Sunday, April 29, 2012

Leek Tart

Linking up with Skip To My Lou today!

I grow leeks every couple of years and the only drawback to leeks is that they really aren't ready after one season.  However, the cool thing is that after the winter, they are one of the few things out there, growing with abandon and I do love it when spring comes and actual foods are growing without my effort.

My leeks never get like the huge things in the stores.  Last year, I let them sit longer and they went to seed and were VERY woody.  I didn't mind, but k-ster didn't like picking "sticks" out of his food, so I can't do that again.  I'm ok with small, finger sized leeks.

This spring, I was surprised to see about 12 leeks growing where I don't remember planting them!  I always get a little freaked out about eating a food that I didn't actually plant.  Like, where did this rogue plant come from?  Could it be poisonous (when it looks like every single one that I grew?)  For those who are keeping track, this is further evidence  that I make no sense.

I could sense that they were about to bolt, so I picked them today and made this Leek Tart as a little pre-supper entertainment**.

Preheat oven to 375.

These were all of my leeks.  Together, they might have equalled 3 of those that you get at the store.

I washed them, cut the roots off and most of the green.


You can see that I couldn't help using some of the green. I  think people are nuts to throw away every piece of green, so I go as far as I can before they start to feel thick and tough. I also added about 1/3 of an onion because there wasn't as much leek as I wanted there to be.  I added 2 cloves of garlic and sauteed it all in olive oil.

And the garlic stuck to the pan and I wasn't too happy.


I happened to have a pie crust in the refrigerator which is almost unheard of.  But I got tricked by Stop and Shop and then didn't have the desire to fight with customer service.  So now I have a plethora of pie crust.

Anycrust, I put some Grey Poupon mustard, some Greek Oregano that was just popping up the garden and smooshed them around the pie crust.


I grated some parmesan and Colby Jack cheese on the bottom and then put the sauteed stuff on top and then put a little more cheese on top of that.  I added Italian herb blend because I didn't have Herbes de Provence and except for the lavender, they are really the same blend.  Oh, I put some cracked pepper too.


I folded the pie crust around "rustic" style.


I baked it at 375 for 22 minutes and it was pretty tasty!

The real recipe is here, but who has time for real recipes?  And you'll see that I really didn't follow this actual recipe at all.  It was merely a suggestion.

I can't tell you a single quantity except "some" of everything.  Oh, and ONE pie crust.  And TWO cloves of garlic.

** K-ster isn't too thrilled when I serve something we already ate, so I figured I'd create a diversion.

1 comment:

  1. This looks so yummy. I am obsessed with leeks. I use almost all the green and just chop it fine and cook it longer. I don't find them too tough at all. I didn't realize you grew them. Do you plant in the fall it spring and it takes a year?

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