It's that time of year when Facebook is flooded with photos of ramps,
requests for recipes, foodie blogs and cooking websites are trying to out-blog each other
about their rampi-ness, and conservationists are preaching about
sustainable harvesting. We are lucky to know of many, many places in
Connecticut to harvest ramps, and we generally just snip the greens,
anyway. Lots of folks ask why their bulbs are so small, and are
erroneously told it's the age of the plant. The bulb size is small in
spring because all the bulb's energy has gone into making the leaves and
flower stalk. We don't bother to dig bulbs unless we have a very
specific recipe that needs them, and even then, we wait until just
before the ground freezes to get the largest bulb after the greens and
flower stalk have long died back and the plant is storing it's energy
for the winter.
Here's my conservationist preaching: Don't pick more than 10% of any
large patch of ramps you come across, snip only one leaf from each
plant, don't take more than you will use unless you plan on freezing the
greens, and respect the land and don't pick in public parks or private
property without permission.
We have quite a collection of recipes where we only utilize the greens, which hold all that garlicky, oniony funkiness in a green vegetable. This recipe was inspired by an appetizer at one of our favorite restaurants, Noodles, in Northampton, Massachusetts that they call "Rock Garden." It is run by a lovely Thai family and their noodle soups are just the thing for a chilly, rainy day.
Kanom gui chai is a crispy, but also gummy and chewy savory bomb, usually made with flat Chinese chives. It gets its chew from two different flours: glutinous rice flour and tapioca starch. We use a rice flour from Thailand with red printing on the bag, Erawan brand.
Kanom Gui Chai Tod: makes one 8" x 6" pan, or 1.5 L pan
250 g. ramps greens, washed and sliced thinly
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. light soy sauce
1.5 tsp. sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. oil
230 ml water
100 g rice flour
100 g tapioca starch
oil for deep frying
1. Take the ramps greens and slice them thinly, add to a bowl. Then add the salt, soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, baking soda, and oil. Massage the greens in this mixture and allow to rest about 20 minutes.
2. In a saucepan, add the water and whisk in the rice flour and tapioca starch. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens to about the consistency of muffin batter. Remove from the heat.
3. Drain any excess moisture from the ramps greens and fold them into the cooked starch.
4. Lightly rub some oil into a glass or metal baking dish. Pour the starches and ramps mixture in and steam, covered, for 20 minutes. The mixture will set firm.
5. Once it has cooled, gently dump the steamed cake from the pan and cut it into squares or triangles.
6. Heat the frying oil and fry the cakes until browned. Drain the hot cakes on some papertowels and eat while still hot and crispy with a dipping sauce.
Dipping sauce
60 ml dark soy sauce
60 ml sweet soy sauce
60 g dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix until the sugar dissolves. You can also add a touch of chili paste or sesame seeds, or thin with additional water.
.jpg)