Yahoo - it's that time of year again when ramps are in season. I just got 6 bunches at the greenmarket yesterday and am looking forward to cooking with them.
Last year I made a baked dish using the ramps, some purple potatoes, garlic, olive oil, a dash of red pepper flakes and vegetable stock in a casserole dish and baking. It was wonderful, truly allowing the ramps to be the dominant flavor.
Today, I'll make a frittata with ramps (I'm making a nice brunch for DH who just ran a RR race this a.m.). I have a potted lemon thyme plant; so I think I'll use some of that with it.
I am also eager to try monavano's ramps crepes from this thread http://www.chowhound.com/topics/509367. That sounds truly delicious.
Sometimes we just eat them sauteed with a little garlic.
What are you making with your ramps? Has anyone eaten them raw? Any new ideas or old favorites? I would love to hear them!
Just wanted to report that a frittata made with ramps was wonderful. The flavor goes well with the eggs. I had an aged comte on hand and used that as well.
I just bought some ramps at the Farmer's Market yesterday. I'm so excited! I've been thinking of how I can use them. Maybe a little stir-fry with shrimp. Or sauteeing them and using them as a bed for seared scallops. Roasting with onions and chicken. Sauteeing in onions and garlic and mixing with pasta.
Pardon my ignorance..I didn't realize wild leeks are also called ramps.
We've been enjoying wild leek in onion soup recipes for years!
We make pickled ramps. Put in glass jars and enjoy ourselves and give for gifts. Mother's Day is coming up! Last year our mothers received jars of pickled ramps from us and we got lots of good feedback.
Could you tell me how you make that? I've never tried pickled ramps; and I do like other pickled vegetables, so it might be for me!
I use a recipe from Tom Collichio's book Think Like a Chef. It is very similar to the first pickled ramp recipe in the link that MB has supplied.
Collichio uses 1 cup sugar instead of the 1/2 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup honey. I'm sure both work great. Collichio uses similar spices except that he adds a bay leaf and leaves out the chile pepper. His recipe is for about two pounds of ramps.
We should have ramps showing up here any day now I would think. They are one of the first fresh things to come into the market.
Here are a few recipes here:
http://www.seasonalchef.com/recipe050...
I just bought ramps to cook at home and I'm thinking that I'll do a simple ramps with pasta dish.
I made ramps with spagetti and it was fantastic! Just saute in olive oil with salt and pepper, toss with some pasta, and add a bit of grated cheese if you wish.
OMG it was so unbelievably good.
Strange how the ramps actually inflate like a balloon when they get hot in the pan. Hmmmm?? it was like they were alive and squirming, totally weird.
Saw this recipe in the NYT this morning - risotto, w/ ramp pesto, made for the Pope in NYC:
Thanks. I have this recipe (it's a little old) from New York Magazine that's also for ramps risotto. ( http://nymag.com/listings/recipe/ramp... ) Now I'll have to decide which one to make.
I made this last night as an appetizer when I noticed that I had just a little less than a cup of arborio rice hanging around. I did use a whole bunch of ramps, rather than just the four called for, and added some of the greens right at the end. It was delicious - thanks for posting the recipe. I did leave the ramps unattended for too long in the olive oil, so some of them got a bit brown, which they shouldn't have, but that didn't cause a problem - I kind of liked it actually.
Edit - for some reason the link isn't working for me this morning - I was checking to see if I made any other changes.
Thanks to Monavano for the ramps crepes recipe. Wow were they good! I had to control myself from nibbling at the crepes as I was cooking them! For the filling I used roasted mushrooms and more ramps (and white wine, lemon thyme, pepper) - the flavors of the mushrooms and ramps together was wonderful.
Now I'll have to try Monavano's Pecorino and Ramps gnocchi, also mentioned in the earlier thread.
pesto! My husband's family in Germany always makes buckets of it.
We just had some ramp and ricotta omelets for dinner. Scrumptious.
I'm just back from picking ramps and I have the final chunk of last fall's Salmon from our freezer thawing on our counter.
I don't know how this will turn out, but I intend to briefly sear the fish skin down in bacon grease, remove the fish, sautee the chopped white parts of my ramps till soft, add the leaves and let them wilt, and then add the fish and some white wine. Next I'll add a white sauce with sour cream, a few sliced mushrooms, capers and maybe some bits of red pepper. Salt and pepper only. Then into the oven till the fish is flaky
I'm curious to see how the Salmon's and ramps' tastes combine.
Yes... I have eaten them raw many times as I am sure many others have also. In fact, fresh dug raw ramps are my favorite way to eat them. I have also frozen them for later use and pickled them. They can be used just about any place you might use onion and/or garlic. Ramps and fried potatoes are quite popular and I have used them in things like spaghetti sauce and meat loaf.
One thing I have never really heard anyone discuss is the two main varieties in West Virginia that I have found. I find the typical ramps with the purple tinted stalk which can be quite spicy hot and seems to be what most people have. Then there are the ramps with green stalks which seem very sweet and never hot... I love eating this kind fresh and cool from just having been dug.
I found patches of ramps near where we're building our new house and made buckwheat crepes with eggs bacon and ramps. http://doghillkitchen.blogspot.com/20...
they go great on the grill!
roasted, and sauteed.
sometimes i'll separate the greens and toss them in with other greens like Rabe, or collards
I was able to stretch the season by grabbing some late-foraged ramps in upstate NY while visiting family. They are the best I've had and though I didn't buy any at NYC greenmarkets (too expensive!!) I had them in every restaurant meal from April through early May and none of them were this wonderfully tasty (or adorably knobby). I used the first half simply grilled with olive oil, s + p along with a grilled whole salmon. Last night I used a few in place of onions/scallions in spaghetti alla bottarga and it was really, really good. Just chopped very coarsely and lightly browned in butter, then combined with spaghetti, a bit more butter, the grated bottarga, lemon zest and parsley.
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