From On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee:
“Unlike onions and garlic, leeks don’t form useful storage bulbs, and are grown instead for their scallion-like mass of fresh leaves. (…..) The upper green portion of each leek leaf is edible, but tends to be tougher and to have less onion, more cabbage-like flavor than the lower white portion. It’s also rich in long-chain carbohydrates that give the cooked vegetable a slippery texture, will gel when chilled, and can lend body to soups and stews.”
Leeks are a top-tier allium. We split them down the middle to best clean them, and then cut them into nice manageable sizes pieces. Like this, they are easier to use than onion or garlic. Simply slice and they’re ready to be the base of flavor in whatever you’re cooking.
Nichols referred to this a ‘Biker’ Leek, and in my due diligence, I typically research any particularly named variety. In that effort, I occasionally come across some pretty fun descriptions/reviews. Here is one from seedway.com on biker leeks:
This summer leek features a very straight long shaft and remarkably erect leaves that make it easy to bunch.
We had baby leeks a few early last month when they were still small. Now they’re big boys, so I’ve cut them down into nice sized pieces that will be manageable to work with as you will.
Small versions of leek, we split them (best way to clean between the layers) and then trimmed them. They’re nice sliced thinly, and used anywhere you would use onion, although they’re popular in French cuisine so there are a few dishes that call for them specifically.
A lot of leek to close out the season, but we like that though. Besides cleaning leeks (but that’s what you have Gard Mo for), they’re easy to use and add a nice mellow oniony-ness to any dish.
We really like leek because of how easy it is to use. We cut it down to manageable size pieces so all that you have to do is give it a quick slice and throw in with whatever other veggies you’re cooking.
