A Fresh Leek

An ambition fulfilled. The children and I went to the allotment on Christmas Eve and we dug up six lovely leeks which I made into a mushroom, stilton and leek vegetable plait for the vegetarian alternative to turkey for Christmas dinner. We chose the fattest six and carefully dug them up. They smelt gorgeous, so oniony and earthy.

They only took a few minutes to saute in the frying pan and were beautifully tender - not like your shop-bought ones which are a bit tough and take much longer to cook.

Slightly on the downside - when digging for potatoes there were none! I think they must have disintegrated or been eaten by slugs.

The sprouts are still a bit small to pick yet, so there was no point in picking them for Christmas dinner, but we have them to look forward to next year.

However, eating the leeks far outweighed the fact that the potatoes are no more and the sprouts are yet to come.