Tag: ramps (Page 3 of 3)

Ramp And Potato Soup

January 22, 2014 / RampHead / 1 Comment

Ingredients:

4 to 6 slices bacon
4 cups chopped ramps (including green)
4 to 5 cups diced red potatoes
3 tablespoons flour
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

In a large skillet or Dutch oven, fry bacon until crispy; set bacon aside. Add ramps and potatoes to the skillet; fry on medium-low heat until ramps are tender. Sprinkle with flour; stir until flour is absorbed. Stir in chicken broth; simmer until potatoes are tender. Stir in the cream and heat thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serves 4 to 6.

Buttermilk Ramp Biscuits

January 21, 2014 / RampHead / 0 Comments

Makes 20 biscuits

1tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2teaspoon granulated sugar
3/4cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 3/4cup AP flour, divided
1/2cup semolina flour
2teaspoons baking powder
1teaspoon sea salt
1/2teaspoon baking soda
1bunch ramps (mine weighed not quite one-third of a pound)
10tablespoons unsalted butter, 8 TBS very cold and cubed; 2 TBS melted
8tablespoons all-vegetable shortening (like Spectrum)

In a small bowl, place yeast, sugar, and 4 tablespoons of the AP flour. Add buttermilk and whisk to combine. Cover bowl with a dishtowel and let rest for about 30 minutes, at which point you should see some foaming on the surface.
Wash and dry the ramps. Roughly chop white and light green parts and mince about 2 tablespoons of the leaves.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine remaining flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and chopped ramps. Add butter and shortening and mix on med-high until pebbly. (Alternatively you can do this with your hands, but move quickly).
Form a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the yeast mixture. Mix gently by hand until just combined. The dough will be pretty sticky and wet and seemingly unmanageable, but don’t worry.
Using your (floured) hands, turn the dough out onto floured surface and knead gently just until it starts to have a little spring. Form dough into a ball and squish into a disc about ¾-inch thick. Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter or, if you don’t have one, a juice glass works too.
Brush the biscuits with melted butter and let rest, uncovered, for an hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Place biscuits about an inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for about 18-20 minutes (or until the biscuits are browned on top), rotating the baking pans halfway through.

via food52

Penne Pasta And Fresh Ramps

January 21, 2014 / RampHead / 2 Comments

Penne Pasta and Fresh Ramps – My wife makes this dish for us at least twice during the ramp season and it is easily one of my favorites.

Here, ramps are cooked with extra-virgin olive oil and tossed with pasta and Parmigiano Reggiano, a wild play on the classic Italian pasta with garlic, pepperoncino, and greens.

This dish is also delicious made with pancetta instead of the olive oil. Dice the pancetta and cook, covered, until crisp and the fat is rendered; then proceed as directed.

4 servings

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds fresh ramps
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, or half oil and half butter
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed dried Italian red pepper (pepperoncino) or red pepper flakes
Salt
1/2 pound dry pasta, in any shape, such as penne, linguine or orecchiette
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino cheese
To prepare the ramps, trim off the roots with a paring knife and slip off any discolored or dead skin that clings to the bulbs. Wash the ramps in several changes of water and drain well. (As you clean the ramps, stack into loose bundles, so the bulbs and leaves are lined up; this will make them easier to cut). Place on a cutting board and cut off the bulbs; cut the leaves in half crosswise. Reserve both bulbs and leaves. Put a large pot of water on to boil.

In a large non-stick skillet set over low heat, combine the ramp bulbs, olive oil and 1/3 cup water; cover and cook until the bulbs are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the pepperoncino and cook, tossing frequently, about 1 minute. With a tablespoon, scoop about 1 tablespoon of the oil into a small bowl and reserve. Add the ramp greens to the pan along with 1/2 teaspoon salt and about 3 tablespoons water. Cover and cook over moderately high heat, tossing frequently, until the greens are tender and the water has completely evaporated, about 5 minutes. (If the water evaporates before the greens are cooked, add a tablespoon or two more to the pan. If too much water is left in the pan once the vegetables are cooked through, uncover, increase the heat to high and boil it off, or simply drain it off). Turn the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bulbs and greens are meltingly tender and the
greens are no longer stringy. Turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, salt the boiling water well. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still slightly firm to the bite. Using a measuring cup, scoop out about 1/4 cup of the cooking water and reserve. Drain the pasta well.

Pour the reserved cooking water back into the pasta pot. Add the reserved ramp oil, and the cooked ramps and bring to a boil for 30 seconds. Add the drained pasta and toss to coat, seasoning with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Divide the pasta among four warm shallow soup bowls, spooning some of the vegetables over each. Serve at once, passing the cheese on the side.

Wild Ramps – A Brief Introduction

January 21, 2014 / RampHead / 2 Comments

Before I get started here, I would like to welcome you. I am Bucky from bloggingwv.com. I started out selling Wild Ramps over there a few years ago, with much success. I have recently felt the need to start a new website with a more professional look, that is fully dedicated to nothing but ramps, including recipes. I assure you that you will receive the same quality service that you are accustomed to receiving from me even though my look is a little different this year. So once again, welcome to the new place.

I figured I would start out my new place with some interesting facts about Wild Ramps. Hey, I have to have something to do while I wait for them to grow!

Wild Ramps Characteristics

Allium tricoccum (commonly known as ramps or wild leeks) is an early spring vegetable, a perennial wild onion with a strong garlic-like odor and a pronounced onion flavor. Wild Ramps are found across eastern North America, from the U.S. state of South Carolina to Canada. They are popular in the cuisines of the rural uplands of the American South, and also in the Canadian province of Quebec. Wild Ramps also have a growing popularity in upscale restaurants throughout North America. A lot of high profile Chefs charge high prices for small portions of this amazing Ramps vegetable.

The ramp has broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems, and a scallion-like stalk and bulb. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible. The locals prefer the bulbs much more than the leaves. In fact, a lot of folks will discard the leaves once they get large and use only the bulbs. The flower stalk only appears after the leaves have died back. After the flower dies off, there is a seed pod remaining that contains 10 to 15 seeds. Wild Ramps grow in groups strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil.

In Canada, ramps are considered rare delicacies. Since the growth of Wild Ramps is not as widespread as in Appalachia and because of destructive human practices, ramps are a threatened species in Quebec. Allium tricoccum is a protected species under Quebec legislation. A person may have Wild Ramps in his or her possession outside the plant’s natural environment, or may harvest it for the purposes of personal consumption in an annual quantity not exceeding 200 grams of any of its parts or a maximum of 50 bulbs or 50 plants, provided those activities do not take place in a park within the meaning of the National Parks Act. The protected status also prohibits any commercial transactions of Wild Ramps; this prevents restaurants from serving Wild Ramps as is done in the United States. Failure to comply with these laws is punishable by a fine. However, the law does not always stop poachers, who find a ready market across the border in Ontario (especially in the Ottawa area), where Wild Ramps may be legally harvested and sold.

The last paragraph is hard to grasp for me since I was born and raised in West Virginia. Maybe Wild Ramps just grow exceptionally well in the area in which I live because no matter which way I turn in the woods there are Wild Ramps. I can’t fathom a world right now without Wild Ramps in it. That would be a sad world….sad indeed.