A leeky week

This week I experimented with a new cooking ingredient: leeks. Although I've seen them in the grocery store and in many recipes, I just never bought any before. So, I decided to try them in a potato/leek soup of my own devices, which is pretty bold for me, since a) I almost always use a recipe and b) I had never used leeks before. However, I am proud to say the experiment was a resounding success!

Let me back up a little and say that last Friday, before the film festival adventure at Green Lantern, Juan and I sat down to a delectable meal of roasted chicken with lemon, rosemary and garlic and Juan's special recipe of brussel sprouts w/ olive oil and lemon. I love roasting chicken because you get so many different meals from one cooking session. First, I always include a couple of whole cloves of garlic in the pan, so we can spread roasted garlic on crusty baguette bread with the meal. I don't think there are many things better than roasted garlic, I really don't. The leftover chicken can be added to salads or sandwiches- this week it was salad with homemade Italian dressing. Homemade dressing is far superior flavor-wise to store bought ones and really doesn't take that long to make. Once the chicken is pretty bare, I cook the rest of the, ahem, carcass, with veggies and seasoning to make a broth that can be frozen for future use in soups and risottos and such.

So, back to the potato-leek soup. The taste was favorably disproportionate to the preparation time. All I did was boil a couple of cubed potatoes in about 4-5 cups of homemade chicken stock, add the cut-up leeks after 15 minutes and cook for another 15 or so, add some pepper and then puree the whole thing with an immersion blender until smooth. Some people like to add cream or half and half to their purees, but this was perfect without any additions. I think the stock had a lot to do with the flavor, but it could have been the leeks, I'm not sure. Check out here for more leek info than you ever needed/wanted to know. The thing with leeks is, they are notoriously full of sand, so be sure you clean them well before cooking. I can confidently say I will be cooking with leeks many more times in the near future.

I leave you today with photos of Lisa with the red pom-pom hat I made her for Christmas with Rowan's Ribbon Twist yarn in Racy- oh yes, I said Racy
A view from the back
And now the front