This past Thursday I was frequenting the Brigham Circle Market on the way home from work.  I knew I shouldn’t buy much since I was going away for the weekend but like I said, I needed to stock up on some root veggies, and my experience with their lettuce has been long lasting if you wash and pack away in the fridge right when you get home.

I had reached my quota and was about to check out when it caught my eyes… the cutest bundle of leeks for sale, all tied together with a rustic piece of rope.  Call me a sucker for packaging all you want but that bunch of leeks did it for me; i had no plans for leeks but there was no way I could turn them down.  And to top if all off they were giving out complimentary reusable bags which I thought was a great end of the season gesture to all the loyal customers.

Of course that night I made potato and leek soup and on Sunday when I got back from Providence I used the remaining leek for a spicy red lentil soup.  Leeks can go in just about any soup to add another layer of flavor.  Since we are approaching soup season check out the Crow’s Soup Archive for some ideas.  Hopefully we’ll beef that section up in the coming months!

Leeks are probably my favorite aromatic, perfect base for soups and risotto.  I’ve been making so much potato and leek soup lately  i needed a change and opted for a risotto.  Not sure if this will be my last risotto of the cold months but if so it was a delicious farewell.

Risotto with Leeks & Swiss Chard
I realized I was out of white wine when I started this dish but improvised with vermouth and lemon juice- in a pinch it compensates for the acid component.

1 C Arborio rice
1 Quart vegetable stock*
1/4 C white wine
2 leeks, light green and white parts sliced and
washed to remove sand and grit
1 carrot, sliced
1 bunch chard, washed and roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1/4 C grated cheese
2 TBS butter
olive oil, salt and pepper

Use whatever risotto technique you prefer, this one works well for me- begin sauteing the aromatics and stir in the chard when half of the stock is absorbed.  At first I was nervous about the amount of chard I added to the risotto but it really cooks down so don’t be shy!

* Save the chard stems for your next vegetable stock.

Its true.  I love Real Simple Magazine.  Sure, there are a little to many articals that reference having children.  And sure, it promotes almost every heteronormative stereotypes under the sun, but I don’t care.  Who knew that you can clean a keyboard with stickynotes?  Or what brand of curl smoother works best?  Or which brand of pickles has the best crunch?  Real Simple will teach you all this and more.  It rocks.  Plus, they have awesome, easy, inexpensive recipes.

I made this super yummy Potato Leek and Feta Tart from their September issue the other nice and it was so savory and comforting, and super, super easy.  Try it out!

To commemorate his birthday, the germs of all-hallows-eve have stripped him of his newly renewed (thanks to bilateral endoscopic surgery of the sinuses) voice. How will I nurse this birthday boy back to health, you ask? With a nice portion of clean and fresh chicken soup. This recipe makes sooo much soup, so if  you don’t want to eat chicken soup for the whole week, I suggest cutting back a bit

Using the store bought, pre-roasted chicken opened up some major possibilities, the main one being that I could use the meat for soup, and make a nice stock out of the bones/left over bits. To make the stock, I simply boiled the bones with carrots, celery, a rosemary branch, and some lemon (I suggest omitting the lemon if you don’t like the cooked lemon flavor, its quite strong) for 1 hour. It smelled better than the soup I was making.

Emylou’s Chicken Soup

1 Roasted Chicken *, picked to the bone of all meaty goodness
5 carrots, chopped in big chunks
1 whole celery bunch, chopped in large chunks
2 Leeks, coarsely chopped
1/5 onion, diced
1.5 cups uncooked rice
1 bunch chard, chopped to 1 inch piece
1 bunch cilantro, loosely chopped
6 garlic cloves
water
S&P

Soy Sauce
Ginger root
Rooster Sauce

Method: Begin by cooking the onions until translucent. Add the carrots and celery, followed by the leeks. Drop in 6 crushed cloves of garlic. Cook until very wilted. Cover with water, add rice. Cover with a lot of water, probably 10-15 cups of water. You will need enough liquid to cook the rice, and also leave room for the chard and cilantro, to be added after the rice is cooked. This is a personal preference thing. After the rice is cooked,drop in the chard/cilantro, and cook until wilted.Don’t forget to S & P throughout each phase, to taste.

To serve: ladle in the soup to your bowl of choice. Drizzle in 1-2 T of Soy sauce, and some rooster hot sauce, to taste. Complete by grading some fresh ginger over the bowl. Enjoy!

*pre-roasted or roast it yourself. the other day the store-roasted chicken was significantly cheaper than the whole uncooked chicken in the meat section, so I went with that. One could also just wait to make this after thanksgiving…oh the possibilities!

Also, I finally got a new camera! Check out this persimmon-chocolate cheesecake I made!

Cheesecake is so easy to make, if you can put up with the amount of animal goo you will consume. 4 8 oz cream cheese packages, 3/4 c sour cream, 1 cup persimmon puree, lemon zest, 1/2 c-1 c sugar, vanilla extract. Pour over crust of your liking in a spring -form pan, and bake 1 hour Breakfast anyone?