Wispy charred leeks with burnt onion ash and tunworth cream 

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes 
Cooking time: 20 minutes plus 4 hours 30 minutes for the ash 

Ingredients
16 small wispy baby leeks 
Salt
Onion Ash
 
250g onion 
13g maltodextrin 

Tunworth cheese sauce 
70ml whole milk 
75ml double cream 
135g tunworth cheese 
15g butter 

If you want to make this vegan replace all ingredients with vegan alternatives and follow the recipe the same.

Method
Put the oven on 180c. Cut unpeeled onions in half and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake for 1½ hours until black.  Reduce the oven to 90c and cook for 3 hours or until dry. 

The onions should now be dry.  Take them out of the oven and blitz with the maltodextrin. Stir through some of the onion oil from the pan so that the ash ‘clumps’.

Pour milk and 50ml of the cream into saucepan and over a low heat add the butter. When the liquid is warm and the butter has melted, turn off the heat and add the cheese. Stir to melt. Whip the rest of the cream to thicken the sauce, season and pass through a sieve. 

Cover leeks in oil and braai, bbq or grill until charred and soft. 

To bring together, put the leeks one side of the plate, the cheese sauce the other and the onion ash sprinkled  on the diagonal across the plate. 

- The components for these recipes come from Rogan - The Cookbook.