Ramps Pesto

Perhaps I'm ignorant about food, or maybe the craze has just popped up recently, but I had never heard of ramps until about 2 years ago.

And it wasn't until last spring that I tasted ramps for the first time (at a restaurant) and proceeded to fall in love with that pungent, garlicky flavor.

And then it wasn't until this spring - just a couple weeks ago, in fact - that I finally saw them in the market. I pounced on my chance to pick up a few stalks so that I could finally, finally try cooking these gorgeous plants myself.

Ramps, also known as spring onions, wild garlic, or wild leeks, grow wild throughout the forests in Massachusetts and pretty much up and down the East Coast. These vegetables are one of the first things to pop up in the spring, and people go crazy when they appear for their short, short season.

Ramps are not really cultivated, so if you see ramps on the menu or the market, someone has gone out foraging for them. Some have expressed concern about the fanatacism surrounding ramps leading to over harvesting of the delicate plant.  In fact, Quebec has outlawed the sale of ramps since 1995, called it a "threatened" species.

I think ramps are still growing healthily in many parts of New England. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there are patches that have been picked in an unsustainable manner.

With this knowledge and understanding about ramps, I approached my first (and likely only encounter) with ramps this spring with a heightened level of appreciation and awareness.

Ramps are both garlicky and "onion-y" - pungent, almost spicy, and very fragrant. I think they work super well in pesto because they act both as the green "leafy" agent and the strongly flavored "garlicky" agent.

I always hated peeling all those garlic cloves when making traditional basil pesto, so this saves a previously annoying step!

Making ramp pesto is super easy and there's really no "exact" recipe. Essentially, you need ramps, some sort of nuts, some sort of hard, salty cheese (grated, please), and oil. As for nuts, try using toasted walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, or almonds. You could also use pine nuts, the traditional nut used in basil pesto.

And that's it!

Throw everything into a food processor except the oil. Give it a whirl until you have a chunky puree.

Turn the machine back on and start adding the oil in a stream. Add enough until you are happy with the consistency.

You want a smooth paste.

The whole process takes all of 2 minutes, really.

Taste test it, though. You can add a bit of salt if you think it needs it (it all depends on how salty your cheese was). Alternatively, you could add more cheese too if you so desire. It's really up to you.

Once you're satisfied with the flavor of the pesto, you can do all sorts of things with it. You can freeze a portion of it for later use. You can throw a dollop of it in soup (yum!). You can eat it with bread, or you can serve it with pasta!

You can see what I chose to do. I eye-balled the whole thing and didn't really measure exactly. I just added enough pesto so that it nicely covered all the pasta I had made. If you have leftover pesto, you can always freeze the rest and eat it with crostini or a tomato mozzarella salad.

In my case, there was quite a bit of pesto (compared to pasta). I don't mind a saucier pasta at all, so I threw it all in. It's your call.

Enjoy!


Ramps Pesto
Serves about 2

1 bunch of ramps (see my photo below, maybe 10 small stalks?)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1/2 cup nuts (many recipes use walnuts or pistachios; I had marcona almonds on hand, which worked fine)
~1/3 cup olive oil, give or take
optionally salt
1 lb fresh pasta

Neptune Oyster's Lobster Caprese Salad

You know those people who always tend to order the same thing no matter where they go?

Unadventurous? Predictable? Boring?

That's me when it comes to caprese salads.

I'm not sure why, but I love, love, love that magical combination of a deliciously ripe tomato, a beautiful, creamy slice of mozzarella (or any of its lovely cousins, hello burrata!), and really fresh basil. Top that with some extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, and I'm set. Don't even add balsamic vinegar - it's really not necessary.

I have such a hard time resisting caprese salads on menus, regardless of whether it's in salad form or sandwich form. I become that boring eater, always ordering the same thing.

A couple weeks ago, I received an intriguing invitation to a tasting and recipe demonstration. We would learn how to make Neptune Oyster's Lobster Caprese Salad from Michael Serpa (executive chef). We would also be tasting several different kinds of tomatoes courtesy of Backyard Farms tomatoes (the ones used at Neptune Oyster).

My favorite salad? Made by the chef of one of my favorite restaurants in Boston?

