Here is the Next Installment in the Ongoing Poem Series About the Winter of 2006

January 11, 2006
The night before last we made leeks in their own broth for dinner

served in bowls with lots of olive oil
parsley
lemon juice
salt and pepper
and a sliced up hard-boiled egg on top

Tasty
but surprising and strange too
since the leeks did not taste at all like I expected them too

I love leeks in potato leek soup or a vegetable stir fry
and have eaten them in each of those dishes many times
I’ve enjoyed braised leeks
and I think maybe a gratin of leeks one time
possibly at some point I have also had them grilled in a restaurant
But they never tasted like this

Since they were only boiled in their own broth for a while
I can only imagine that this is their true flavor
It is more complex
more bitter and biting and vegetal
with an undercurrent of almost
seaweed?
vinegar?
bamboo?
than I have ever encountered
when eating them all mélanged up
with butter and cream and potatoes or other vegetables or whatnot

Their onion nature
I suppose
coming out



image source is here