch/water mixture and allow to simmer for one minute or until thickened. Add the cream, stir in, and heat through.
Serve the pork chop/s with creamy, mashed potatoes and a vegetable side. Drizzle some of the leek pearl sauce over the chop/s. With the back of a spoon press a well into the mashed potatoes, then fill generously with the leek sauce.
Champagne, a light white wine (not too dry) are good choices. Here, I'm serving this dish with a light, medium-dry raspberry wine (framboise). Just-picked, then lightly steamed zucchini sprinkled with paprika round things out.
Pan-braised Pork Chops With Vermouth-Leek Pearl Sauce is country-good, comfort food with a gourmet flair!
Scalloped Potatoes In Leek Pearl Sauce: (Serves three or four)
Sauce:
2-TBS butter
1-cup whole milk or half-and-half
1-TBS corn starch mixed with 3-TBS cool water
1/2-tsp salt
1/4-tsp grated nutmeg
1/4-cup minced leek pearls
To make the sauce, melt the butter in a one-quart sauce pan. Add the milk or half-and-half. Add salt and nutmeg. Stir in.
Heat the milk to steaming and add the cornstarch/water mixture. Bring to a simmer for one minute or until the sauce thickens to a "medium-white sauce" consistency.
I use cornstarch to make this sauce as it yields a more satiny result.
Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the minced leek pearls. Cover the pan and set aside.
Potato Preparation
2 large Russet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, and very thinly sliced
1-1/2 TBS melted butter
Salt and pepper
2-TBS freshly grated Asiago cheese, added after potatoes and sauce are assembled.
Pour the melted butter into an 8-inch quiche pan, or deep pie plate, or an 8X8-inch square casserole dish. Using a pastry brush, spread the butter over the bottom of the pan and up the sides.
Layer the sliced potatoes in the pan. Sprinkle with two or three pinches of salt and a light grinding of black pepper on each layer (you'll get about two layers).
Two layers of thinly sliced potatoes. The top layer awaits seasoning.
Pour the leek pearl sauce over the potatoes, covering them evenly.
Time to add the sauce to the sliced potatoes.
Sprinkle the sauce with a pinch or two of salt and a grinding of black pepper.
After adding the leek pearl sauce add a bit more salt and pepper. Cooking with potatoes requires a bit more salt than what you might usually add.
After the sauce and a last sprinkling of salt and pepper, grate on approximately two tablespoons of Asiago cheese.
You can choose to add the cheese after the first hour of baking but I've added it before baking because I like how it bubbles down into the sauce and forms little succulent, cheesy pillows that surprise the palate in a pleasing way here and there throughout the completed dish.
Covered, and ready to bake for one hour.
Cover the baking dish securely with foil, or its own lid. Place into a 350-degree oven for one hour.
After an hour, remove the cover and bake for an additional half-hour until the edges are golden.
Ready to serve, delicious, creamy - Scalloped Potatoes In Leek Pearl Sauce!
For me, two side dishes often make the meal. So I thinly sliced a kousa (a somewhat pear-shaped Middle Eastern squash similar to a zucchini) and a ripe red Horno de Toro Italian sweet pepper, sauteed them in a bit of olive oil and lightly seasoned them with salt and pepper.
Sauteed kousa and sweet, red pepper make a light accompaniment to Scalloped Potatoes In Leek Pearl Sauce.
The end result here was...Lunch!
Lunch for a quiet Autumn afternoon on the back porch!
And, the last leek pearl recipe is a creamy risotto. I guess where I'm going here is that the light taste of carbohydrates, such as potatoes, rice, barley, or meats such as pork and chicken seem to pair well with the delicately sublime taste of leek pearls. I'm still experimenting cooking with this rare, and hard-to-find vegetable, so I may discover other pairings as time goes on.
Creamy Leek Pearl and Fennel Risotto: (serves 4 to 6)
Creamy Leek Pearl and Fennel Risotto
1-TBS light olive oil
1-TBS butter
1/4-cup sliced fennel bulb
1/4-cup white wine
1/2-cup diced leek pearls
3-1/2 -cups mushroom broth (Better-Than-Broth brand is a good one)
1/2-tsp salt
1/8-tsp pepper
1-cup short grain brown rice
2-TBS each butter and grated Parmesan cheese as garnish.
In a large saucepan or deep skillet heat oil and butter together until melted. Add the sliced fennel and saute until the fennel begins to soften.
Saute sliced fennel in the oil/butter mixture until it just softens
Add the 1/4-cup white wine and the diced leek pearls. Saute about one minute. Add the mushroom broth and the salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
The mushroom broth has just been added and is starting to simmer.
Add the rice. Return to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 55 to 60 minutes, uncovered. Stir occasionally until most of the water is absorbed and the rice is creamy. Stir in 2-TBS each butter and grated Parmesan cheese until melted. If desired, you may sprinkle on a bit of Parmesan cheese just before serving.
A creamy risotto is the perfect cool-weather comfort food.
Recipe Notes: If you save the rind from Parmesan cheese, you may substitute that, diced up, for the 2 TBS of grated Parmesan stirred in with the butter. Allow both rind and butter to melt before serving.
If you don't have fennel bulb for the risotto recipe, you may substitute 1/2-cup of diced mushroom.
A light chicken broth or vegetable broth may be used in place of mushroom broth, if desired.
This risotto is not one you have to stand over and stir constantly. Just stir occasionally as it cooks. Brown rice works nicely due it nutty flavor which works well with the leek pearls.
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