l is for leeks

first off, leeks remind me of elwyn. back when we all worked together, he was working in "r"zone and a customer came up to let him know that another customer was taking a leak. elwyn's british ears thought he said "lead" (as in cord, i guess)... the truth was an unpleasant surprise. this is still funny to me after more than five years :)

secondly, they remind me of yum. check them out! they're incredibly pretty and the taste is equally lovely... that mild bite mingles with whatever it's cookin' with... mmmmm. when they're sliced up, they even look like little bullseyes. and the reason you want to slice 'em is that they have dirt trapped in all kinds of cracks and crannies, and the best way to get all that out (or so the internet tells me) is to cut the leek into coins and swirl it around in water until the grit is loosened up. then we scoop the coins out of the water! easy as (leeky) pie.

after looking left and right for recipes, i decided to create a leek, spinach, and spinach risotto, only using wild rice. so, wild rice isn't ideal... it's a bit too tough. from my understanding, the point of frying the rice before adding broth is to crack the grain so that the liquid can enter in. a) yummy flavours on the inside and b) faster cooking. in any case, wild rice ain't meant for this. and it's not super starchy, which means it doesn't turn out so naturally creamy.

what i'm confessing here is that maybe what i actually made doesn't officially count as risotto. but i'm ok with that. and you should be ok with it, too. ok? and you know why? 'cause it tasted marvelous!!! especially with the spinachy, leeky, shrimy, green oniony, craisiny deliciousness i added :D

give leeks a try... and not just in potato soup. you'll be glad you did.