THE CUTTING BOARD

Recipes are constantly being developed in The Joy Kitchen, and new items are continually showing up in the marketplace. It is here at the Cutting Board you will learn about new ingredients, and discover unpublished recipes that have been created by the JOY Family. Our current topic:

Wild Ramps

WILD LEEKS or RAMPS

Get to the farmer’s market as soon as possible to buy this year’s harvest of wild leeks, or as we call them in the South, ramps. A strong character in the onion family, Ethan’s favorite way to use them is cut them on the diagonal and sauté them with sliced mushrooms, butter, salt and pepper. I talked to a fellow in the line at the farmer’s co-op the other day, and he said he made the best spaghetti sauce ever by using fresh ramps.

In the 2006 Joy of Cooking, we recommend you sauté them lightly in butter and add to scrambled eggs and small panfried fish. Eat them uncooked and you will quickly realize why they have the anti-social reputation that surpasses even garlic’s fragrant standing in the allium family.

Marion said of them in the 1975 edition of JOY, “Around the bulbs of Allium tricoccum, revolve many American folk festivals.” She did not recommend them to readers because she believed them to be too strong. I am sure she would be amazed to find out her son, Ethan, has hiked to the high elevations in the Cherokee National Forest to harvest them fresh. He has discovered they have an remarkable affinity with all varieties of smoked pork.