Pickled Ramps or Pickled Garlic... Decisions, Decisions.

I was lucky enough to find a field of ramps and then figure out what the H-E double hockey sticks to do with these ramps.  A ramp is a wild leek, for those who are wondering what they are.  So, I pickled some of them. YUMMMM--MEEEE!!!

Ramps aka Wild Leeks

And then lo and behold I have a friend who has a ridiculous amount of garlic.  She pondered, "What if you treated these multitudinous garlic the same way you treat a ramp?!?!?" Not an exact quote.  So, we did...

The jar on the left is garlic. The jar on the right are ramps.

As you can see they look basically the same! The only difference is the color of the pickling juice... But, in reality it's the same. The garlic jar is blue - skewing the color.   We were pleasantly surprised that they tasted decidedly different and both tasted great!  

Enough of the blathering -- here is the recipe:

Pickled Ramps -- Or Garlic!

(3 pint jars)

1 lb ramps (or garlic) -- cleaned and greens removed.

3 cups water

1 TB salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup cider or white vinegar (cider vinegar gives the ramps/garlic a nice color.)

1 TB dried herbs - whatever you want. I used mustard sees, black peppercorns, bay leaves, and cloves.

1. Heat water, salt, sugar and spices to boiling (approx five minutes.) Place ramps/garlic in boiling water mixture and cover tightly for five minutes.

2. After ramps/garlic are cooked, add vinegar.

3. Then put them in jars to can or in a jar to leave in the refrigerator. 

Water processing: bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes.  

Pressure cooking: 5 lb for 8 minutes.

I found a great book about ramps, if you want to know more:

Having Your Ramps by Glen Facemire, Jr.

I can't decide which I like better; pickled ramps or garlic. And I guess I don't have to choose. I should also note that I am super excited that I have already canned and dehydrated this year!! In normal times, that doesn't usually happen until say August/September.

Till next time...

Last Minute Konigsberger Marzipan

My lovely child informed me that he needed a "German food" made before the end of the marking period. The end of said marking period is Friday. This Friday. And C#1 knew about this for two weeks. What?!?!  The only good thing is that there are a couple days to figure this out.  And thankfully I have a multitudinous pile of cookbooks.

Lo and behold,  in this pile, is a book called German Cooking by Arne Kruger.  I've had this book for years and I'm not sure I even cracked it open. Shameful. I know.

I actually found a recipe that was manageable on such short notice and didn't require a trip to the grocery store.  I did alter the recipe, since, I am 1. Lazy  and 2. Always looking (and hoping) for a good shortcut for a last minute cooking assignment.

So here is the recipe with all of the easy changes, that practically made it a different recipe...

Konigsberger Marzipan (Almond Paste Cookies)

Page 81 in the book; if you want to do the harder, more complicated version.

Cookies:
3 cups finely ground almonds --  I blended 3 cups sliced almonds in a blender. They were mostly ground down. There were a few whole pieces at the end.
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoons almond extract -- I used a little bit more.
4 tablespoons orange juice

Icing:
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix together almonds, confectioners sugar, almond extract and orange juice. Stir until completely blended. Butter the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Mix all of the ingredients for the icing and spread onto the cooled (still warm) marzipan.

Cut into bars.

The original recipe had you foiling and chilling and using cut-outs and adding candy. And also guessing how long to cook it "Bake in a very hot oven until lightly browned."  Now that's helpful, said no one ever.  That said, I wasn't going to be a slave to this recipe and was glad to find out I didn't need to be.

Hopefully C#1 will give me a little more notice next time. But, I won't hold my breath.

Till next time...