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Roasted Leeks in Vermouth with Doris Day Que Sera Sera

Today, I’m going to turn you on to roasting leeks, not only roasting them, but in vermouth. Thank you Martha Stewart, again.. Without further ado…

Roasted Leeks in Vermouth Recipe

Preheat oven at 425

  1. Cut off the root end of the leeks and about 2 inches of the tough ends at the top.
  2. Cut lengthwise, all the way up the middle. And wash under the faucet with full force water, running your fingers up the length to remove any soil.
  3. Don’t worry about keeping the leek intact.
  4. On a cutting board, cut quartered lengthwise
  5. Toss with the olive oil and thyme, coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  6. Place in a well oiled baking sheet, if you have a cast iron pan even better.
  7. Roast, flipping once, dot with the butter, until caramelized.
  8. Keep a good eye, and enjoy the enticing aroma wafting out your oven, that’s part of the meal you know.
  9. When leeks look brown and roasted, sprinkle the parmesan cheese over and broil, till bubbly.

We served ours with steamed Dover Sole. And a side of roasted roots.

Roasted Roots Ingredients

Serves: 4

Prep time: 20 minutes

Preheat oven 425

Bake time: 40 minutes

  • 4 potatoes
  • 2 yams
  • 1 rutabaga
  • 2 parsnips
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil or regular olive oil

Roasted Roots Recipe

  1. Preheat oven
  2. Peel all the root vegetables, cut and quarter
  3. Chop green onions
  4. Toss all in a big bowl with the olive oil
  5. Spread evenly on a baking sheet
  6. Roast turning once after 25 minutes, and then an additional 20 minutes. If they are roasting to hot, adjust oven temp to 350.

Rick’s Steamed Dover Sole Ingredients

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: approx 5 minutes

  • 2 lbs Dover Sole
  • 1 lemon juiced
  • 2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil, or plain

Rick’s Steamed Dover Sole Recipe

  1. In a large skillet, pour olive oil in the pan, and place fish in, flip so it’s coated.
  2. Turn stove on medium, and pour the lemon juice over the Sole
  3. Cover skillet with lid and steam, turn fish over after 2 minutes on each side or until fish flakes.

We served the fish on the roasted leeks, with the roots as the side. YUM!!

So, let’s get real. I wish I had taken a picture of the night I made this for my Mom. She’s home from the hospital and we were the caregivers for the week. I had been going on and on about seeing this recipe in the latest Martha Stewart. I tend to blither when I’m nervous, and she is so sick, and I was so nervous, I was blithering a lot. “Leeks this leeks that, Martha this Martha that and how about the brilliance of using vermouth, who would ever think of vermouth”..and on and on. (poor Mom, I think I noticed her eyes rolling back, Oh gawd I’ve killed her..)

I didn’t even start cooking until 6:30pm And I hadn’t read the recipe, I’d just  glimpsed at the picture. Heated up the oven and got busy peeling and cutting the root vegetables. Got those in the hot, very hot oven, took a shot of the vermouth and tackled the leeks. Dug out of Mom’s cupboard a oblong, oval cast iron skillet for the leeks. Perfect. In the oven on the bottom rack.

I went to check on Mom who was watching a Doris Day Mystery Thriller Marathon. “I didn’t know Doris Day made thrillers?” I said and sat down. Doris and Jimmy Stewart’s son Hank, had just been kidnapped in Marakesh after they had witnessed a murder. I was hooked. Rick built a beautiful roaring fire and Mom was covered with two big blankets, not making eye contact with me. I think she was afraid I was going to start talking again.

There is a reason we’ve never heard of Doris making thrillers; not that good. She did all the wrong things when trying to find the kid and Jimmy looked like a dope when he got in a fight with a bunch of taxidermists in their shop. At one point his hand was stuck in a tiger’s mouth. But we were  transfixed. The room filled up with the aroma of what was going on in the kitchen, and life was good again.

After experiencing the first bliss any of us had felt in a week, Rick The Responsible jumped up, “Clio, are you sure about cooking the leeks like this? ”He yelled from the kitchen. I tore myself away from the drama and  looked in the oven, but under the shadow of the large pan filled with the potatoes etc. I couldn’t see them very well. But man did they smell good. I should’ve grabbed them then. Rick looked fondly at the sole and both of us headed back to the family room. Just in time to see Jimmy and Doris looking gorgeous entering the Morrocan Embassy, where they had figured out Hank was.

Doris was asked by the ambassador to sing for the guests, and she belted out with tears in her eyes a moving, Que Sera Sera. There wasn’t a dry eye. Hank, done playing chess with his captor, heard her and started whistling for all he was worth. He had a helluva whistle that hauntingly traveled down three stories of beautiful floors and staircases. Jimmy snuck out and followed the melody busted through the door, grabbed Hank, punched the kidnapper who flipped and rolled all the way down the staircase. Brilliant of Hank to whistle we all agreed.

The oven was calling us. Rick grabbed a hot pad and gingerly put the cast iron pan full of what looked like ash and some stems..we picked through and split one; if you could get over the crunching crackery, the leek was amazingly full of flavor. If you could get over the texture. “We’ll dig out and toss the really burned ones, make a little bed and serve the sole over”. I said.  Rick started the sole, he turned and mumbled, “starving and I told you” I wasn’t listening and thinking if I could whip up a sauce of some kind. But time and hunger wouldn’t allow…

I helped Mom get out of her chair, coiled her oxygen tube and assisted her into the kitchen and dining table. I had fantasized serving dinner in her elegant dining room with the whole works when I first saw the picture in this month’s Martha Stewart.  But seeing what I had done to the leeks, and having overheard TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz talking about the next film where Doris is being stalked by Louis Jordan we bolted the food down. Though the aroma was enticing, the sole sat on what looked like long ribbons of dark, very dark burned palm leaves. I caught Mom pulling out one of the leeks and it fell apart in her fingers, though she did manage to get some of it down with a big gulp of water. Rick’s sole was superb 🙂

Que Sera Sera

Whatever will be, will be

The Future is not ours to see

Que Sera Sera

Thanks Doris for the reminder. 🙂

Ciao for now

P.S. I recreated the meal for you, though there wasn’t any Dover Sole, so I used fresh cod. You guys have to do the leeks, unbelievable!

Weighing everything for FODMAP diet. – So fun!

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