Ingredient: Leeks
Category: Vegetables
Season: September to May
The leek , Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum (L.), also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to the Alliaceae family.
Two related vegetables , the elephant garlic and kurrat, are also variant subspecies of Allium ampeloprasum, although different in their uses as food.
Form
Rather than forming a tight bulb like the onion , the leek produces a long cylinder of bundled leaf sheaths which are generally blanched by pushing soil around them (trenching).
They are often sold as small seedlings in flats which are started off early in greenhouses, to be planted out as weather permits.
Once established in the garden, leeks are hardy; many varieties can be left in the ground during the winter to be harvested as needed.
Cultivars
Leek cultivars can be subdivided in several ways,the most common types are "summer leeks", intended for harvest in the season when planted, and "over-wintering leeks", meant to be harvested in the spring of the year following planting.
Summer leek types are generally smaller than over-wintering types; overwintering types are generally more strongly flavoured
Cuisine
The edible portions of the Leek are the white onion base and light green stalk .
The onion-like layers form around a core .
The tender core may be eaten, but as the leek ages the core becomes woody and generally unusable.
Leeks are an essential ingredient of cock-a-leekie soup and vichyssoise.
They can also be used raw in salads, doing especially well when they are the prime ingredient.
Because of their symbolism in Wales they have come to be used extensively in that country's cuisine.
In the rest of Britain
Leeks have only come back into favour in the last fifty years or so, having been overlooked for several centuries
Leeks are a very fine vegetables indeed. related to onions, they have a far more subtle. great with potatoes, in a soup or with cheese, in salads with vinaigrette,
Leeks respond beautifully to quick stir-frying.
Home-grown leeks get a bit woolly and tired in the late spring and summer and the imported ones never seem quite as good.
The smaller and thinner the leeks are the sweeter their flavour, so avoid the very fat, heavy ones.
To prepare leeks:
Buy a little more than you need because there's going to be quite a bit of trimming.
Take off the tough outer leaves and trim off most of the very green part.
Using a sharp knife, place the leek on a flat surface and make an incision vertically about halfway down (because of the intricate layers, there can be dust and grit trapped in between, usually in the upper part).
Turn on the cold tap and fan out the layers of leek to rinse them through and rid them of any hidden dirt.
The leek is one of the national emblems of Wales , whose citizens wear it on St. David's Day. |