Mot Hai Ba’s Stuffed Leeks: A Dish That Steals the Show
Upon sitting down for dinner at tiny East Dallas restaurant Mot Hai Ba, diners are often immediately drawn to the shaking beef drenched in a soy vinaigrette, the Wagyu and foie gras dumplings dramatically doused in scalding beef tallow tableside, or the simple but legendary garlic noodles.
The dish on the menu of the Northern Vietnamese and French restaurant that quietly steals the show, though, is the stuffed leeks tucked in the list of salads and seasonal vegetables.
It would be off-base to mentally categorize these leeks alongside crispy Brussels sprouts, garlic mashed potatoes and other vegetable side dish frequent flyers. These leeks — which are stuffed with jumbo lump crab and jasmine rice, and served in a fish nage (stock) that feels like a hug from a grandma — are in a class of their own.
A Brief History of the Dish
Mot Hai Ba chef and owner Peja Krstic first put the leeks on the menu when he took over the restaurant in 2015, but they disappeared after a few months, lost in the churn of a rotating menu.
When the Michelin-recognized restaurant’s 10th anniversary approached in 2023, Krstic thumbed through his recipe archive for dishes to mark the occasion and decided to bring back the stuffed leeks. It was meant to be a temporary resurrection, but the leeks swiftly developed a fan base.
“It’s probably one of our most popular dishes here,” said Mot Hai Ba general manager Maya Minchala as she readied the dining room for service one afternoon last week.
The Preparation Process
Ask Krstic how the leeks are made and the Serbian chef will launch into an explanation that entails more than 30 ingredients and at least seven cooking techniques.
“And that’s it,” he’ll conclude, with a shrug.
The jasmine rice that fills the leeks is cooked with makrut lime leaves, olive oil and Maldon salt before being dried out and combined with a mixture of confit leeks, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, Thai basil, mint balm, cilantro, sawtooth coriander and fried shallots. Jumbo lump crab is then folded in.
Chef Peja Krstic holds a bowl of stuffed leeks, which are on the menu at Mot Hai Ba, his East Dallas restaurant.
That rice and crab filling is carefully stuffed into whole, trimmed leeks, which are then punctured several times to prevent splitting during the steaming process. They’re steamed for four to five minutes, then sautéed in leek butter.
Krstic makes sure two things happen during the sautéing step: that the butter browns slightly, and that a bit of the filling spills out from the leeks so they are bookended by crispy rice.
A Unique Flavor Profile
The pan of buttery leeks is then put in the oven to roast for a few minutes. The leeks are plated (or rather bowled?) on top of a bit of the confit leek mixture used in the filling, and a fish nage is spooned around them. The fish nage is made similar to a pho broth with branzino bones, roasted shallots, lemongrass, coriander, cloves, star anise, fennel, celery and carrots.