It wasn't hard to decide.
We started out the evening by learning a bit about Backyard Farms and their tomatoes. Backyard Farms grows their tomatoes year round in greenhouses in Maine. They decided to begin their business to address the issue they saw with supermarket tomatoes: bland, tasteless, and not really ripe when picked.

They set up shop in Madison, Maine, a small town full of "hardworking people who just needed jobs." Instead of hiring seasonal migrant workers, Backyard Farms hires full time employees as farmers. These farmers receive benefits, are given responsibility for their own "plot" (resulting in more accountability/ownership and thus better tomatoes overall), and tend to stay with the company for years.

Their philosophy is to keep the tomatoes on the vines as long as possible. They can achieve this because they do not ship to far away places. Their rule? The destination must be less than a day's drive away (about 10 hours).  Most of their tomatoes are sold in Maine, New York, and Boston (with some making it as far south as Maryland). This allows them to wait until the last possible moment before hand-picking the vine-ripen tomatoes, which arrive at the supermarket the following day.

I agree their tomatoes taste a lot better than normal supermarket tomatoes (though still not quite as good as a real, summer tomato in August). In fact, coincidentally, I had independently purchased some Backyard Farms tomatoes myself just a few days prior to learning about this event. I had chosen them because they smelled the nicest - they had that sweet, fragrant "tomato" smell that reminded me of summer. They are also convenient because you can find them at both upscale markets and your standard supermarkets (e.g., Shaw's, Hannaford's, Harvest COOP, and Whole Foods).

We learned a lot of interesting tomato facts.

1. Never Refrigerate Tomatoes
Keeping tomatoes at temperatures below about 50 °F will cause the sugars in the tomatoes to turn to starch. What results is a mealy and not-sweet tomato.

2. Try to avoid the green center - it's bitter

The greenish colored center where the stem attaches to the tomato is actually quite bitter. Ideally, cut around it and don't serve it to your guests.

3. On a Vine, Eat Tomatoes from "Closest" to "Furthest" from Cut Vine

 On a vine, the tomato closest to the part of the vine which was cut off from the main stem is called the "King Tomato." This tomato ripens first, and therefore should be eaten first. In general, the tomatoes closest to the cut vine ripen first while the one furthest from the cut vine ("Tail Tomato") ripens last. You can also feel the tomatoes to confirm this. I could definitely tell that the one closest to the cut vine was softer and more ripe than the last one.

4. Cut Tomatoes with a Serrated Knife to Avoid Bruising Them
I've always noticed that tomatoes (and peppers!) are among the hardest things in life to slice - you really need a super sharp knife. Although I have finally acquired some crazy sharp knives, I've found that if my knives are not super sharpened, it's still sometimes a challenge to cut tomatoes well. Using a serrated knife (even an average one), makes this job so much easier.

"Cooking" Demonstration by Michael Serpa from Neptune Oyster
For the second part of the evening, Michael Serpa from Neptune Oyster demonstrated to us how to make Lobster Caprese, a summer offering at Neptune Oyster.

The "recipe" is surprisingly easy. I guess when the ingredients are high quality, you don't need to mess with it too much. I'm sure the devil is in the details of execution, and Michael Serpa did it flawlessly.

Toss lobster pieces with some extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, shallots, chives, salt, and pepper. Add in basil, followed by tomatoes, and then finally, mozzarella.

Mix it all together - ideally by hand! For plating, he spreads some basil pesto on the bottom of a plate, adds a few pieces of grilled toast, and then layers everything else on top.

So simple, yet fantastic. I can attest that it was very, very good.

Alas, Chef Serpa did not measure anything (he just kind of "knew" how much stuff to add by eyeballing it), and thus I can't give you an exact recipe with measurements. Seriously, though, you probably can't go wrong.

White Anchovy Salad
Chef Serpa also made a second salad using Backyard Farms cocktail tomatoes. The cocktail tomatoes are much smaller, and therefore much sweeter. Smaller tomatoes tend to have much more sugar content (case in point: have you ever tasted a grape tomato? Yum).

This simple salad had a Mediterranean bent, consisting of Spanish white anchovies, olive tapenade,  roasted red peppers, and cocktail tomatoes served with a generous blend of salad greens consisting of French breakfast radishes, arugula, celery leaves, and parsley.

