| Apr 15, 2015


With spring really, really entering into our consciousness, and soon the world around us as well, gardeners around the region are already well into their season.

It was over a month ago, which this year was still basically the dead of winter, when gardeners started getting busy with seed packages and soil-less mixes, planting peppers and leeks, onions, dahlias and petunias and more.

So, as the snow recedes, the seedlings are up and putting out true leaves and the gardens are starting to re-appear.

This seems like as good a time as any to launch a new cooking column devoted, as much as possible, to ingredients that are or can be produced in local gardens and to cooking food that fits the season, whether that means fresh spinach salads in June, a summer BBQ, or a winter stew.

I'm calling it Leek is the new Fennel mainly because I like the way the two words sound, but also because about a year ago I started to use Fennel, a vegetable I had avoided in the past because it was too weird, sort of a cross between a cabbage and a bag of liquorice.

It turns out, it makes a great roasted vegetable, especially when coupled with a gooseberry sauce I learned to make at the same time, finally making use of the gooseberry bushes that have been on our property since we moved here some 25 years ago.

This winter, as we sunk deeper and deeper into the cold, comfort food became more desirable as the weeks dragged on.

Potato Leek soup, served hot, and if possible with a bit of sorrel, or spinach, that has been melted in hot butter, warms and keeps warming. When we had some in my house in the coldest week of February, it was total comfort. For the next month, I snatched up leeks from the grocery store and used them for just about everything. The mild onion flavour, the texture, the way they carmelize when roasted was superb.

For me, they were truly the new Fennel.

Most of us cook about ten dishes regularly, but every once in a while we experiment a little bit. We do something different, add an ingredient, check a recipe and follow it, to change it.

The idea that I would like to capture in this new food column is of simple cooking techniques using fresh ingredients to expand the repertoire of our readers just a little bit.

So, we'll start with two recipes, one looking back a little bit and one looking forward a couple of weeks.

Potage Parmentier (a fancy way of saying potato leek soup)

3 or 4 Leeks

5 or 6 medium potatoes (cut in pieces)

3 or 4 garlic cloves or more to taste (cut in half or quarters if large)

Chicken or Vegetable stock or water (enough to cover vegetables – if short of stock top up with water – no one will ever know)

Salt and pepper to taste

(one bunch sorrel or spinach or flat leaf parsley)

butter

Instructions

Clean and chop up leeks, using as much of the green part that chops easily (be careful to clean out the soil or sand under the green part as well)

Saute the leeks in a combination of butter and oil over low/medium heat until they change colour and begin to fall apart. Add garlic cloves and stir. Then add potatoes and stir fry with the leeks until the potatoes start to soften – 5 minutes. Add enough liquid to cover the vegetables, and salt and pepper as well. Increase heat and bring the liquid to the edge of a boil, then simmer with a pot lid covering about half the pot for 1 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are mashed potatoes soft. Mash the potatoes and leeks right in the pot, enough to thicken the liquid but not so much as to make a pureed soup.

Leave the soup on low heat.

Melt butter in a pan and add the tender greens (sorrel, spinach or parsely) and cook until the greens shrink down. Ladle soup into bowls and cover with buttery greens.

Serve with bread and salad for a winter meal or as a first course.

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