perhaps you jumped on the spring rampage with me and pickled a whole lotta ramp bottoms a few days ago. which means you gotz a bunch (or two or three) of ramp greens sitting around waiting for you to fulfill their destiny.
to that i'm here to say, "have no fear, the mighty tigress is here!"
ahem.
this my friends, is an awesome idea that i cannot take credit for. the idea came from that wonderful new book tart and sweet that i roared a lot about a while back. (er, basically, get it!) the lovely authors of this book utilized the entire ramp, but being the resourceful cat that i am i thought it a perfect opportunity to use up all of those bottomless greens!
here's my version:
ramp greens kimchi
approximately 1 pound ramp greens, cleaned & thick stems removed
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons aleppo pepper (or korean chile, or 1/2 cayenne & 1/2 sweet paprika)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 half gallon mason jar, or two quarts
1. stack the ramps on top of one another to slice in 1 inch sections. place in large bowl, add all of the ingredients except soy sauce and oil. toss to distribute evenly.
2. stir soy sauce and sesame oil together and add to ramp greens, stir.
3. distribute to half gallon jar, or two quarts. let sit at room temperature overnight.
4. place in the fridge. every day or two give it a shake or a mix with a spoon. as it goes through the fermenting process you'll want to get the top greens down to the bottom. after 5 days or so, you can transfer to 1 quart jar.
the kimchi will be ready in about one week. you will know when the raw grassy smell dissipates and in its place comes the most mouth watering aroma.
ramp kimchi will last in the fridge for months.
as with all types of kimchi, you can eat ramp kimchi with just about anything, and it will never say no to being placed by a bowl of steaming rice for a simple and nutritious lunch.
you could however decide to take this whole thing even further and tuck a bit of this ramp kimchi into a few soft pillowy steamed buns. like i did this past weekend, in spite of the copious amounts of rhubarb i had to somehow tuck away for later.
those little ramp kimchi buns were out of this world delicious, and i am not sure if anyone believes me out there, but trust me it's e-a-s-y.
do it!
Alas, no ramps out here. What other green could one rampless, kimchi craving person use?
ReplyDeleteTwo by the Sea- maybe garlic mustard? I think it grows everywhere.
ReplyDeleteHave you been in my kitchen? How did you know that I had three bunches of ramp tops WAITING for your recipe- amazing. I can not wait to make this. It's on! -Christina
ReplyDeleteThis sounds incredible. I finally bought some ramps at the farmers' market last weekend, and have loads of tops that need to get used up.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if I can also just cook them up, like saute them with some spinach and asparagus?
Tigress, please explain what ramps are. I'm unfamiliar with the term, but they look like young versions of bok choy or a relative. Thanks, Martha
ReplyDeletetwo by the sea - I've never tried garlic mustard kimchi but I bet it could work! good suggestion calliek!
ReplyDeletechristina - do it!
lisa fine - yes you totally can. they are great sautéed. and I have one more recipe you might like. I hope to get it up tomorrow!
martha - they are other wise known as wild leeks. The grow all around the east and midwestern US. the best thing about them in my opinion is the greens. they taste fresh, grassy and mildly oniony at the same time. like a chive on steroids. :)
these are gorgeous! I have a slew of ramp greens in my fridge that I'm absolutely going to use some for this.
ReplyDeleteI made this using kale in place of the ramp greens (no such thing down here in the South) - and ate some in a quesadilla for dinner last night - pretty awesome!
ReplyDeletejulia - love the idea of kale! :)
ReplyDeletea very well post... May i kno that how you have maded your blog theme so that it is being previewable in the whole page...
ReplyDeleteThis sounds fantastic. Will this work if I cut back on the salt or is it the salt that preserves it? Low-sodium kimchi is hard to find.
ReplyDeletesam - salt does contribute to the rate of fermentation and preserving in general for fermented products. that said, on this particular one, my *guess* is you could go a little lighter on the salt, but not too much.
ReplyDeleteSo. I made this with scallions that I have in abundance in my garden right now. Thinking that I had way more than a pound of scallions (and lacking a kitchen scale), I doubled everything else to compensate. Well, as soon as I mixed it all together and it started reducing, I knew I had misjudged. But I let it ferment anyway, and after a week I had very spicy, VERY salty fermented scallions. This being said, my original intention was to mix it with ground pork for potstickers, which I did (after chopping the scallions further). I added about a third of my scallions to a pound of pork, mixed well and formed and cooked all my dumplings. Let me tell you, it was PERFECT; just the right amount of heat, just the right amount of seasoning... so yummy. I will always keep this on hand for quick and awesome pork dumplings. (Dipped in a mixture of soy and hot chinese mustard... mmm). Thanks!
ReplyDelete