Ramps, Ramps, and Ramp Fritters

ramps-shadow

Easter Sunday was a bit unusual for me this year.  I spent the morning with family, but ever-patient Lisl gave me special dispensation to spend the afternoon tromping around the woods with a bunch of other food bloggers collecting wild ramps, fiddleheads, stinging nettles, wild garlic, and more.  This outing was organized by Marc of No Recipes (who has a full write-up of the event and resulting menu on his blog, along with some great photos) and Jonathan of Lab 24/7.

ramps-forage-collage(Clockwise from top-left: ramps; stinging nettles; fiddleheads; non-edible but pretty flowers)

I now understand the special appreciation people have for ramps.  Douse them in olive oil and sea salt and toss under the broiler for a few moments, and the results will make you go weak in the knees.  Since Sunday, I have also eaten pickled ramps, sauteed ramps with the drippings from a roast chicken, made ramp fritters (recipe below), and later this week will be making a ramp risotto.  One has to strike when the iron is hot!

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Pork Pie, Bloggers, and Fritters

Claire, author of the Colloquial Cooking blog, invited a few of us over to dinner the other night to try out her pork pie stuffed with berkshire pork shoulder and ham and made with a lard crust. Pork? Pie? Now those are two of my favorite words! I’m looking forward to her posting the recipe because it was magnificent. [UPDATE: recipe is here!] She paired it perfectly with a frisee salad, lightly coated with vinaigrette. I went back for thirds.

Also at dinner were Marc of No Recipes, his lovely partner Liz, and Stephane from Chefs Gone Wild. It is always fun meeting up with food bloggers and geeking out over food. I am always reminded how much I have yet to learn when it comes to food. That is one thing I love about cooking: there is an eternal learning curve and always new challenges around the bend (as long as you’re willing to shake things up a bit).

This was also a last outing before the new baby arrives, so I was enjoying my taste of freedom considerably! mmmm red wine. pork pie. red wine. pork pie.

Marc also whipped up a killer sticky toffee pudding, with rum-soaked dates, to go with the English theme. That’s him on the bottom left opening a stubborn bottle of vanilla with pliers. There is no stopping the MacGyver power of No Recipes.

Thank you Claire for a wonderful dinner, and get that pork pie recipe up!

Speed Meal: Corn and Zucchini Fritters

The Bill Granger corn fritters recipe, paired with a rice vinegar, jalapeno and sugar dipping sauce, was one of my favorite discoveries last year. A few nights ago, when work required a very fast meal thrown together, I went back to the recipe and was reminded how delicious and simple this is.

The ingredients are listed here [link], and on that page is also a link to The Wednesday Chef where I first discovered it.

This time around, I used a fresh green jalapeno for the dipping sauce. It is not as pretty, but tastes just as good. I also grated up two zucchinis to add to the mixture (squeezing the grated zucchini to reduce moisture), and swapped parsley for cilantro. Loved it.

The recipe is a synch. Toss the dipping sauce ingredients in a pot and let it cook down a bit. Toss the batter ingredients in a bowl and mix, then stir in the vegetables, and then cook in a heavy-bottomed pan (a big cast iron skillet is perfect) with a splash of oil.

We paired this with a simple salad and chilled prosecco. I was one happy camper.

corn and zucchini fritters

Low and Slow roundup

low and slow graphicThank you to everyone who participated in the first Low and Slow blog event. As noted in the original post, we purposefully let the definition of “low and slow” remain broad, just asking that each submission be “a dish that requires long cooking (at least an hour) at relatively low temperatures where flavors mix together in delightful ways.

This was tough to judge, as there were many interesting submissions and different styles, but someone did have to take the cookbook prize, and that would be Kelly of Sass and Veracity. We met Kelly several months ago via Foodbuzz, and quickly became fans of her blog. Her submission was a brined pork roast, served with mushroom-sage polenta and collard greens.


Sass and Veracity
(Kelly)


Jugalbandi
(Bee and Jai) created “tempeh chili con frijoles”, a vegan version of chili con carne. Love that photograph!


Stacey Snacks
(Stacey) made a delicious-sounding pork shoulder ragu which she served on a bed of penne pasta.


Columbus Foodie
(Becke) submitted an intriguing recipe: Transylvanian Goulash, which combines saurkraut, pork shoulder, and lots of spices.


Passionate About Baking
(Deeba) made a chicken curry with fenungreek (Methi Murgh).


Family, Friends and Food
(Patsy) braised beef short ribs with a mix of broth, tomatoes, rosemary, worcestershire, etc.


kopiaste
(Ivy) cooked a Greek sofrito, a veal steak slowly cooked in a white wine, garlic and herb sauce, from the Greek island of Corfu.


What Smells So Good
(Sarah) created a vegan version of pulled BBQ pork, using unripe jackfruit.


North Fork Foodie (Lisa) made a pulled pork sandwich with tangy apples and onions.


For the Love of Cooking
(Pam) dropped a link in the comments section of the original post to this wonderful recipe for a Mexican-flavored beef stew, as well as a more traditional French-style beef stew.


Priya’s Easy N Tasty Recipes (Priya) created a spicy baked chicken with a Tandoori flavor.

Some recipes submitted didn’t *exactly* fit the parameters, but were quite interesting:


Fun and Food Cafe
(Mansi) submitted an Indian-style Chana Masala (chickpea curry).


Dil Se
submitted a finger millet porridge (ragi koozh).


Bengali Cuisine
(Sudeshna) created a caramel pudding of bread crumbs, milk, eggs, and vanilla essence.

Finally, here is our own entry:

The Constables’ Larder
(that’s us) braised a beef brisket with sweet peppers, carnival squash, slab bacon, cumin and paprika.

Thanks again to all the participants!