#jamieoliver

Sweet Leek Carbonara

(Recipe by Jamie Oliver - The Ultimate Veg Cookbook)

Ingredients:  (I used all organic)

2 large leeks

4 cloves of garlic

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 knob of unsalted butter

Olive oil

10oz of dried spaghetti

1 3/4 Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese, plus extra to serve

1 large egg

Instructions:

Trim, wash and finely slice the leeks.  Peel and finely slice the garlic, and pick the thyme leaves, then place in a large casserole pan on medium heat with the butter and 1 tablespoon of oil.  Once sizzling, stir in the leeks and 1 2/3 cups of water, then cover and simmer gently over a low heat for 40 minutes, or until sweet and soft, stirring occasionally.  Season with sea salt and black pepper.

When the leeks are almost done, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water according to the package instructions, then drain, reserving a cup of the starchy cooking water.  Toss the drained pasta into the leek pan, then move from the heat and wait 2 minutes for the pan to cool slightly while you finely grate the cheese and beat in with the egg (if the pan’s too hot, it will scramble the egg, get it right and it’ll be smooth, silky and deliciously elegant). 

Loosen the egg mixture with a splash of reserved cooking water, then poor over the pasta, tossing vigorously (the egg will cook in the residual heat).  Season to absolute perfection, going a little OTT on the pepper.  Adjust the consistency with extra cooking water, if needed, and finish with a little stroke of cheese.  

Fantastic served with a glass of cold Italian white wine

Enjoy!

My Review:

I couldn’t wait to try this cookbook and I knew it wouldn’t disappoint!  I started in the pasta section (of course) and since my all time favourite pasta dish is carbonara, I decided to try the Sweet Leek Carbonara first!  I’ll be honest, if I saw this on a menu in a restaurant, I would probably skip it because I’m not a big fan of leeks, but...this recipe absolutely changed my mind about leeks!  Boiling them down with the garlic and thyme just made it taste so delicious and the silky texture with the egg and pecorino cheese made this one of the best carbonara’s I’ve ever eaten (including the one’s I tried in Italy!). The only substitution I made was instead of using 1 egg, I used 2 egg yolks because it makes it that much more creamier!  A must try and restaurant worthy dish that will keep you coming back for more!  If you make it, let me know what you think!

Včeraj smo praznovali mednarodni praznik delavstva, prvi maj, ki ga praznujejo v večini držav sveta.

V Sloveniji se na ta dan družimo ob kresovih in se ponavadi v dobri družbi še bolj dobro najemo. Ker me je tam nekje v nekem kotu stanovanja še vedno čakal bosanski sač, za katerega se priložnost, da bi ga preizkusil, kar ni in ni hotela pojaviti, sem se odločil, da ga končno le preizkusim in pripravim prvomajsko podpeko - po slikah sodeč skromno priznavam, da je uspela.

Ob prijetni toploti ognja in dežni plohi, ki nas ni uspela pregnati, sem nahranil 7 ljudi in mislim, da bi jih lahko vsaj še 5. Pod velikim pokrovom posode naložene z žerjavico sem namreč skrival približno 3 kg krompirja, 2 kg zelenjave in 6-7 kg mesa, vse tja od jagnjetine do teletine. Dve uri in pol sem skrbel, da je temperatura posode ostajala enaka ter da prijetno kramljanje med zbranimi ne bi zamrlo, vmes sem enkrat le dvignil pokrov in obrnil meso. Hrano sem postregel z domačim svežim kruhom, ki je s svojo hrskavo skorjo poskrbel za mljaskajoča usta, s svojim rustikalnim okusom pa je prefinjeno zaokrožil pripravljeno pojedino.

_________________________________________

 Yesterday we celebrated the International Labour Day, the first of May, which is celebrated in most countries of the world.

 In Slovenia we usually gather around bonfires on this day and spend time with good company and even better food. Because there was still a Bosnian »sač« waiting for me in some corner of the apartment and the opportunity to use it still didn´t appear, I decided to finally try it and prepare a huge Labour Day meal – according to the pictures I modestly admit that it was a success.

Around the warmth of the fire and by the short insignificant raining moment that didn´t make us to go back in the house, I was able to fed 7 people and could easily fed at least 5 more. Under the big lid of the cast iron container I was hiding around 3 kg of potatoes, 2 kg of vegetables and 6-7 kg of meat, from lamb to veal. For approximately two and a half hours I was making sure that the temperature of the pan remained the same and that the pleasant chatting between the people didn´t stop – in the meantime I just lifted the lid to turn the meat over. The food was soon served with homemade fresh bread, which made a crunchy mouthfeel with its crunchy crust, and with its rustic taste it finely rounded the prepared meal.

Backstory: A couple weeks ago I was surfing through Hulu for something new to watch and saw Jamie Oliver’s “new” show (new to me and Hulu I guess) “Quick and Easy Food.” We got hooked. Binged the first season in a weekend. They looked really good and all the recipes only involve 5 ingredients. We’ve been in such a rut lately, I bought the cook book.

These are two of his recipes Roast Tika Chicken and Epic Rib-Eye Steak. Oh. My. Gawd you guys. Who knew just 5 ingredients could have such impact. Like he says “simple and delicious.” This is just what we needed. Literally, life changing.