Farewell Winter, Welcome Spring

Cleaning out the last of the winter garden. The leeks were 'Winter Giant' kings seeds, planted about September 2008 in the glasshouse in a few pots, spent some weeks in the shade house in December and then were planted out a week or so before Christmas.

Started eating them about March; by then we'd had several frosts (first 2 frosts 15th and 16th February 2009) and have been enjoying them ever since. Turned out to be a huge leek that has hung in well, only barely going to seed now and even though it was an exceptionally dry winter (8ml of rain from May to end of September... but some of you knew that already) the leeks were and are still suprisingly tender. So, to get back to the leek, just one and look at it.

I tried a new quiche recipe based on one in the paper from Bevan and Monique Smith, Riverstone Kitchen just out of Oamaru. The Shortcrust pastry used 3oog flour, 150g butter, pinch salt, and water to mix and I used the recommended 26cm deep dish but had way too much pastry: a bonus pastry crust which I baked blind, froze and used later to make a lemon meringue pie (which is improved by an unsweetened pastry).

I used the sauteed leek, a can 415g of drained whole kernel sweetcorn, 400g of bacon cut small and sizzled, 1 T finely chopped fresh thyme, chopped parsely, salt and pepper and 4 eggs, 400ml of farm milk which is really creamy at the moment. On top of that I added a good sprinkle of grated cheese. Oops, nearly forgot. For this recipe you precook the base first at 200 C
and then pour in the filling and bake at 160 C till done maybe 40 mins. Voila.

This year I've planted 'Musselburgh' leeks, a Carnival seed because I was in the Warehouse when I remembered it. The new resolve is to use heirloom seed, something with pedigree and track record for NZ but obviously it's a progressive resolve. Planted them 10th September and they're well up.