Ramps!

The spring open houses have begun at Prairie Fruits Farm, with a new vendor on Saturday morning, Cow Creek Farm, who have brought their spring ramps for sale.  The first day, we bought a pound and made a ramp and cheese quiche to take as a picnic before the opera.

Start with the ramps:

Chop them up, and sauté (with the bulbs) in some butter.
Make a quiche with a pate brisé using 1-1/2 cups flour, and a 9-inch pie pan or tart pan.  Pre-bake the quiche shell and cool slightly.
Mix 2 eggs, 3/4 cup cream, 100 g. grated cheddar cheese, and the ramps.  Pour into the shell and bake at a 350 oven as long as quiches are supposed to go.  When it's done, it's puffy and slighted browned, like this.

This week, we cycled to the Farm to stock up on vegetables, including ramps, goat cheese, and goat milk gelato (vanilla and mint this week).   Here is a more mature pound of ramps.

We figured that the garlicky green flavor would complement potatoes, cream, and cheese, so we prepared a gratin, based on a recipe for ramps and spinach but omitting the spinach.  Again, we sauteed the chopped up ramp bulbs for a bit, then added the chopped leaves until they were wilted.

We sliced a pound of Yukon gold potatoes, layered about half in a one-quart gratin dish (bigger would have been better), amply salted and peppered the layer, then spread the ramps on top. On top of the ramps, 50 grams or so of grated gruyere cheese.  Another layer of potatoes, and then poured over about a cup of warmed heavy cream that had been heated in the ramp pan with two cloves of chopped garlic.  Another handful of gruyere on top of this. More salt and pepper on the ramps and the top layer, and then into the 350 oven, covered with foil, for about 45 minutes, and then without the foil until it is brown and bubbly.  Goes well with ribs cooked on a Big Green Egg.

We've fallen behind in our posting, but stay tuned for Fish and the Big Green Egg.  Here is a down payment, from chilly February: