And it is good!

Tonight was the first experiment with the leek. I thought it would be best to try the leek as a more straight up type of vegetable, and I was not disappointed! After looking at several recipes for leeks, I decided to combine a couple that I found on www.recipezaar. com. Since it was only me, I used just one leek- although it was a rather large one. I cut in half and rinsed it out, and then sliced it into thin slices. I heated up about a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet and added the leeks. I cooked them over medium low heat until they started to look tender, and then I seasoned with salt and pepper. Next I added a half a cup of chicken broth and let the leek slices braise for about 15 minutes- until the broth was gone. Then the crowning glory. I grated up some cheddar cheese, sprinkled it on top, and broiled the whole pan until the cheese was bubbling like crazy. And it was crazy good. I think this was a good dish to try with Andy out of town, because I'm sure I smell like one giant leek- but oh was it good.

I also am in the process of making a vegetable stock with the green leek tops. I'm not sure it's going very well though, I think I may have used too many onion relatives, and not enough sweeter vegetables. I used 3 green leek tops, 2 med-small onions, 2 cloves garlic, 4 carrots, 2 corn cobs, and 1 green pepper. Oh, and peppercorns, bay leaves, and herbes de provence. It smells really good, but I took one taste to adjust the salt- and I really taste the onion products. So we'll see. About an hour ago I also took a handful of plum tomatoes that were softening, cut them in half and tossed those in, so hopefully we added some flavor and sweetness there.

That's it for tonight- but I wanted to add that if anyone has a suggestion for a food product to challenge in the future- send it my way- I'm open to most suggestions, as long as I can find it around here. Tomorrow I may try something that incorporates leeks as a smaller part of a larger dish- maybe some kind of pasta...