The green market is beginning to heat up as more and more veggies make their appearance after winter’s doldrums. Although leeks usually shine in the fall, I got this beautiful array of baby leeks just the other day – fresh from the ground. I roasted them to go along with some skate wing – one of the few fish that Steve, my fish-allergy prone husband can eat. Roasting or braising are the two cooking methods that seem to bring out their inherent sweetness and mellow out any acrid flavor. This is particularly true for mature, fall-harvested leeks. For the more mature leeks, you want to slice them, crosswise, before cooking otherwise they can be fibrous. The baby leeks are not quite so. All I did was wash them, trim off the dark green part, and toss them with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper before roasting them at 375ºF for about 20 minutes. They were a little brown and crisp around the edges and soft and mellow on the tongue.
We will be selling wild leeks/ramps for the next few weeks. $3 for a bunch of 8-10 plants. I realize this is on the costly side, but each plant patch has to be traveled to, and each plant harvested and cleaned by hand/individually, using selective methods to ensure sustainability… and that’s what we have put to consideration.
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