Breakfast, The Most Important Meal of the Day...

I found garlic scapes at my farmer's market again this weekend.  Happiness ensued.  Last night we had them steamed with asparagus and the boys had broiled salmon with blueberry mango chutney because hello.  As I was feasting on the garlic scapes, it occurred to me how good they would be with eggs.  Fortunately, I had enough left over this morning to test my theory and oh, how correct I was.

 This breakfast was crazy fast to make, one of my biggest requirements for breakfast.  Ok, maybe the only requirement.  Sometimes I eat a handful of walnuts and an apple for breakfast because that level of speed is necessary.  Sometimes it's a banana and a piping hot lung full of exhaust from the vehicle in front of me.

The other day I was late for the dentist because I was photographing ducks on my carport.

That was a banana and exhaust morning.

Fortunately, I had a few minutes today...

Soft Boiled Egg
1-4 eggs
4-8 C water

Cover eggs with water in a medium sauce pan.  Bring water to a boil, and turn the water off.  Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and set your timer for 3 minutes (if you want a runnier yolk) 5 minutes (if you want a more cooked yolk, like this one).

Steamed Garlic Scapes
3 Garlic Scape Spears per person
3 C water

Place your steamer insert into a large pot.  Add water until it is just below the surface of the steamer bottom (no water should touch the vegetables).  Break the stems of the scapes as you would asparagus to get rid of any woody parts.  Rise, and place in steamer.  Bring water to a boil and turn down.  Let scapes steam for 5-10 minutes depending on how soft you like your scapes.  These were steamed about 7 minutes.  The more you cook scapes, the less garlic flavor is left.  These had a nice, light garlic flavor without being overpowering and complemented the egg really well.

Review:
This was a perfect light breakfast.  I am basking in the woodnymphian glow of garlic scape season as the garlic-scented cloud that seeps from my pores will attest.  I regret nothing.

Heritage Chicken, Organic Potatoes, Garlic Scapes, and Lemon Kale

     As you all know I have an ongoing love affair with my farmer's market.  I plan to do another post soon bragging about the new farmers who have joined the market since last time, but until then, I thought I'd share a meal we had tonight using all farmer's market food!  

     This is a heritage chicken, thus the longer leg and smaller breast.  With heritage birds which haven't been soaked in an anti-microbial water solution, it is important to cook them "low and slow."  Fortunately, the ones I have been buying are also smaller than the other birds I was finding, so they still take about an hour to bake even at 350°.

Roast Chicken
1 Small Heritage Chicken
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.  Pat chicken dry and place in a small oven proof pan.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bake 30 minutes per pound until juices run clear, about an hour.

Roasted Potatoes and Garlic Scapes
4 medium sized baking potatoes, sliced in 1/4 inch slices
1 pound of garlic scapes, cut in 1 inch pieces*
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

Place potatoes and scapes in a 9X13 inch roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste, then toss with a spoon to combine.  Cover with aluminum foil, bake at 350° for about 60 minutes or until scapes and potatoes are soft, removing foil about half way through.

*The bottom half of the scapes I got were pretty woody, so I had to cut them off.  The thinner the stalk, the more tender it will be, or at least it was in this case.  If you steam your scapes, this is less of an issue than when roasting them.

You can put the pan in at the same time as the chicken, though it may take a little longer for each dish to finish cooking.

Sauteed Kale with Lemon
1 lb Kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
1/3 lemon, juiced
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

In a large pan, heat a dollop of olive oil then add kale, salt and pepper.  Cook for 5 minutes or so until kale is wilted but not browned.  Dress with the lemon juice.

Review:
     This is a nice, relatively quick meal.  Mostly prep work and shoving stuff in the oven.  My kind of cooking!  My boys loved the chicken and potatoes, but it was a little hard to sell them on the scapes and the kale.  More mature palates will enjoy them, rest assured. 

A Farewell to Spring...

Primavera means "Spring" in Italian, or so I've been told.  We have had a cloudy, cold, miserable Spring here in the Pacific Northwest and I, for one, am glad to see this mythical season they call "Summer" arrive.  I do love all the Spring vegetables though, like asparagus, morels and most recently, as you well know, I have discovered the sweet seduction of garlic scapes.  So I thought I'd make this little Pasta Primavera using the last of the local Spring veggies, though I wish I'd thought of this while fiddle heads were still in season... oh well, next year.

