Ramp Butter

Ramps are finally back in season.  They are one of my favorite foods.  I make everything I can think of with them.  This year I strive to make even more.  One of the first dishes was this ramp butter.  I choose to use it on bread - garlic bread style - for a side with chicken parmesan.  I made versions of the bread both with just the butter and a version with mozzarella on top, to see which we preferred.  The verdict of all three tasters was the no cheese version, though to be honest, both were amazing.  I feel it would also be stellar atop a grilled porterhouse steak, so I am hoping to try that out in the near future.

Here's the recipe.  Sorry for the lack of photos, don't know what I was thinking while eating.  Oh yeah, I was thinking, this is damn delicious, get it in my mouth.  Not, stop, take a photo.

Just a reminder - I always use all organic and as local ingredients as possible.  I do strongly feel this affects flavor.  If you make this and you don't love it to pieces, I'm sorry to tell you, you must be doing something wrong :)

Ramp Butter

1 stick softened unsalted butter
3 ramps, cleaned, minced
zest of one small lemon (if you use too much lemon, it will completely overpower the ramps)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/8 tsp ground multipeppercorn mix (I used a 5 blend)

Mix all ingredients together until well combined.  If not using right away, can be saved in plastic wrap and rolled into a log. 

I however, immediately made it into toasted bread for our chicken parmesan.

Roasted Ramp Butter Bread

Loaf of sourdough bread (I use stonehouse)
Ramp butter
Lots of shredded mozzarella if you want

Lay out the slices of bread onto a cookie sheet.  Smother each with a good amount of the butter.  If you want to make cheesey ones, put a mound of cheese on each - however, our tasters preferred sans cheese.  Place sheet into a preheated 425F oven.  Bake for 6-7 minutes or until just starting to crisp.  Take out and enjoy the delicious.

Our Favorite Pasta Bread aka Horseradish Chive Smoked Bread

Laura discovered this recipe last year and it instantly became a family favorite.  Can't praise it enough - literally my new go to recipe - AND Bonus its super easy to make.  Any recipe I will repeat and make again, is really saying something, not because the recipes I try are bad, but because food is so good and there are so many recipes, I rarely want to waste time repeating a recipe, when I could try something new.  This bread breaks that feeling inside me.  Since making it early in 2013 for the first time, I have made it for birthday's, family dinners, and I even used this recipe for one of my cooking classes at the Cook's Nook.

It's a taste deceiver, making you feel like you're eating garlic bread, when there's no garlic in sight!  Which is perfect for when you have visitors or pickey eaters who are wary of the tasty little bulb I love so much. 

It goes great with any pasta dish, but it also holds it own with a delicious rich soup like French Onion, Minestrone or even a stew!

As always I works to use all organic ingredients for this recipe: I buy organic butter in bulk, vinegar and coarse salt at Oryana (buying in bulk gets you 20% off - www.oryana.coop), I use horseradish from my garden (it is an insanely easy perennial to grow, in fact, once you start, I don't think you can get rid of it if you want to - though many farmers sell it at the market if you don't have any and don't want to try growing it on your own) and I typically uses an Italian loaf from Bay Bread Company (http://www.baybreadco.com/) or Stone House Bread (http://www.stonehousebread.com/).

Active Time: 10-15 minutes
Total Time: 35-50 minutes
Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (or use Boss Mouse Cheese Smoked Butter - http://www.bossmousecheese.com/)
2 tablespoons fresh horseradish (or prepared)
Dash of white vinegar (only if you're using fresh horseradish)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Coarse salt
1 large Italian bread loaf (or 2 small loaves)

Directions:
 
1)  Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Peel the horseradish root and roughly chop.  Place in food processor and blend until pureed.  You may add a little white vinegar to make this process easier!

2)  Mash butter with
horseradish and chopped chives until smooth.
Season with salt.





3)  Slice bread, without cutting all the way through. Generously spread butter mixture evenly onto each piece, and wrap loaf in foil.





4)  Bake for 25-35 minutes. Serve warm.

 

Swiss Chard Tzatziki

Our swiss chard has taken off in the garden.  While Thomas weeded yesterday he picked up the pieces he broke off while weeding.  This gave me a large quantity of chard to deal with in a timely manner.  This is one of the recipes I made, Thomas was skeptical, but it turned out amazing, a bit like a spinach dip, only not.  We ate every last bite.  The only variation I will explore in the future is to make more of it at a time.  It was so good in fact, I forgot to take a picture before we were done eating.  SO this is the remnants of the final bites.

Recipe from Martha Stewart

Swiss Chard Tzatziki

Serves 4
Makes About 1 1/4 Cups

Ingredients
1 cup green or red Swiss chard, stemmed and finely chopped
1 garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions
Prepare an ice bath; set aside. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add chard; cook until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain. Immediately plunge into ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain.
Using a mortar and pestle, grind garlic and salt into a paste. Stir chard, yogurt, garlic paste, oil, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl. Serve with pita wedges, bread or crackers. Tzatziki can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 week.