Ramp'n it!

    The other day while I was frying PB&J donuts at work Chef _____ and I were talking about ramps. I mentioned that I wanted to buy some so he offered to help me aquire some. I asked to order 3 pounds of ramps I know I know a little extreme, but they are seasonal and I wanted to find some ways to have access to them for a while. Also I wanted to buy enough and store enough for the summer if not longer.

  For those who don't know much about ramps this is the run down. They are wild leeks which are found near river beds in early spring time. They are super yummy. If garlic and leeks had a baby it would totally be ramps! (That statement is only my opinion.)

   After much consideration I decided on 4 applications. 5 if you count keeping some fresh for dinners this week

1. Blanch cryovac and freeze
2. Ramp butter logs
3. pickled ramps
4. blanch, chopped ramp cubes, frozen

 Blanched Ramps

I decided that blanching the ramps for all the applications except for the butter seemed like the way to go so I got a big pot of water and went to town!  After blanching and cooling the ramps in cold water I laid bunches out for both cryovacing and pickling. To get rid of some of the access water I hung them over the edge of the cutting bored and letting the water run off in to my dish drain.




Ramp Pickles


While I waited for the ramps I made a simple pickling liquid. in another pot. I used a pretty standard recipe.
2 cups champagne Vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar I used Hawaiian brown sugar
1/2 tsp mustard seed, coriander, fennel, chili flake, black peppercorn
and a couple garlic cloves
After the liquid cooled I put the blanched ramps in a jar and added the pickling liquid and stuck it in the fridge for 2 days.

Leek Cubes

Next I decided to make my leek cubes. I wanted to make this primarily to add to soups or pastas. I took some of the blanched leeks and put them in my blender. I added Olive oil and salt and used the chop function so the end result would be more chunky. 

    Finally I put the mixture in to an ice cube tray froze them and bagged the individual cubes in to a freezer bag. Yay ramp cubes!!!  

Cryovacing

At this point I put the rest of the blanched ramps I had in to a cryovac bag. so I could freeze them for later use

 

 Ramp Butter

I creamed my butter in the kitchen aid. Added ramps and Hawaiian sea salt. Rolled the mixture in to logs tied the ends. I put the logs in the freezer for future use!