Pacific Northwest Pasta Primavera

4 or 5 baby beets
1/2 lb garlic scapes
1/2 lb asparagus
1/8 lb fresh morel mushrooms
1/2 lb kale

1) Roast beets.  Wrap in tin foil and bake for one hour at 350°.
2) After the beets have roasted for about 30 minutes, start the pasta water, and chop garlic scapes and asparagus in 1 or 2 inch pieces.
3) Roughly chop kale into bite-size pieces.
4) Chop morels into rings.
5) Sauté veggies in a frying pan with a little olive oil.  Start with scapes and asparagus.  Add  kale and mushrooms after about 5 minutes.
6) If the garlic scapes are taking too long to cook, add a little water and cover the pan to let everything steam.

A little wine would be nice in the sauté, too. 

7) When pasta water boils, add pasta and cook according to package directions.

 I fubared the alfredo sauce, so it was more like tasty milk with Parmesan curd, but it still tasted awesome...

Alfredo sauce:
1/2 stick butter, melted in pan
1 C skim milk
1 C Parmesan cheese
1 crushed garlic clove
1/4 C fresh parsley
pepper

To make a proper alfredo, you should use cream in place of milk.  This may have been what made mine all farshlugginer...

1) Melt butter in a small saucepan.
2) Boil milk, stirring consistently, for 5 minutes.
3) Slowly add Parmesan.
4) Add garlic clove, parsley, and pepper.

When beets are ready, let cool slightly (until you can handle them) and peel skin off, then slice.  Dress the pasta with the alfredo.  Top with sauteed veggies and sliced beets.

Eat it, 'cause it's awesome!   This could be more quickly made if you cook the beets a day or two ahead of time.  I served this with salmon because we had some that needed to be eaten, but this would probably be better with chicken.

 

Two Words : Garlic. Scapes.

A little departure from the norm today.  Please excuse me, but it's about to get all fan-geeky up in here.  I had heard of garlic scapes but never tried any until I found a bunch at my favorite grocery store.  They are beautiful.

 See?

 

 See?

 

 See?!

 

AUGH!  They're gorgeous!!

*swoon*

Flavor-wise, the stalks are similar to asparagus and the bud is a little like asparagus mixed with artichoke, though milder.  Raw, the stalks are hot and strong like garlic, but I think taste a little "grassier".  So far I haven't been able to retain the garlic flavor when cooked, but I'm still working on it.  We've had them steamed and grilled, and I think they'd be great broiled, too.

I paired the scapes with whole wheat pasta, but homemade herbed pasta would make these even better...I'm out of pasta flour... dang...

Garlic Scapes with Pasta
Serves 2

1/4 lb whole wheat pasta
1/2 lb garlic scapes
1/4 C chopped walnuts
crumbled feta cheese, for garnish
dash olive oil
s & p to taste

1) Make the pasta according to package directions.
2) Steam garlic tops as you would asparagus.  I use an electric steamer, so mine cooks in 8-10 min.
3) When scapes are done steaming, remove from steamer and chop stalks in 1/4 inch pieces, reserving the buds for later.
4) Plate the pasta and top it with chopped scapes, walnuts, olive oil, salt and pepper and feta, finishing with the buds.

Serve it with mixed green and herb salad with a basic vinegarette:
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl until combined, pour over salad to your taste.  I use 1/4 tsp or less.

Notes:

• Scapes steamed as long as asparagus works well to cook them, but I'm thinking I'll try a few less minutes next time.  (I'm going to try 5.)
• They cook really quickly on the grill don't take your eyes off them for a second!
• Mr. CotC doesn't like goat cheese, but I think you could easily substitute goat cheese for feta cheese.
• I think that mine were elephant garlic scapes.  What I have seen at farmer's markets are thinner and curlier, though I imagine they taste very much the same.  That said, I love the big, fat flower bud on these elephant garlic ones. 
• If you're brave, you might try a few thin sections of raw scapes in your salad, too.
• If you decide not to serve it with a salad with balsamic in it, you might put a little balsamic over the pasta to give it a little acid.

Next week, I'll be back to my regularly scheduled recipe box recipe, but I was so excited by these I couldn't help it.  Plus, this is the time to find them in the stores don't let these little buds of awesomeness get away!

OK.  One more:

 Sorry...