Next up on my project of posting all of the simple food that I make….creamy dill and leek scramble. I have recently discovered that I have two close friends who detest dill (Hi Noah and Eliza)! If you detest dill, just use a soft green herb that you like. I love dill. I do not love that it is sold in giant bunches and spoils if you do not use it up right away.

My farmshare is really the culprit of my dill overload. In the summer they send bunches that I can hide my entire face and torso behind. Now I’m regretting not taking that photo to post here….I’ll add it next time they send me a dill bush. In the winter, the farmshare does not send dill but they do send almost every single ingredient needed to fill my freezer with Borscht. So, I buy a bunch of dill and, even though I triple and quadruple the borsct recipe to use up ALL those cabbages and beets, I STILL have leftover dill. In the summer, I solve this problem by making an excellent creamy Cashew Dill Lemon Dressing for my summer salad eating pleasure. My winter favorite is to make creamy dill and leek eggs and it is so good that I delight in having extra dill.

Now lets talk about leeks. I am convinced that the art deco movement was inspired by the beauty of leeks. Also they are absolutely delicious.They are giant and and they are bit tricky to clean, since soil gets lodged into each lovely layer of the plant as it grows. Here is what I do!

Cut off the roots and any part of the green that looks icky and discard them. Cut off the dark green portion that looks fresh, dump it a big sink of water and agitate until clean. Save the dark greens for soup stock! Slice the remaining white and pale green section of the leek in half lengthwize and marvel at the beauty of the layers. I like to give each half a rinse at this point, focusing on the more open, green part of the layers. Sometimes there is just an astonishing amount of mud in there!

Now place each half, flat side down on a cutting board and slice them into thin half circles. Dump all of the slices into another clean sink or bowl full of cold water and agitate to remove any lingering mud. Lift the slices out of the water, to leave the mud behind. Repeat with clean water until there is no more mud. Let the clean, sliced leeks drain. This might sound like a lot of work, but clean, sliced leeks keep in a sealed container for about a week and I like having them ready to go to throw into soups or make creamy dill and leek scramble for a quick breakfast.

Now that we’ve done the leek prep lets move on to the eggs. This is a special way of making eggs. It’s really quick. The milk and potato starch added to the eggs helps to incorporate the butter so that they are creamy rather than greasy. You can actually add even more butter if you like, but this is the amount that I like. I’ve offered a recipe for 2-3 people or for 1 person, because I make this for breakfast for just myself before work a lot. Don’t try to scale this recipe up. 6 eggs is the maximum that will work at a time. It is so fast though, that you can successfully made multiple batches for a crowd if you want. I learned this beautiful technique from Lady & Pups. Check out her post for continual updates based on her ongoing egg experiements or continue on in this post for my adaptation, which might be less obsessively perfect…but I like it.

Creamy Dill & Leek Scramble (for 2 or 3 people)

• 3 Tablespoon milk
• 1 Tablespoon potato starch (tapioca starch works too)
• 6 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• A large handful of clean sliced leek (see directions above)
• about 1/3 cup snipped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste
• paprika to serve (optional)

Creamy Dill & Leek Scramble (for 1 person)

• 1 Tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon potato starch (tapioca starch works too)
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• A small handful of clean sliced leek (see directions above)
• about 2 tablespoons snipped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste
• paprika to serve (optional)

Directions

1. In bowl, whisk together the milk and potato starch to remove any lumps. Crack the eggs into the bowl and whisk until they are combined. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a wide skillet over high heat. I use a well seasoned cast iron. You could use non stick I guess but be foreward that scraping is nessesary. Add the butter and heat it unti it begins to foam.
3. Add the dill and leeks to the hot butter and cook until the leeks have softened. They do not need to brown.
4. Scrape the eggs into the hot pan in a thin layer that covers the whole pan. DO NOT STIR THEM. Just leave them alone over high heat for 5-7 seconds. Then TURN THE HEAT OFF and stir the eggs, scraping the bottom of the pan very slowly. After about 10 slow stirs the eggs should be a perfect pile of creamy eggs. I like to serve these eggs with a bit of paprika spinkled on top.