Leeks
They have none of the stringency of onion, none of the pungency of shallots and garlic, and are the softy of the onion family with a sweet, delicate onion flavour.
They keep, too, for ages in the salad drawer of the fridge. The green "flags", that fold over in a neat overlapping V, are of little value to the cook and best relegated to the stock-pot – which is why leeks are now bred to be entirely white. You can treat young ones like asparagus with delicate egg and lemon cream sauces, and with vinaigrettes. Steamed or boiled, they are delicious blanketed in white sauces but are also good with tomatoes, in cheese dishes and with pastry, or cooked with cream, citrus juices or wine.
Roasting and cooking on a ridged griddle intensifies their flavour but leeks have an affinity with eggs, with potatoes, mussels, and ham and bacon, and are enhanced by mint, coriander and thyme. Their silky texture turns to velvet when liquidised, adding a glossy sheen to sauces and soups.
Single layers of cooked leek can be used as wrappers to parcel morsels of this and that, or draped over ramekins to encase delicate mousselines. However, one of my favourite showoff leek dishes is packing steamed leeks lengthways into a clingfilm-lined terrine, weighting it for 24 hours, then serving thick slices with crayfish tails and lemon vinaigrette. Not bad for so-called "poor man’s asparagus".
This article was first published in the April 2010 edition of Saga Magazine.
Lindsey Bareham's website is www.lindseybareham.com.