Leek Tart

I finally had time Monday afternoon to make the Leek Tart recipe that I've been trying to get around to now for a month or so. Yesterday was an incredibly busy day, but I've found that the busier I am, the more efficient I become. My efficiency levels were at such a high yesterday that I was actually home from the grocery store, with a carload of groceries, before 9:00 am.

Even after all this time of reading this recipe and hoping to get a chance to make it, I still didn't have the exact ingredients. This recipe came from my America's Bounty cookbook (credit given again to my lovely mother, who found this for me at a yard sale), which I now swear must have been written by a European, so odd are the proportions of ingredients. I keep thinking that maybe the ingredient list was converted from the metric system. For instance, it called for a 13-oz can of evaporated skim milk, something that wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that I could only find 12-oz cans. And it would have killed my efficiency theory to have opened up another can just for the additional missing ounce. In addition, the recipe called for a 6-oz pack of cream cheese. In Georgia, cream cheese is sold in 8-oz packages. Even after making some changes, in the interest of efficiency of course, the tart came out wonderfully. The Carnivore really enjoyed it, claiming it was far better than my spinach tart and my quiche (hmph).

LEEK TART

• 6 leeks, white part only, well washed and cut crosswise into thin slices
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 oz cream cheese (I used 8 oz)
• 13 oz evaporated skim milk (I used 12 oz)
• 1/3 cup low-fat milk (I used plain light soymilk)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• Deep dish, 9-inch, unbaked, pie crust

1. Put the water and salt in a saucepan and heat to boiling.
2. Place leeks in the boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Drain leeks and set aside.
4. In a saucepan over low heat, stir & mash together the cream cheese, evaporated milk, and milk until warm and creamy.
5. Beat a small amount of the milk mixture into the eggs, then pour the eggs into the pan.
6. Stir in leeks and nutmeg.
7. Pour into crust and bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.

This was the first time I had used leeks. I used to get extremely confused by the difference in green onions, scallions, leeks, and shallots; and would often use green onions in place of any of these ingredients in recipes. I only recently learned (when having a discussion with a chef friend of mine) that green onions and scallions are the same thing. Leeks are larger versions of green onions/scallions. Shallots look like cloves of garlic. So glad to finally have that cleared up.

I served the tart with Black-Eyed Pea Salad, a variation on the usual marinated three-bean salads everyone grew up with. I pulled this recipe from the AJC Food Section months ago, and have, of course, tweaked the original recipe to better suit my own tastes. I've made this salad a few times now and we always seem to fight over the last serving. The tang of the vinegar in the salad contrasted perfectly with the creaminess of the tart.

BLACK-EYED PEA SALAD

• 3 cups black-eyed peas
• 1.5 cups chopped peppers (I use a mixture of red and green bell peppers, and poblanos)
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup chopped white onion
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 Tbs cider vinegar
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• fresh cracked black pepper, to taste (I use a crapload, but I'm not sure how to convert that into normal-people-measurement system)
• 2 tsp hot sauce

1. Combine beans, peppers, celery and onions.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, vinegar, garlic, salt, black pepper and hot sauce.
3. Pour dressing over beans and toss together.
4. Let stand overnight in the refrigerator for flavors to meld.