Appalachian Spring - Early Ramps

 Today is the first day of spring. The weather in my area seems not to have noticed since it has been cold and not spring like. However, the first telltale sign of spring is sitting my fridge, early ramps. Now if you have read this blog for any given amount of time you will have noticed that every spring I talk about ramps. They are a stable of our spring meals and a great substitute for leeks or onions in recipes. While many people prefer the later ramps which have a green leafy top, I am a much bigger fan of the early ramps which are more flavorful and delicious with dishes like pot roast. I am lucky that my in-laws live in the foothills of the West Virginia mountains and are able to buy ramps for me as soon as they are available. They are definitely a great spring vegetable and a quintessential part of the diet of many Appalachians.

Today was the day that I cleaned and prepped the 2 pounds of ramps that have been sitting in my cold hallway for the last couple of days. Here is what an uncleaned early ramp looks like:

Uncleaned Early West Virginia Ramps

In case you have never seen or heard of a ramp before they are a basically a north American wild leek. Ramp patches are heavily guarded secrets for many families and are one of the first signs that spring has arrived. The ramps that I prefer are the early ramps which do not the green tops that are common in many ramps recipes. To me the early ramps have a stronger flavor and work more efficiently in roasted potato and chicken recipes than the ramps with green tops. As the photo above demonstrates early ramps are pretty dirty. Unless you spend the large amount more money to buy cleaned ramps you will be cleaning the ramps like I do. To clean just cut off the roots and be sure to soak off all the dirt. After they are cleaned they look like the photo below:

Cleaned West Virginia Early Ramps

Ramps can be used a variety of recipes. Early ramps are great pickled, used in pot roast, with roasted potatoes, or as a substitute for leeks or onions. My husband has even used them as a hot dog topping in place of onions. Later ramps with the green tops are great in pesto, biscuits, fried with bacon, or with pinto beans and cornbread. Stay tuned tomorrow when I will use ramps along with potatoes and pesto for a roasted chicken recipe.

Cornbread Made Two Ways - Sweet and Gluten Free and Southern Style

Gluten Free Sweet Cornbread

My husband and I agree on most things, except cornbread. Since he has lived his whole life in West Virginia he insists that his cornbread have absolutely no sugar and the pan be greased with bacon drippings. I on the other hand grew-up far away in Seattle and my idea of cornbread normally came from a box or our local Marie Callender's Restaurant. Sweet would be an understatement. Not only do I like sugar in my cornbread I also slather it with honey or sorghum syrup and butter before eating it. I have a minor sweet tooth as you can tell. When we got married I made cornbread. My husband wasn't impressed. He commenced to explain (and demonstrate) the correct way to make his version of cornbread. I wasn't impressed with his salty cornbread, so we agreed to disagree. I also learned to make two batches, one for him with salt and one for me with lots of sugar. Tonight for dinner was no exceptions I tried one new recipe for Gluten Free Golden Sweet Cornbread from Allrecipes.com and one for Southern Cornbread from the Food Network.

First up the Golden Sweet Cornbread (picture at the top of the page). This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes a total time of 35 minutes, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I did make a few changes. The original recipe is not gluten free, so instead of all-purpose flour I used 1/2 cup gluten free all-purpose flour and a 1/2 cup of brown rice flour. Instead of regular milk I substituted low-fat buttermilk, I prefer the taste in cornbread. Finally, I baked the cornbread in a square 9 inch glass pan instead of the round pan suggested by the recipe, which gave me a total of 9 servings.

Southern Style Cornbread

The Southern Cornbread has 8 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and make 9 servings (4-6 according to the Food Network). I followed this recipe pretty similar to how it was written, with only a few changes. I greased the pan with bacon drippings. My husband insists this makes for a better crust and I have been doing this method since we were first married. By now it is second nature to me. I found that my cooking time was closer to 25 minutes since I reduced the temperature to 400 degrees so I could cook both batches of cornbread at the same time.

The sweet cornbread was definitely sweet. It was sweet enough that I just ate it plain with no honey. If you want to add something sweet on top I would suggest reducing the sugar to 1/3 cup. My husband really liked the Southern Cornbread. It was perfect for him since it has absolutely no sugar and tasted slightly like salt, which he loves. My two boys had some of each kind and seemed to like them both (good boys!).

For the recipes go to Golden Sweet Cornbread and Southern Cornbread.

Ramps The Cookbook Review + Sweet and Sour Ramps Recipe

If you've been a long time reader of this blog, you know that spring in West Virginia means one thing in my household, ramps. I am lucky that my in-laws live in an area where ramps are abundant and every spring my mother-in-law brings me pounds of ramps to clean and cook. In case you are new to this blog and are completely unaware of what ramps look like here is a picture of an uncleaned early ramp.

I always receive early ramps which are very different from late season ramps which have large green leaves. Early ramps have a much stronger flavor and are my favorite to cook with. Here is a picture of how the ramps appear all cleaned up and ready to cook with.

Given my love of all things ramps I was excited when I received a copy of a new cookbook to review, "Ramps The Cookbook: Cooking with the Best Kept Secrets of the Appalachian Trial" published by St. Lynn's Press. Finding ramps recipes is often times difficult and being able to find them all together in one cookbook is a great idea. This cookbook is very well organized and includes recipes and pictures from a number of my favorite food blogs. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about this cookbook is that it has a very well written introduction that includes photos and a general description of what exactly is a ramp. I have received so many questions asking me to explain what a ramp is since the reader had never seen them before and having this introduction is a great resource for novice ramp cooks. The main part of the cookbook, the recipes, are broken into sections: sides and main dishes, salads and soups, ramps and eggs, biscuits and muffins, sauces, dips, etc., juice and jam and year-round ramps. I really like that there are so many recipes and that they are broken into easy to navigate sections. Since I had early ramps I chose to review the recipe for Sweet and Sour Ramps.

Sweet and Sour Ramps

*Re-printed with permission from St. Lynn's Press*

Serves 4 as a side dish

INGREDIENTS

• 2-3 dozen young ramps
•  3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons white wine or sherry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons light-colored honey
• Fresh ground black pepper for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Clean the ramps and remove the leaves or green parts (use them for another recipe). 

Saute the ramps in olive oil over medium-high heat until they brown, about 5 minutes.

Add vinegar and honey and swirl to combine in the pan. Turn the heat down and simmer until the liquid reduces to a glaze, about another 3-5 minutes. 

Serve hot or at room temperature with black pepper to taste. 

 With five ingredients this is a very simple recipe that allows the flavor of the ramps to shine through. It takes approximately 8 minutes of cooking. The prep time is hard to gauge since it would vary on how you purchased your ramps. I always receive my ramps uncleaned and it takes me around an hour to clean two pounds. Later season ramps are easier to clean since the shoots have turned into leaves. I have always found the shoots to be the hardest part to clean. I did modify the recipe slightly. I found that 3 tablespoons of olive oil was a little too much for the ramps that I had. Instead I used 1 tablespoon and the recipe worked perfectly.

I love the idea of a whole cookbook based solely on ramps. Having everything in one book and well organized is a great resource. There are many more recipes that I plan to make in the future. I freeze my ramps after cleaning, so this will allow me new recipes all summer!

This cookbook is a well put together collection and is something I could see being a great gift for cookbook (or ramp) lovers. The book can be purchased at your favorite book store or on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.



Disclaimer: I received a promotional copy of this cookbook from St. Lynn's Press in order to facilitate this review,  I received no further compensation for my post. The Sweet and Sour Ramps recipe is printed with permission from St. Lynn's Press. As always all opinions expressed are my own.