The humble leek can boast a literary career seldom equaled in the food world. Chaucer wrote of “much-loved leeks” in his Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare used leeks for comic relief in Henry V and they are mentioned in the Bible.

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Leeks are a necessary ingredient in vichyssoise, and a hot leek and potato soup is seen on menus all over Europe. It has even been adopted by a leading dried soup manufacturer in this country.

Leeks, like all onions, belong to the lily family and are originally from Asia, where it’s believed they were a cultivated form of Oriental garlic. There is some evidence that Bronze Age people ate them as well as ancient Babylonians and Egyptians.

Greeks and Romans have left us recipes, and it is said that Nero ate leek soup every day to improve the quality of his voice for public oratory. The Romans also cooked leeks in combination with green beans or fava beans, as they still do today. Chinese cooks make long ribbons of cut leeks and tie up bundles of chicken meat to cook in rich broth.

In France, leeks are known as poireaux, and they are boiled, baked, braised, sautéed, deep-fried or served with sauces.

If you have leftover leeks, slice the white pars and freeze them. Use the pieces to enrich a stock, soup or sauce of any kind which calls for onions, or whirl them in a blender with cold tomato juice for a different taste. Here are some pretty popular recipes.

Vichyssoise

You can purchase this in cans or in powdered mix form. However, those products are inferior to the real thing. This version, based on a very old Gourmet cookbook recipe, is easy to make if you own a pressure cooker and a blender — although you can do without if need be.

1 medium onion, sliced

4 leeks, white parts only

2 tablespoons butter

5 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 quart chicken stock

1 quart half-and-half

Salt as desired

Milk or cream for thinning

Chopped chives

Clean and slice thin a medium onion and the white parts of the leeks. In a pressure cooker, sauté vegetables in the butter until golden. Peel and slice potatoes and add to the pot. (A food processor speeds the slicing.)

Add chicken stock and salt to taste. Cook at 15 pounds pressure for three minutes. Without a pressure cooker, cook vegetables until potatoes are tender. Release pressure and remove top. When soup cools a bit, add half-and-half. Process soup in a blender or food processor in small batches. Otherwise you must push soup through a sieve until smooth, a tedious process.

Turn into a large refrigerator dish with a lid and chill for several hours or overnight. Thin with more liquid if desired, either cream or milk. Serve very cold with a sprinkle of chopped chives — you may use parsley or green onion tops, but it’s not what a real Frenchman would do.

Loaded potato soup

Guy Harvey, a popular local restaurant, serves this wonderful dish which you can try to duplicate at home.

Start with the richest recipe you own for making potato soup, such as the one above, but keep the potatoes in small dice — do not process in a blender. Add to the soup sour cream, finely minced chives or scallions, smoky bacon bits and grated cheese of your choice (a mild cheddar works well).

For additional flavor, you may add liquid smoke to taste. Served very hot with a small salad, it makes a great meal.

Porri marinato

This is simply Italian for marinated leeks, and couldn’t be simpler to make. It’s a nice addition to any plate of antipasta. Combine in saucepan:

2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup good olive oil

Juice of a large lemon

In a cheesecloth bag, make a bouquet garni of 1/4 teaspoon each crushed black peppercorns and fennel seeds, a crushed bay leaf, some thyme and parsley. Place bag in saucepan and simmer these ingredients for 15 minutes. Pour over the white parts of well-cleaned leeks, cut into two-inch pieces. Chill overnight. Discard cheesecloth bag, drain leeks and serve with a selection of crackers, olives, cheeses, etc.

You can make a great salad by draining and tossing these leeks with peeled and diced tomatoes to serve on a bed of greens. Add sliced avocado if you like.

Scottish braised leeks

Here’s a recipe from the land of heather, and it has the advantage of being fixed ahead of time and kept for serving later if desired.

Generously butter a deep baking dish and arrange pieces of cleaned white parts of leeks in the bottom. Over them sprinkle about two tablespoons each of very finely chopped onions, carrots, green peppers, celery and parsley. A food processor can cut your time at this step.

Season with salt, pepper, thyme, nutmeg and a pulverized bay leaf. Pour over all enough rich beef broth to cover and place a piece of buttered kitchen parchment or waxed paper on top. Place cover on pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

When leeks are tender, remove from oven and keep warm if you wish to save the dish for serving later. Otherwise proceed as follows. Pour over the vegetables in the baking pan a layer of thick cream sauce with egg yolks beaten in for added richness, and replace the cover. Return dish to oven for 15-20 minutes, then uncover and sprinkle on top a generous amount of buttered breadcrumbs. Run under the broiler to brown the top and serve hot.

Fried leeks

A wonderful dish alone or as a bed for fried fish. Slice white parts of leeks into very thin julienne strips and dry well.

Dust with flour in a paper bag and fry at 350 degrees in deep fat. Drain and serve hot. You may dip the leeks in batter if you wish, but it’s easy enough to use flour only.

These crispy little treats are hard to resist.

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Marion Nicolay is a regular contributor to the Marco Eagle. Contact her via e-mail at marion387@earthlink.net.