This dish is not available at Neptune Oyster, and instead was designed specifically by Chef Sherpa for Backyard Farms (recipe provided below).

Both were fantastic, although my inner caprese-obsessed mind still loved the lobster caprese more (which is great because I can always go back to Neptune Oyster, at least during the summertime, and order it).

Backyard Farms sent us all home with a cool gift pack that included all three types of tomatoes that they sell: the beefsteak, tomatoes on the vine, and cocktail tomatoes. We also got a nifty serrated "tomato knife", sea salt from Maine, a bottle of Filippo Berio olive oil, and a cute tomato cutting board!

It was definitely fun, and I learned a lot about tomatoes!


White Anchovy Salad with Summer Tomatoes
Michael Serpa of Neptune Oyster
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
20 Spanish white anchovies (Boquerones)
1 box cocktail Backyard Farms tomatoes, quartered
2 red bell peppers
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch basil
1 bunch flat parsley
1 lemon
30 black Nicoise olives, pitted, finely chopped
1 French baguette, sliced lengthwise
5 French breakfast radishes, thinly sliced
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
1 cup baby arugula
1 bunch of celery, light green inner leaves
Sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Directions

1. Roast peppers until they blister. Put in bowl, wrap with plastic and set aside. Slice baguette lengthwise and rub with 1 tbsp olive oil. Toast in 375 ° F oven until golden.

2. Make dressing with the remaining olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice.

3. Peel roasted peppers, removing seeds and skin, and slice into strips. Season with salt and basil, mix together.

4. Spread olives onto the warm baguette slices.

5. In a separate bowl, toss together arugula, onion, radishes, celery leaves, and parsley. Add dressing, salt and pepper. Season tomatoes with salt and arrange on the olive-spread bread with pepper slices and anchovies. Add salad on top, and garnish with cracked pepper.

Disclaimer - I did not pay to attend this event. All opinions in this post are my own.

Taiwanese Grilled Corn

I'm convinced there's absolutely no better way to enjoy corn than this.

Perhaps it's the combination of culture, memories, and large doses of nostalgia. After all, this is my mom's special grilled corn recipe. We ate it while grilling the first time I ever swam at a "beach" as a kid (yes, it was just a lake beach in the land-locked Midwest, but I absolutely loved it).

Whenever my mom visited Boston (back when we didn't have a grill), she would make this at my sister's place, which has multiple grills. Every single time, it was fantastic and we could never get enough of it. This Taiwanese-style of grilled corn is really, really tasty. Imagine -  sweet, charred, almost caramelized corn with hints of garlic, soy, and sweet chili sauce.

In Taiwan, you'll most often see this type of grilled corn served at night markets, although it appears in  traditional outdoor markets as well.

I called my mom this past weekend in a moment of desperation when trying to figure out what to make for my relatives who were coming over for dinner.

My mom saved the day.

And I was floored how simple this recipe was.

There are just three ingredients in this magical sauce. Soy paste, which is a thick form of soy sauce, sweet chili sauce (tian la jiang), and lots of garlic. If you want to make it spicier, you can add some sort of chili oil or chili sauce.

You know how Asian moms are - there's no such thing as measurements.

"Start with some soy paste, and then add some sweet chili sauce, and then mash some garlic inside."

"Umm . . . can you give me some sort of ratio? Is it like 1:1? Or mostly chili sauce? Mostly soy paste?"

Turns out it's roughly 4:1 - with soy paste being the main ingredient. I'm glad I asked! I was totally considering trying a 1:1 ratio . . .

Mix together the sauces with lots of fresh, smashed garlic. I think the amount of garlic you add is largely personal. I can't see you going wrong either way. I chose to add about 4-5 cloves, and I smashed them up real good to try to extract as much "garlic juice" as possible.

Stir everything together and set aside. It's nice to let the flavors meld a bit while you grill.

And then start grilling the corn!

We don't do any of those fancy tricks to try to keep the corn moist. We just throw the cobs (shucked) straight on the hot grill. Rotate it every few minutes so that it can char as evenly as possible.

After about 15-20 minutes, when the corn is just starting to char, start brushing it with the sauce. Do this over and over again, rotating the corn every few minutes and reapplying the sauce.

