My New Love Affair

I am in love with leeks! I tried them with Teri when we were visiting an old high school gymnastics friend recently and I remember being amazed then. Jason and I are spending the weekend at The Cottage and this morning I noticed in the Port Rowan Foodland that leeks were on sale for $1.19 each. We were already planning to do steak with mushrooms so I thought they would be a good addition. Sure enough, I was able to put together an awesome meal with leeks and mushrooms in a Balsamic and Lemon (and Worcestershire and Garlic) reduction. (Yes, I made a reduction, it wasn't super reduced but it I got it thick enough to comfortably call it by that fancy term.)

Then I served my fancy reduction over steak medallions that I had cooked earlier in the pan and kept warm in the toaster oven. (I made the reduction in the same pain used to cook the meat so as it make it more au jus/gravy ish.) I cooked the steak with the edges wrapped in bacon, but then I ended up having to take the bacon off after cooking it because it didn't fully cook, I guess it just ended up protecting the sides from getting too dark/dry. I also managed to make my steak medium-well. While I was aiming to do Jason's medium-rare is was probably closer to medium. However, this is still much better than my usual very well done way of cooking all meat (and pasta, and vegetables  and really anything on a stove top.)

As you can see I am quite proud of my cooking tonight. I still don't like doing it very much but I am getting much better at it. Lately, the things I make seem easier and it takes less time than usual. Also, they have been pretty creative, taste decent, and most impressively finish at approximately the same time so everything can be served together.

Still the best part of the meal tonight was the leeks, totally made the dish. They are so amazing - sweet and delicious! They are also really really good for you. I am going to start using them all the time!