leek jam rhapsody

I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. I re-read the entire series every few years or so, and a few summers ago convinced a car full of obliging friends to detour markedly off our path to a winery to check out a recreation of Laura's "Little House in the Big Woods" near Pepin, WI.
I recalled with my oldest and most food-lovingest friend Maggie lately the section of the "Big Woods" book illustrated below.

"The attic was a lovely place to play. The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables. The red peppers and the onions dangled overhead. The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bundles of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty-spicy smell.
Often the wind howled outside with a cold and lonesome sound. But in the attic Laura and Mary played house with the squashes and the pumpkins, and everything was snug and cozy."

I look forward to wintry days with a fire in the woodstove when everything will be "snug and cozy."

To that end, a day in the garden (yesterday) begot a day in the kitchen.

Blanching and freezing green beans and kale, baking zucchini quiches and zucchini bread, canning 5 quarts of carrots and 13 pints of roasted tomato sauce.

Most decadently, making leek jam. My friend Annie told me about about a leek jam she'd had in France last fall, and she made some when we cooked together last month. So. Good. I was glad I'd had a tutorial- I could rhapsodize on the wonders of this stuff.

To make: slice up great big bunches of leeks, and saute slowly in butter or olive oil (I used a bit of both), adding more as necessary, until soft and caramelized. Annie made it as a topping for smashed red potatoes and grilled salmon. I froze some to use as a base for soups and risotto in chillier weather, and am looking forward to spreading some on ciabatta toast to go with my quiche for dinner. I'm going to consult my books later to find out if ramps (wild leeks) can be harvested in the fall. Oh, let's hope!