Perhaps it’s appropriate that right after live blogging from VegStock, I made my first ever, from-scratch, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants vegetable stock.

I also cooked with leeks for the first time this week, but first things first.

Buying stock (vegetable, chicken, whatever) at the grocery store always feels like the worst waste of money. It’s on par with spending money on granola when I know I could make it at home, in a much bigger batch, and save myself the $4 a week. But time gets cut short, or I don’t have the materials on hand, or the real truth of the matter, I get intimidated.

And I shouldn’t. Because making stock is the easiest thing to do. I now know this.

Yesterday, after consulting various recipe sites and The Joy of Cooking, I arrived at what I think is the first step to making stock: the rules are few and loose. Since I was especially seeking to make vegetable stock, I needed some vegetables, some herbs, and some water. I was not to use pungent greens (collards, mustard, etc.). And beyond that, as far as I could tell, the sky was the limit. I felt free.

I came up with my recipe based on what I had on hand (recipe to follow). It wasn’t simmering ten minutes before one of my roommates popped her head into my room and asked what that was on the stove. “Vegetable stock,” I told her, “and I wish I could just stand over it and inhale and never stop.”

She waited a beat before replying. “I sort of just did that.”

The smell was fresh and strong, and the taste was light. I’d add a little more salt next time, and believe me, if you don’t have these particular veggies on hand, there are a lot of options. It seems that onions, garlic, and carrots are staples, but even those, I believe, are negotiable.

Dana’s Chicken Stock

Yields 1 cup

3 cups water

2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

¼ onion, the layers pulled apart

2-3 mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and quartered

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

Handful fresh rosemary, basil, and parsley

Large pinch salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the water boils, lower the heat to medium. Simmer about 20-25 minutes.

And there you have it. So easy. I was astonished. All this time that I was nervous about boiling some vegetables. What a waste.

Nadia G | cbsnews.com

It was important that I conquer my fear of the stock this week because I tried out a recipe from Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen Cookbook. Oh yes. I’ve got my hot little hands on a copy of that book, I’ve read it cover to cover, and I’m trying out recipes. (I also scored an interview with Nadia G, but that’s for a later time.)

For this week’s CSAcation, I tackled the first recipe in the book, Crispy Salmon with Leek Sauce. I never cook salmon because whenever I do, I dry it out or leave it completely raw in the middle. Salmon has always been one of those foods I let someone else do, like my roommate, who makes a lovely lemon butter sauce and bakes the blasted thing to perfection.

Nadia G, however, taught me not to bake the fish, but to fry it in butter and olive oil until crispy and to cover with a leek sauce (with my new vegetable stock as a base).

Crispy Salmon with Leek Sauce

Serves 2

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 clove garlic, degermed and crushed (to degerm garlic, cut the clove in half and pull out that little shoot that likely has begun to grow within the clove; it’s not dangerous, but according to Nadia G, it ruins the flavor of the garlic)

Degerming garlic | ruhlman.com

½ leek, thinly sliced

1 cup vegetable stock

Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced

Handful fresh dill (I used rosemary), finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil (1 tablespoon)

2 salmon fillets, with skin

2 handfuls baby spinach

Fresh lemon juice

To make the leek sauce, warm a saucepan on medium low. Add 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and saute garlic clove until golden, about two minutes. Add leek and saute until soft, about five minutes. Then turn up the heat to medium, add vegetable stock, parsley, small pinch of sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper. Let the mixture simmer another five minutes. When finished, discard garlic, add dill (or rosemary), stir, and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter. (According to Nadia G, “butter has protein, which will make the salmon crispy.”) Put the salmon fillets in the butter skin-side down and cook about five to eight minutes. Be careful that you watch the salmon; when you see it’s cooked halfway through, flip it over, and let it cook another one to three minutes (until it’s sufficiently cooked to your liking). Take it off the heat.

To serve this dish, put a handful of baby spinach on a plate, slide the salmon over the top, and spoon on lots of leek sauce. Squirt with fresh lemon juice and enjoy.

*

I was overjoyed when I got to the Five Points Community Farm Market this week and saw that we were getting leeks. I don’t want to expose myself as a total foodie nerd, but when my roommate came to my bedroom to fetch me so we could go out dancing on Friday night, I was curled up in bed, flipping through the Bitchin’ Kitchen Cookbook, my finger holding the place for the Crispy Salmon with Leek Sauce recipe.

“Are you sure you want to go out?” she asked. “You look so cozy.”

“Yes. It’s just sauce,” I said.

Salmon with leek sauce | Pic by Andrea Nolan

So with fresh leeks at my disposal, and then my subsequent victory over the world of vegetable stock, I was unstoppable. And for the first time ever, I didn’t overcook the salmon. This dish was fresh, light, and flavorful. Leeks are remarkably easy to cook with. Keep in mind, however, that you often won’t want to use the dark green tops of the leek, but rather the light green and white portion at the bottom.

Eat well, CSAcationers, and take care.