Grilled Leeks with Hazelnut and Brown Butter Recipe
Burnt Ends chef Dave Pynt chars whole leeks until blackened, then strains brown butter the moment it turns gold. The restaurant's signature starter, step by step, with the logic behind each move.
Grilled leeks with hazelnut and brown butter is the dish regulars order on sight at Burnt Ends, the live-fire restaurant chef Dave Pynt runs in Singapore. The leeks are blackened completely on the coals, well past the point that looks edible, and the butter is strained the moment it turns gold. Both calls are deliberate, and together explain how a vegetable starter became the dish most associated with the restaurant.
Burnt Ends has cooked on wood and charcoal only since it opened on Dempsey Hill, with no gas or electric backup in the kitchen. Pynt cooked this week at the World Gourmet Festival in Bangkok, one more stop for a chef who built his name over coals in Singapore, where Burnt Ends holds a Michelin star in Singapore's current best-restaurants list.
The leek recipe follows the same logic as everything else that leaves the kitchen: push the char further than instinct says is safe, then cut it with something bright. It is one of 70 recipes in Pynt's cookbook, Burnt Ends, published October 2024 alongside 16 of the restaurant's core techniques.
The char isn't a mistake. It's the technique — pushed past done until the inside steams itself tender.
Ingredients
- 4 large leeks
- 50g roasted hazelnuts, skins removed, lightly broken
- 100g unsalted butter, diced
- 20g capers, finely chopped
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 10g parsley, finely chopped
- Flaky sea salt
Method
- Build a wood fire, or bring a Kamado-style grill, kettle barbecue or oven to its highest setting. Grill the whole leeks until blackened on every side and soft all the way through. The char is not a mistake to grill past: pushed further than looks edible, the burnt skin seals the leek, so the inside steams itself tender and pulls in smoke instead of drying out.
- While the leeks cook, melt the diced butter in a pan over medium heat until the milk solids turn golden brown, close to 160°C. Strain it through a fine cloth into a clean pot as soon as it colours: the solids have already flavoured the butter, and left in the pan any longer they scorch and turn it bitter.
- Peel off and discard the blackened outer layer, then cut the pale, tender core into bite-sized pieces.
- Divide across four plates and season lightly with flaky sea salt.
- Stir the capers and lemon juice into the warm brown butter, spoon it over the leeks, scatter the hazelnuts on top, and finish with parsley.
Same technique, different plate
Pynt runs the same two-step logic across the menu: char first, then cut it with something bright. Fennel gets the same fire, then orange and burrata stand in for the hazelnuts and capers. Steak takes it too, finished with burnt onions instead of brown butter. Only the finishing elements change which direction the dish leans.
Can this be made without a wood fire? Yes. Pynt's own suggestion for home cooks is a Kamado Joe, a kettle grill such as a Weber, or an oven turned up as high as it goes — the leeks need sustained, maximum heat more than they need actual wood smoke.
