Cooking with Mumu: [Update] There are 3 new posts in "Simply Recipes"

Simply Recipes

Here is the Simply Recipes update for cookingwithmumu@gmail.com

Hot and Sour Soup
Ramp and Parsley Pesto
Ramps

There are 3 new posts in "Simply Recipes"

Hot and Sour Soup

Please welcome guest contributor Garrett McCord as he shares this recipe for a Chinese American favorite, hot and sour soup. ~Elise

Hot and sour soup is a lot like chili; every family has their own recipe, and each family thinks that theirs is the best. When I was in the local Chinese market perusing the mushrooms I asked one of the other shoppers, a tiny and ancient woman half my height whose etched wrinkles framed a friendly smile, where the wood ear mushrooms were.

"What are you using them for?"

"Hot and sour soup," I replied.

"What? You don't want those. Here," she grabbed a bag of dried shiitake, "use these."

"No! You don't want those for hot and sour soup!" cried another, more stout lady behind me. She said something in Cantonese to the first lady before grabbing a fresh bunch of enoki mushrooms and throwing them in my basket. "This is better."

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Ramp and Parsley Pesto

Please welcome Hank from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook as he shares one of his favorite things to make with wild foraged ramps, ramp and parsley pesto. Outstanding with pasta, though I ate half of this straight with a spoon. So good. ~Elise

Ramps arrive in the East Coast well before good basil can be found, so I've adapted a classic cool-weather pesto from Liguria, in Northern Italy, that uses walnuts and parsley instead of basil and pine nuts. Only in this case I am substituting the garlic in that pesto for fresh ramps, which are a kind of wild onion that has a pronounced garlic flavor. I blanch the greens first to keep them vivid; if you don't do this, your pesto will oxidize and turn brown in a few hours unless you cover it in olive oil.

If you can't find ramps, use green garlic. Both are available at farmer's markets in spring, although ramps are tough to locate east of Wisconsin.

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Ramps

Have you ever heard of ramps? Probably not, if like me, you live west of Minnesota. Those of you Easterners are likely well familiar with them. Also known as wild leeks or ramsons, ramps are one of the first delicacies of spring. They grow in the woodlands east of the Great Plains -- and often in huge swaths. Ramps are gathered by professional foragers each spring and make their way to any number of local food festivals. These days ramps are trendy; you can find them on white-linen menus from New York to San Francisco.

My friend Hank brought some ramps over for us to play with the other day; as a Jersey boy, he is well acquainted with them. According to Hank, you use ramps like green onions or young spring garlic. Ramps taste a lot like green garlic, though more subtle in their garlicy flavor. They can be eaten raw, but are best sautéed, roasted, grilled, pickled or made into pesto. The spearpoint-shaped upper leaves, unusually wide for a member of the onion family, are tender and are often separated from the stouter stalk and miniature bulb.

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