Pretty soon, the corn will be gorgeously charred and will have absorbed much of the flavorful sauce. If you coat the corn cob 2-3 times with sauce, you'll end up with a lighter tasting cob. Slather it 5-6 times, and the flavor will be more intense (more preferred, in my opinion, but minds may differ).

In Taiwan, they finish the whole cob off by slathering lard all over it before serving. You can do the same with butter or oil. Or, if you're like my mom, you just skip that step entirely.

Frankly, it's pretty tasty either way.

Serve!


Taiwanese Grilled Corn
4 tablespoons soy paste
1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed
hot chili sauce (optional)
6-8 ears of corn, shucked

Mix together soy paste, sweet chili sauce, and smashed garlic cloves. Set aside. Grill corn on a hot grill until the corn begins to char, about 20 minutes. Brush on the marinade and turn the corn, repeating this 3-4 times, or according to your preference for intensity of flavor.

Serve!

Nom nom nom . . .

Fresh English Peas with Mint

Is spring almost over?

We've been really spoiled in Boston this year. We had the mildest winter I've ever experienced (I think it snowed once or twice the entire winter?). Since then, we've had this long, drawn-out period with reasonably mild temperatures.

It's June now, yet it still feels refreshingly spring-like outside.

Nevertheless, there are rumblings that the sweltering heat will come soon enough. Perhaps I better share with your my recent spring vegetable escapades before it becomes too late!

I'm a huge, huge fan of fresh English peas. I first tried  fresh peas from a pod at a farmers market in Kendall a couple years ago. The farmer just handed me a pod and showed me how to eat them, raw.

They were so, so good. Fresh, sweet, and definitively crunchy.

The other day I picked up a package of freshly shelled peas from the market.

I wanted something light, reasonably unadorned, yet bursting with natural flavor.

I ended up making a simple side dish of peas with fresh mint, which perfectly hit the spot.

The mint adds a lovely fragrant, floral note to this dish. Chop it up finely, maximizing the amount of flavor from the herbs.

Quickly blanch the peas in boiling water. I would cook it for 1 minute and then taste test it. If you like the crunchier (not mushy) mouth feel of fresh peas, I would err on the shorter cooking time. Once finished, throw the peas into an ice bath. This will stop the cooking process (you don't want them to turn mushy!) and preserve that gorgeous, bright green color.

Saute the peas in a saucepan with a little bit of butter and oil (I didn't really measure, but maybe I added 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of oil?). Add salt and pepper to taste. Finally, throw in chopped mint.

Enjoy!


Fresh Peas with Mint
inspired by the Amateur Gourmet and White on Rice Couple, 

Note: this is a really, really flexible recipe, and the amounts below are just guidelines. Feel free to add more oil, butter, salt, pepper, etc. depending on your preference!

2 cups fresh peas, removed from pod
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
handful of fresh mint, finely chopped (about 2-3 tablespoons)

Blanche the shelled beans in boiling water for about 1-2 minutes. Cool immediately in an ice bath and filter. Over medium heat, melt butter and oil together. Add peas and cook for about 1 minute (until hot). Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss in mint at the end and stir.

Serve!

Yellow chives and 5-spice bean curd

Have you ever heard of the yellow chive?

Or perhaps I should start a bit more basic. Have you heard of Chinese chives in general? You'll often see Chinese chives referred to as "leeks" on Chinese menus (ever heard of the pork and leek dumpling?), when in reality, they are really quite different from those large, super-sized scallions-like things we call leeks in America.

Chinese chives are a member of the allium family, which also includes garlic, scallions, and onions. These chives have a wonderful fragrance, sort of like garlic, but much sweeter and less pungent. In fact, some people call Chinese chives garlic chives. Chinese chives are hardy perennials that grow quite well in home gardens. When I was a kid, our Taiwanese neighbors would always drop by extra "crop" that they couldn't finish.

Yellow chives are unique because they have been kept away from the sun. As a result, they never develop those characteristic dark green, hardy stems. Instead, yellow chives are more tender, milder, and sweeter in flavor - arguably considered a bit more of a delicacy. They cost about twice as much as normal Chinese chives, and are a bit harder to find.

One of my favorite home-cooked Chinese dishes is traditional Chinese chives with 5-spice tofu. As a twist, I decided to try replacing the traditional green chive with its albino cousin, the delicate yellow chive.

