"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
It's been a funny year for veg this year!
Everything has come early.
Many of the leeks have the solid centres that they get when they are
starting to go to seed.
Is it OK to eat the middles?
(They seem to taste all right.)
--
Chris


Forget to mention, if you just cut the shafts at each end
just below the leaves, and just above the base plate
but leaving the flower stalk intact, if you roll the leek
on a chopping board or the like with a rolling pin action
you should be able to slide the middle out in one go.
You can waggle it around from the top, but need to slide it out
from the bottom. The trick is loosen it sufficiently with the
rolling action so that you don't break it in half by having
to pull too hard.

Otherwise if you have sliced leeks, the middles can form harder
discs.

From memory which stands to be corrected, leeks don't
put on the equivalent girth as the flower stalk
swells, meaning the leaf bases which form the shaft
of the leek lose moisture, the cells contract and
thus become coarser too.


michael adams

....