Kat of All Trades

Before I move into talking about 600 ways to use zucchini – it is, after all, nearly that time of year – I want to discuss this garlic scape pesto more. Have I mentioned how peppery and garlicky and creamy and generally delicious it is? Yes? Well, it is. I like this pesto, and I wanted to come up with ways to use it. After all, I made 1/2 cup for my first batch, and then plenty more with the giant bag of scapes. (I’m pretty sure this pizza, which Jeanne told me about on twitter, is in my future.)

Remember way back at the beginning of this blog, when I told you how much I like roasting chicken? Well, I bought a chicken at the greenmarket the same day that I got all of those garlic scapes. I enjoy experimenting with chicken, and it’s hard to screw up. I started thinking that the pesto could be a good rub between the skin and the meat, plus I had that lemon that I’d used for the juice in the pesto, and those potatoes from my CSA, and those green beans from the greenmarket…

Pesto Roasted Chicken with Potatoes

2 or 3 potatoes
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
1 medium onion (about the size of a tennis ball)
1 chicken (I usually get a 3 lb bird for the two of us)
1/4 c garlic scape pesto
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash potatoes and chop into one-inch pieces. Add potatoes to a baking pan (I used my 9 x 13 pyrex dish lined with aluminum foil) and toss with olive oil. Peel onion, and slice lemon and onion into 1/2-inch thick rounds.

Rinse chicken with cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to separate the skin from the meat as best you can. I try to separate it on the thighs and back as well as the breasts. You want to separate the skin enough to get your hands under it.

Using your hands, spread the pesto under the skin. It’s gloppy and messy, but do your best to coat the chicken evenly everywhere you lifted the skin. Use about 1 tbsp of the pesto on top of the skin and inside the cavity.

Once you’re done giving your bird a pesto rubdown, take the lemon and onion slices and stuff them inside the cavity. I never keep twine around to tie the drumsticks, so what I do is cut a little slice in the skin near each of them, and then you can tuck the end of the drumstick through that to hold them in place.

Push the potatoes to the sides of the baking dish, making room for the chicken in the middle. Put the chicken in the center of the dish, and sprinkle salt and pepper over it and the potatoes (especially over the potatoes).

Bake for about an hour and twenty minutes, or until a meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the thighs (Make sure you aren’t hitting a bone).

Allow the chicken to rest, breast-side down, under a foil tent for about ten minutes before carving and serving.

I’m kind of in love with garlic scapes. They remind me of some weird vine out of a horror novel – think The Ruins – and I think they’re really tasty. I usually chop them up and use them in dishes in lieu of garlic cloves…until now. Because last week, Madura Farms Mycomedicinals, the mushroom purveyor at my local greenmarket, was giving away a shopping bag full of scapes to every customer. How could I pass that up?

The same Saturday that I came into my scape bounty, I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer of In Jennie’s Kitchen. I like her approach to food – how could I not, with her passion for Italian cuisine? – and she’s wonderful to chat with in real life! At any rate, I was browsing around her website for recipes, and I came across her garlic scape pesto. That fit my qualifications: Uses lots of scapes at once? Check. Freezer-friendly? Check.

Of course, at the same time I was readying myself to make the pesto, my oregano was flowering like crazy. By crazy, I mean that there were flowers and buds on about half the plant. I like oregano, and I can take a hint.

I used Jennifer’s recipe as a jumping-off point and added some other flavors I enjoy. I used it on roasted chicken – I’ll tell you about that soon – and I always love pesto on pasta and bread. I think I need to go home and make some more.

Garlic Scape and Oregano Pesto (adapted from Jennifer Perillo)
Makes one cup.

12 garlic scapes
1/3 c almonds
1/2 c grated Romano cheese
1/4 c oregano
4 basil leaves
1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp salt
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 c + 1 tbsp olive oil

Add the scapes, almonds, cheese, oregano, basil to a food processor, and pulse until they are finely chopped.

Add the butter, salt, and lemon juice, and pulse until the ingredients begin to blend.

Begin adding the olive oil one tbsp at a time, until you reach desired consistency.

Eat on everything.

When I saw these beauties at the farmer’s market on Saturday, I couldn’t resist buying them. I tried pickled ramps for the first time at the foodie book club last week, and I. was. hooked. I’m hoping there will still be more at the farmer’s market this weekend, because I don’t think I can live without a few more bunches. At least.

Things that are awesome about ramps:

1. They’re delicious.
2. They’re tiny, cute, wild leeks.
3. You can eat all of them: bulbs, stems, and leaves.
4. Have I mentioned they’re delicious?

Since I only purchased enough ramps to make one pint jar’s worth of pickled ramps, it was pretty easy to pickle in the morning before work, and then save the greens in a covered bowl for pesto making that evening. (Have I mentioned that I love pesto?) I like when cooking can fit into my life even when my schedule gets hectic.

For the pickling, I cleaned and prepped the ramps, measured out the spices, and put some pots on to boil (one to blanch the ramps, one to sterilize the jar, and the third to boil the vinegar). I put the greens in a covered bowl to save for pesto making later.