What I love about yellow chives, or any Chinese chive in general, is that they are so fragrant on their own, you don't have to add additional aromatics. Being members of the allium family, they provide their own fragrant aromas.

This makes cooking them so so easy.

Heat up a wok (or fry pan) on high with about a tablespoon of oil. Add the chopped chives and cover, letting them cook for a few minutes until soft. You can stir them around a bit if you'd like.If needed, add a dash of water to the hot wok and cover.

5-spice tofu (or pressed bean curd) is also very fragrant, and thus does not need much additional flavoring. After the yellow chives have softened, add the sliced tofu. I like to cut the tofu into strips approximately the same size as the yellow chives.

The pressed tofu is already cooked, so you really just need to heat it up. Stir everything around until well mixed. Add flavoring agents (I like to add white pepper and salt, but you can go ahead and use black pepper or whatever you fancy).

Once it is seasoned to your liking, serve!

I love this dish. It's so simple yet so packed with flavor. Seriously, if I had a Chinese grocery store closer to me, I'd be making this dish every week.

Serve and enjoy!
 

5-Spice Tofu
Serves 2-3 | Prep and Cook time - 15 minutes
 
2 blocks of 5-spice tofu (available in Asian markets), thinly sliced into matchsticks
1 bunch of yellow chives, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp white pepper (or to taste)

Heat wok up to medium high heat with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add chives and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes, or until chives are softened. Add 5-spice beancurd. Stir until well mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 Serve!

Bok Choy Agar Noodles

This post is part of a larger series devoted to a Molecular Gastronomy focused meal I made: Molecular Gastronomy with an Asian Twist. Other posts in this series include Spherification (making "caviar", Pho Inspired Grilled Steak with Mint, Cilantro, and Lime, and Sweet Basil Pesto with Rice Noodles

Playing with molecular gastronomy is fun, although things can get a bit wacky at times.

Like these crazy bok choy "noodles," for example.

Admittedly, making my own "caviar" using spherification was by far the "nerdiest" thing I did this past weekend. Nevertheless, I would give these green noodles a close second.

Here's the back story. As part of my original proposal to Foodbuzz for this Foodbuzz 24, 24 meal, I had promised to make bok choy "noodles" as part of a larger, molecular interpretation of a deconstructed Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

Funny thing is, I really had no idea how I was going to make these. I find that I often like to invent absurd and overly ambitious meals in my head, sometimes promising to deliver them without really thinking things through.

It bites me back sometimes when my fantastic proposals actually get accepted and I have to deliver.

Thankfully, the internet is full of solutions, and my friends had given me a nice, big bag of fun powders to try.

At the end of the day, under the pressure of time, I was actually able to deliver a meal that came surprisingly close to my original proposal.

This "deconstructed Taiwanese beef noodle soup" begins with the baby bok choy, a common vegetable used as the "green" part of a beef noodle soup. I decided to mix up the shapes and flavors, making the bok choy into a noodle instead.

I blended up a couple small stalks of bok choy and a small shallot in some dashi broth in the blender.

Heat up the bok choy "soup" with some agar agar, a red algae based gelatin.

Pour out the solution into appropriately-shaped containers. Since I was trying to make noodles, I tried to put them into square containers. Let set at room temperature or in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Remove from containers, and slice!

Though they look sort of like noodles, the texture is pretty different. It's kind of soft, breaks easily, and (frankly), isn't nearly as good as a real wheat-based noodle.

I think this recipe works better for making interesting vegetable "pates" or "terrines."

Nevertheless, it's a cool way to make some interesting, gluten-free noodles which incorporate any flavor you might want. I'm sure this would work with all sorts of other vegetables, such as arugula, basil, spinach, or maybe even carrots!



Bok Choy Agar "Noodles"
Ingredients
7 oz bok choy
1 small shallot
3.2g agar agar powder
1/4 cup broth (I used dashi)
salt to taste
dash of sugar

Blend together bok choy, shallot and broth together until a fine puree forms. Heat 200g of the bok choy liquid with agar agar until boiling and agar agar is dissolved. It will become much thicker. Pour into a level, square surface up to about 1/2 inch thick and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Slice up into "noodles" and serve.