There’s this story of a famous journalist who started his career at a daily paper in a town so tiny, that there was no real news to write about. I mean, we’re talking daily AP photos of squirrels on skis and a whole lotta bake sale stories.

But he refused to settle for those ho-hum tales. Instead, this guy would throw a dart at a city map that was hanging on his wall, and wherever the dart landed was where he was going to find his next story. It didn’t matter if the dart pierced the middle of an intersection or the corner of an open corn field. He would find a story.

Using that method, he met all kinds of interesting people, and equally interesting stories ensued. Now, he’s a big-deal reporter in a metropolitan city. Bake sales be damned.

I never learned the name of this guy – and that detail alone makes the tale scream fiction over fact. But real or not, it reminds me to think creatively when developing recipes: Pick an ingredient and develop the flavors around it, just as he picked a place and developed a story around it.

The tale also helps when choosing one recipe over another to try. But instead of using the dart method, I close my eyes and mix up all the cookbooks on my office floor, then point a finger at a page. There. Done.

It was a similar situation when I made this Gorgonzola and leek crème brulee. It was one in a handful of recipes that we testers at Leite’s Culinaria had to choose from in order to fulfill our monthly testing duties. I closed my eyes, and with finger poised at the computer screen, I made a selection.

Only, as luck would have it, my fat, sausage-of-a-finger landed on three recipes instead of one. Of course, I thought. Just when this dart method of choosing was proving to be foolproof, this happens.

But fat finger be damned. I made them all.

(Click on “Read the rest of this entry” for more)

This recipe isn’t up on Leite’s site just yet, but I will be sure to link to it when it is. In the meantime, I found the recipe on Epicurious’ site, (score!), and it follows below.

GORGONZOLA AND LEEK CRÈME BRULEE
Adapted from Epicurious (recipe from “Crème Brulee” by Lou Seibert Pappas)

Yield: 6 servings

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 medium-large leeks (about 12 ounces total), split lengthwise, washed thoroughly, and sliced crosswise
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 5 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill or tarragon, or 3/4 teaspoon dried dill or tarragon
• 3 tablespoons minced Italian parsley
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 24 teaspoons or 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and onion, and sauté for 7 to 10 minutes, or until soft.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they are a pale yellow. Whisk in the cream and half-and-half. Mix in the leeks, onions, Gorgonzola, dill or tarragon, parsley, salt, and pepper.
3. Place six standard-size flan dishes in a baking pan. Divide the custard mixture among the dishes. Pour warm water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the dishes (to create a bain marie). Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center of each custard still jiggles slightly. Remove from the oven and lift the dishes from the hot water. Place the dishes on a baking sheet.
4. Evenly sprinkle 4 teaspoons grated cheese or 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar over each custard. Using a hand-held blowtorch, brown the cheese. Serve hot.

– Cynthia Furey

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Appetizers, Custards, Fruit/Vegetables, In the kitchen, Main dishes, Side dishes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.