Let's Eat: What the hell is a ramp, anyway?
A foodie favorite demystified.
For any fan of Top Chef, you’ll understand when I say that there are certain foods that have surfaced on the show that exude a bit of mystery.
I’ve been watching Top Chef since its first season in 2006, and there are certain ingredients that chefs seem to love and home cooking fans have never heard of. I think that is a big part of the show’s appeal: Mysterious and not-so-well known ingredients and culinary terms brought to the mainstream by well-known to professionals .
Just to name a few: gochujang, gremolata, geoduck (must be something about the letter ‘g’…), tōgarashi, pistou, mouselline, aguaquile, sofrito. All of these were introduced to me through Top Chef.
The impetus: But the one that always pricked my ears up when the term was tossed around was ramps. People freak out about ramps. People count down the days to ramp season - which is in the spring and fairly short and going on right now - and dishes with ramps were welcomed to the table full of chops-licking guests and judges.
The question: But, what the hell is a ramp? Ramps are part of the allium family which includes onions, garlic, leeks, scallions, shallots, and chives. Small white bulb, long green leaves, with a garlicky-onion bite, they grow in the wild and are harvested in a short season during the spring. They are sometimes hard to find in stores, but are becoming more easily available as they become more mainstream. They are also forageable and similar to truffles and mushroom foraging, is a favorite activity in some circles.
The motivation: So last week as I was driving by Springdale Farms, my local farm market, their outdoor sign (that I couldn’t get a good picture of because the market is on a main road and people drive like crazed lunatics) was advertising they had ramps available, I saw it as a sign that ramps would be my next challenge to tackle for this column. I made a quick turn into the market (in a very un-crazed lunatic fashion) and made my way through the produce market until I found them in rubber-banded bunches presented in a shallow glass of water to keep them fresh.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I took them home and went on my way looking at recipes that I could easily make. Full disclosure: I wound up going back to the market to get a second bunch because I wanted to do different preparations and I didn’t think I had enough.
The choices: All the recipes I used I found on the Serious Eats website. I really like that site and they have a killer recipe for reversed-sear steaks. I chose these three because 1. I love grilled scallions and I wanted to compare the two; 2. I love making compound butters and I was very curious how this one would turn out; and 3. I have been on a bit of a pickling kick and saw an opportunity to try something new.
I also liked the fact that the ramps are used raw in the pickle, blanched in the butter, and cooked all the way through in the grilling. I am not going to list out all three recipes because this is already running long (the dreaded TLDR of which I am at many times guilty) and I don’t want to keep going on and on before getting to the good stuff.
The outcome: I really liked the grilled ramps. I served them with grilled chicken, but they would be great with steak, in a sandwich (like a BLT according to Alex Guarnaschelli), or in a taco, even. I had mixed feelings about the pickled ramps. They were pickled raw and retained a bit of the funkiness ramps are known for. Maybe when paired with the sweetness of the sugar that’s in the brine, that preparation becomes more of an acquired taste. My bonus, the pickled peppers, which used the same brine, were great, though.
My favorite had to be the compound butter. An unexpected combination of chopped blanched ramps, thyme, salt, and pepper that merged with the butter created versatile condiment that would be great on bread, on veggies, on fish or steak. Really, really tasty. It seems that cooking the ramps, whether by grilling or blanching, mellows their flavor to just the right level.
The finale: So, that ends the mystery of the ramp, and my sort-of hero’s journey down foraging down Springdale Road. Not so mysterious after all.
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