Leeks and Wensleydale Cheese

nabowla

I picked up a large packet of trimmed leeks for a silly discount price (20p) in the supermarket last night. I could just eat boiled leek all week (and next week too) but I thought it might be interesting to have a go at something different. I'm thinking that leeks go well with cheese - there's a chunk of wensleydale in the fridge that I could use. Any bright ideas about what I could do?

wigginsmum

Make cheese sauce - melt butter, add flour, cook for a couple of mins, add milk until sauce thickens, stir in grated cheese, pour over cooked leeks?

Cook leeks and make a quiche?

Make soup and flavour it with balsamic vinegar and caraway seeds? Wonderful for root vegetables but would probaby work for leeks too.

Jules

Pooky

I picked up some leek and red leicester cheese in ASDA the other day -- was scrummy.

Lucie_2

Leeks in cheese sauce is a favourite in our house - a good alternative to cauliflower cheese.
One of my dinner party staples is spicy goats cheese & leek souffle. The recipe is on the BBC website by Paul Rankin. You could easily substitute the goats cheese for Wensleydale. If you don't like it spicy just don't add the chilli powder, it works just as well.
In Yorkshire of course you would be eating the Wensleydale with your Christmas cake - mmmmmmmmmmm!
Edit: recipe here

nabowla

I haven't made cheese sauce since I switched to skimmed milk ages ago because I'm quite convinced that the sauce will turn out too watery. However, I might just give it a go as I love the sound of leeks in cheese sauce.

Love the sound of the soup too. What's the basic recipe - cook the veggies in stock, then add the vinegar and the seeds? Do I need to fry the veggies first? Anything else I need to chuck in - eg to thicken the soup?

Bibendum

nabowla wrote:

I haven't made cheese sauce since I switched to skimmed milk ages ago because I'm quite convinced that the sauce will turn out too watery. However, I might just give it a go as I love the sound of leeks in cheese sauce.

How about using skimmed evaporated milk. Works a treat!

In northern France theer is a traditional leek tarte called flamiche, basically puff pastry with precooked leeks+egg+cream+ seasonings.
Yummy!

Pink.

Hi nabowla,

There are a couple of recent leek threads that might give you some ideas:

Leeks

What to do with oodles of leeks?

Pink

wigginsmum

I cook the veggies slowly in stock until they're soft (you might want to add potatoes or carrots to give it some substance) (I don't pre-fry but you can), blend with a hand blender because I like smooth soups, and stir in splashes of balsamic and sprinkles of caraway seeds until it tastes right. Had this in a wholefood cafe in East London and pestered the chef until he told me the secret!

Jules

nickinoo

Ooh Gromit, this sounds yummy. Cheese sauce works well with skimmed milk, in fact I have even made a cheese sauce with soya milk & soya cheese & it still worked.