Wild Leek Soup

Every Spring in Northern New York (and probably in many other parts of the country) a rural tradition "springs" from the ground.  Wild Leeks!  As a kid, I only knew leeks as a food with an extremely strong oder that my friends would eat raw in an effort to offend everyone at school with their extreme bad breath.  As an adult, I've learned to appreciate wild leeks as one of Nature's free and local foods.

Recently retired, I've been searching for activities to keep me busy.  Learning to cook is on my bucket list of things I want to learn.  I've never cooked much in my entire life.  My late wife Kathy was a gourmet cook, and therefore I relied on her.  Unfortunately, I relied on her too much.  I wasn't smart enough to learn from her.  It was just too easy to sit back and be served.  On the other hand, Kathy had acquired almost every kitchen gadget known to exist, so I am well equipped.   :-)

Anyway, several weeks ago I was walking in the woods behind my house and I saw leeks.  It was about two weeks earlier than usual, due to the very early warm weather we were having.  Looking for something to do, I picked some.  Now, what to do with them?  Thanks to Google, within minutes I have more recipes in front of me than I could count.  The idea of wild leek and potato soup appealed to me, so I went with one of those recipes.  In fact, I discovered that in many parts of the country, wild leeks are called ramps, which is a term I have never heard here in Northern NY.

Step one is to pick the leeks.  They come out of the ground dirty.  I soon discovered that soaking them in a pail of water for a half hour or soon made the cleaning process much easier.  Step two, then is to clean the leeks and trim the roots.  When cleaned and trimmed, they resemble scallions.  The best way to describe the taste of leeks is a blend of onions and garlic.

I cooked some strips of bacon in a stock pot.  I pulled the bacon from the pot, and then sautéed some chopped leeks for a few minutes in the same stock pot.  I trimmed most of the leaves off the leeks, but left just enough to add color to the soup.  I then added some diced potatoes ( I used Yukon Gold) along several teaspoons of flour and confectioners sugar and continued to sauté for a few more minutes.  Then I added chicken stock, added back the bacon and simmered until the potatoes were soft.  I then added some half and half to color and thicken the soup and simmered until hot.  Serve hot and fresh with some crackers or fresh French bread and you are in heaven.

I once met Roger Swain, who hosted a show on Public Broadcasting TV called "Crockett's Victory Garden."  Roger was passionate about seasonal foods.  He spoke about gorging on asparagus until you were sick of it.  Then you gorged on another seasonal, such as sweet corn until you were sick of that.  He was not a fan of having foods like asparagus or sweet corn available year round.  He felt that seasonal foods were more flavorful and special because you only had a few weeks each year to enjoy their flavors.

Well, I have now added leeks to that list of special seasonal foods.  I can't wait until next year.  Oh, by the way, I discovered a couple spears of asparagus poking through the ground today.  Next up, asparagus soup.   :-)