Seasonal Food Recipes Part 1 - I'm Off For A Leek...

This year, I will mostly be banging my drum about vegetables. Although Richard eats meat, and I'm a hypocrite (i.e. I don't eat mammals unless they've lived wild and been shot, and I only eat Free-Range or, at a push,'Freedom Food' poultry); living on a weekly food budget of around £25.00 means that we often have completely vegetarian weeks.
With the current 'credit crunch' / economic downturn / complete annihilation of the modern world as we know it (delete as applicable according to your level of paranoia) bearing down on us all; it doesn't take a genius to work out that eating more simple vegetarian meals could make a huge difference to the weekly food budget.

It's good to buy seasonal veg wherever possible, as locally as possible. You know, food miles, freshness, supporting your friendly local farmer and all that. I'm not going to kid you on that I don't have a freezer bursting with bags of frozen veg, but they tend to be accompaniments to a meal, or to help bolster out, say, a veggie curry; but I do try to base a few meals each week on food that is in season, and is grown locally. It isn't much, I concede, but it helps. It's easy to forget that vegetables can be the main ingredient of a meal, and not just something dumped on the side of the meat and spuds.

So, first and foremost in my guide to lovely seasonal food for January is that smelly icon of my homeland, the trusty leek.






Did you, perchance, know that it was Phoenican traders who introduced the humble leek to Wales when they engaged in the tin trade?

Legend has it that in 640 AD, the Briton King Cadwallader was under threat from the invading Saxons. In order to distinguish themselves from the enemy, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats and subsequently gained a great victory over their enemies. Since that time, the Welsh have proudly eaten and worn the distinctive vegetable as a matter of national pride.

Saying that, there was not much pride in eating your raw leek in a show of childish bravado on St David's Day before mid-morning playtime and subsequently throwing up all over the playground and/or teacher.....

Leeks are an excellent source of vitamin C, iron and fibre; and also share the same attributes as their relatives - onions and garlic - in that they are reputed to aid the functioning of the blood and heart, and are also anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Interestingly, raw leek juice is very calming (though a bit smelly) for chicken-pox spots and the symptoms of Shingles.

If you make no other soup this month, make this one......

The World's Easiest Leek and Potato Soup
Serves 4 easily

You will need:

1 medium to large leek - I like the thick, dark green bits because I'm Welsh, but feel free to remove them if you prefer.
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes - any old spuds will do, let's not get pretentious about this.
2 pints of vegetable stock (I must confess to using an Oxo cube or four when I've got no home-made stock, which is, erm, pretty much all the time...)
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
A blender

First, thoroughly wash your leek. Even if it's organic. It might look nice and clean on the outside, but you'd be amazed how much dirt is inside. I've read loads of ways to clean the buggers but, to be honest, they are all pretty faffy. Best way I've found is simply to slit the leek all the way from tip to bulb, then roughly chop. Chuck the lot in a collander, wash with cold water.

Then fry your leek for around 3 minutes on a medium heat (you don't want to burn it), adding the potatoes and frying gently for a further 2 minutes.

Whack in your stock, bring to a gentle rolling boil and then immediately reduce temperature (down to low).

Bugger off and do something interesting for an hour.

Turn off heat and give your soup a while to cool down before blending.

Sit down and enjoy your masterpiece, or pop into freezer to enjoy later.

(As we have kids, I tend not to add salt and pepper until it reaches the table, as there is usually a lot of salt in the stock).

As usual, the BBC Food Guide has a fantastic range of recipes using leeks - you can look them up for yourself here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/


But here are a few more of my personal favourites:

Three Mustard and Cheese Leek Bake
(serves 8...well, depending on hunger....)

3lb (1kg 350g) small leeks, trimmed and washed and cut in half
salt and pepper
2oz (50g) butter
3oz (50g) plain flour
¾ pint (425ml) milk
6oz (175g) cheddar cheese, grated
1oz (25g) parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp (15g) wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp (15g) Dijon mustard
1 tsp (5g) English mustard

For the topping:
2 tbsp fresh wholemeal breadcurmbs
1oz (25g) grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6/180C fan oven.2.

Place the leeks in a pan of cold salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes until just tender.

Drain and put straight under cold water.

Place the butter, flour and milk in a saucepan and slowly bring up to the boil and whisk all the time. Once it is up to the boil, reduce the heat and let it just simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the grated cheddar and parmesan and then the mustards.

Season with salt and pepper

Put leeks into a shallow serving dish and pour over the sauce.

Mix the breadcrumbs and the cheese together and scatter over the top of the leeks.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

This basic recipe also works really well with cauliflower (posh Cauliflower Cheese, really!) and broccoli.

Leek, cheese and mushroom flan
Serves 4. Ish.

1 savoury flan-case (yeah, yeah, I know...I'm crap at pastry). Make your own if you think you're hard enough - it needs to a 9 incher.
2 large leeks
Oil or butter to saute the leeks
3 medium eggs
3 fl oz milk
3 fl oz soured cream (optional, you could just use another 2 fl oz of milk, really)
A pinch of salt
6 oz cheddar cheese
3 mushrooms, sliced
Ground nutmeg
Method

Set oven to 200 degrees C or Mark6.

Slice the washed leeks and saute them in a pan until they are just soft

Season with black pepper and cool.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, soured cream if using and a pinch of salt and then add half the cheese, the mushrooms and the leeks to this mixture.

Pour into the flan case and sprinkle the remainder of the cheese over the top.
Grate some nutmeg over (or, if common as muck like me, pinch some out of the nice handy jar of pre-prepared stuff)

Place in the oven and bake for 1/2 an hour until golden brown.

This recipe is also gorgeous if you substitute the cheddar cheese for 4oz of Gorgonzola or Dolcelatta, and add a little rosemary (dried or fresh) to the egg mixture when you add the salt; and omit the nutmeg at the end.Who needs nutmeg, anyhow?

I hope this has inspired you to do more with the leek than a) wave them at rugby matches or b) half-heartedly fry them off and shove them in mash potato. Stay tuned for my next Seasonal Food bang-drumming session, which will happen after I have been able to conduct some culinary experimentation in my kitchen..........