It’s worthwhile to note here that while I did sterilize the jar by boiling it in hot water, I did not hot water or pressure can these ramps, so they do need to be refrigerated and consumed within a few weeks. (If anyone knows how long to boil pickled ramps so that they can be stored for longer periods of time, please let me know!) I also want to mention that I am, by no means, a canning expert; however, I can tell you that if you’re planning on canning goods for longer-term storage, make sure to follow the recipe precisely, including hot water/pressure canning times, so that you don’t get crazy diseases including botulism. Nobody wants botulism.

Pickled Ramps (adapted from Tom Colicchio’s Think Like a Chef)

2 bunches of ramps
1/2 c white wine vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c water
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon pink peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon white peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt for blanching
1/2 tbsp salt for the pickling liquid

Trim the root ends off of the ramps and cut down the leaves leaving about 1/4 inch of green (save the greens for the pesto recipe below!). Wash the ramps with cool water.

Blanch the ramps quickly – about 30 seconds – by dropping them in a large pot of salted, boiling water, and then shock them by removing them from the boiling water and putting them in a bowl of ice water. Drain the ramps well and place them in a mason jar.

Combine the vinegar, salt, sugar, and water in a small pot and bring to a boil. Add the bay leaf, mustard seeds, coriander, pink and white peppercorns, and fennel seeds.

Pour the hot vinegar mixture (preferably through a funnel) over the ramps in the mason jar and let cool, sealing tight and transferring to the refrigerator.

Notes

This recipe makes one pint. I halved the original recipe.

In the refrigerator these pickled ramps will last a few weeks to a couple of months. If you follow traditional, safe canning techniques, these will last for a few months, or until you eat them all, which ever comes first.

Ramps Pesto (from Eugenia Bone)

2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 heaping cup chopped ramps greens
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/4 c pignoli nuts (pine nuts)
3 tbsp chicken stock (homemade if you’ve got it, or veg stock if you prefer)
1/4 tsp lemon juice
Salt to taste (I used sea salt)

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small nonstick skillet. Add the chopped ramps greens and garlic (the garlic will make the pesto a bit hotter). Sauté a few minutes, until the greens have wilted.

Dump the ramps and the remaining ingredients, including the remaining tablespoon of oil, in a food processor and blend to a puree the consistency of basil pesto.

Makes about 1/2 cup.

I tend to have very specific food cravings. I’m sure they correlate to nutrients that my body needs; however, what comes through to my brain is “Tomato soup, NOW!” or “Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese.” Lately, my cravings have been of a more healthy variety, including quinoa (No really, who craves quinoa?), tofu, greens, and cannellini beans. When my body asks for certain foods, I try to eat those things, so I’ve been coming up with different ways to use them than my usual stand-by recipes.

In some ways, this is a “what do I have around that needs to be used?” recipe. You can use any sort of greens you want, though I think the smokiness of the tea works really well with collards. You could roast tomatoes instead of bell peppers for the sweetness. And of course, you could use basil instead of arugula in the pesto, as is traditional.

Pesto Pasta with Sweet and Smoky Vegetables

For roasted bell peppers:
2 red or orange bell peppers
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

For pasta and collards:
16 oz pasta (1 bag or box)
1 bunch collard greens
1 tea bag lapsang souchong
1 tbsp butter
1 15-oz can cannellini beans (or equivalent of dried beans, soaked and cooked)
Pesto (recipe below)
Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. While oven is heating, place pine nuts from pesto recipe (below) on a small tray in the oven to toast. Slice bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Mix together olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put pepper halves on a baking sheet, skin side up, and brush olive oil mixture over peppers.

Remove pine nuts from oven when they begin to brown after five to ten minutes, and prepare pesto. When oven reaches 450 degrees Fahrenheit, put peppers in the oven on the top rack. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until skin begins to bubble and darken.

While oven is pre-heating, roughly chop collards and rinse beans. Put water on to boil when the peppers go into the oven. Cook pasta according to directions on the box or bag.

While pasta is cooking, add about a cup of water and the butter to a medium pot. When water approaches boiling, put the lapsang souchong tea bag into the pot. Allow the tea bag to simmer for a few minutes, and then add the collard greens. Once the greens have wilted, drain the tea water, add the beans to the pot, and heat for a minute or two. Sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste.

Drain the pasta, mix the pasta and the pesto, and slice the bell peppers. You can either mix all vegetables into the large pasta pot to serve, or portion out pesto pasta and then top with peppers, greens, and beans.

Arugula Pesto (adapted from How it all Vegan!)

2 cups fresh arugula
1 cup fresh parsley
2 tbsp grated parmesan, romano, or asiago cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
3 tbsp miso
1/4 – 1/3 cup olive oil

Blend all ingredients in a food processor* until you reach desired consistency.

*I have a little 3-cup kind, and if I add the arugula and parsley in two portions, it’s plenty big enough.