Culinary Throwdown Challenge - LEEKS

This month's Culinary Throwdown Challenge is being sponsored by Allison over at Tales From LaLa Land and the theme is LEEKS. Moi over at Bite the Apple I think is doing the judging again because she does such an outstanding job (note the gratuitous butt kissing - gotta score points any way I can).

Note to Allison: Since you recently changed your blog, I can no longer view it during the day because my company firewalls it. I don't know why this is and yours isn't the first blog that this has happened to. So I may have to let you know about this entry over at Troll's place.

Anyway, jeez, who picked Leeks for the Culinary Throwdown Challenge? I have never worked with these things before, so I'm stepping into uncharted waters. I was originally going to do a simple leek preparation to use as a side (Leeks with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette) but the more I thought about it, the more I thought the Mrs and the monsters wouldn't eat it. So I stumbled across Tomato Leek Tarts. It's kind of like a pizza so I figured they would at least try it. And it's simple enough that even I could do it although it does involve baking.

Anyway, here are all of the ingredients laid out. Really the only recipe deviation is the addition of some fresh basil because of some recipe reviewer recommendations (from Allrecipes.com) and it made sense to me.

Note that I did not use the lemon shown in the pictures. I had it in my head that I needed it but it was the vinaigrette recipe that called for it.

I sliced the tomatoes and leeks as thin as I could with a knife. A mandolin probably would have been good here but I don't own one. Assembly was very easy and it looked pretty good before it went in the oven. This recipe makes two tarts.

I did one on a pizza pan and the other on a baking stone.

After about 15 minutes in the oven at 425F I pulled them out and but the basil on top. I probably should have put the basil under the mozzarella cheese instead. I baked them the full 22 minutes that the recipe called for. And here's what they looked like.





I thought the taste was pretty good. You definitely got the taste of the leeks. They were a little messy in that you couldn't eat it like a pizza. You needed to use a fork and knife. I think this would have been better if the tomato and leeks were sliced paper thin. The Mrs said she liked it but she was obviously humoring me. She's not a big onion fan. The monsters immediately pulled the tomatoes and leeks off and ate the cheese and crust. The pudge said he liked the flavor that was left with the cheese and had a 2nd piece. The boy really didn't have an opinion. I have one tart left that I think I'll take in to the office. Those guys will eat anything - that's free.



It was nice trying a new ingredient that I never used before. I tasted some raw and it definitely has a strong oniony chivy taste. I don't think I would make this recipe again but would be willing to try leeks in a different way.