sauces and dressings | A Good Dish

Garlic Scapes: What They Are and How to Cook Them

June 9, 2016

I first saw garlic scapes in a tangled heap at a farmers’ market and wondered what they were. I soon found out plus how to use them by chatting with the farmer who grew them. I don’t remember seeing scapes before 10 or 12 years ago but now they seem much more common, even if only at a Greenmarket.

Garlic scapes are the above ground green shoots of the garlic plant, something like a bud of a flower. They appear in the spring with the leaves of the plant and farmers prune them off so that all of the energy of the plant can go to the growing bulb, not its shoots. Think of them as the vegetable part of the garlic plant – another tasty green thing to enliven our cooking!

Scapes can be used just like garlic – sliced, diced or minced – to add garlic flavor to all kinds of foods. They are a bit like dense, crunchier green beans that taste like milder garlic. I think scapes are especially good sautéed with other spring vegetables, like asparagus, bok choy, baby greens and radishes but can be cooked and mashed with potatoes, steamed with broccoli or used anywhere you would add green garlic. Scapes make delicious chartreuse-colored pesto, both as the main ingredient or just as the garlic part of a basil or other variety pesto. They can be blended into a vinaigrette or added to an omelet, frittata or stir fry. There are seemingly endless ways to use scapes and they keep for several weeks in a refrigerator drawer.

Fortunately for us, many farmers at our greenmarkets now sell garlic scapes. It is the beginning of their season so they are just appearing and should be available for a few weeks. If you make pesto out of them this month and put it in your freezer, you will be rewarded with an easy green vegetable to use come winter. Right now garlic scapes are a fragrant, savory green addition to our late spring meals.

Garlic Scape Pesto

2 cups cut garlic scapes, about 12-15 scapes cut in 1/4-1/2 inch pieces
1 cup chopped parsley, about one small bunch (optional but adds lots of nutrients)
1tsp salt
4 TBsps olive oil, or more
1/2 cup walnuts, or your choice of nut (optional)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Put cut up scapes and salt in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. If using nuts, parsley or cheese, add and pulse until completely ground. With the motor running, add oil until the pesto is the consistency you like.

Use right away or pack in small glass containers or jars with a very thin layer of olive oil on top (to keep it from oxidizing) and refrigerate or freeze for future use. We use about 1/2 – 3/4 cup for a pound of pasta or tofu – I also add a little more salt and some black pepper – just taste and see if you think it needs more. You can add a squeeze of lemon just before serving.

Quinoa and Brown Rice Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto Plate by Lyn Evans — Quinoa and Brown Rice Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto
Plate by Lyn Evans

Don’t forget that pesto is not just for pasta (although it is delicious that way): It is wonderful on baked fish, chicken, tofu, potatoes and summer squashes and also enlivens rice, quinoa and many vegetables.

Easy Homemade Horseradish

May 4, 2016

Spring may be the time when we need a potent jolt to wake us out of our winter nesting mode and fully recover from the shift to daylight savings time. Fortunately, spring is the time of year we can find horseradish roots for sale in markets. To me, the roots look like overdeveloped parsnips on steroids. It is the kind of crop one must plant judiciously because once it gets established, I’ve heard gardeners say, it spreads and takes over other plants. The same is true in recipes – a little goes a long way: too much causes you to gasp for breath but just the right amount tickles your tastebuds.

Horseradish turns ketchup into cocktail sauce and makes mustard zestier (1 part Dijon mustard to 1 part horseradish). It improves stewed or boiled meats, even making pot roast tolerable (for those of us who find it punishment). Horseradish is the body and soul of a Bloody or Virgin Mary, and using homemade gives your drink more intensity. If you want to give an immediately useful gift when you are a brunch guest, bring a jar of homemade horseradish with a good bottle of tomato juice and, if your hosts imbibe, your favorite vodka.

Store bought horseradish is useful as backup but it is anemic when compared to freshly homemade. Horseradish isn’t the first thing you might consider preparing at home but is surprisingly easy to make in this era of muscular blenders and food processors. The only challenge is paying attention to when the roots are available, since this is a small window. Be forewarned – don’t take a big sniff when you take off the lid after grinding: This will be some powerful sh%#!! My eyes tear up just getting it out of the blender into a jar, so please beware!

HORSERADISH SAUCE

Wash and peel one large horseradish root. Cut in 1″ chunks and put in your food processor. Grind the cut up root by pulsing until it is the desired texture and then add 1 cup of white distilled vinegar and a teaspoon of coarse salt. (If you like a touch of sweetness, add 1 teaspoon of sugar per root. If you want your horseradish pink, add a small cut-up beet). Pulse a few more times until the horseradish reaches the desired consistency. When using a Vitamix or similar blender, add the vinegar before grinding. If the machine stalls, turn it off, stir and add a little more vinegar. In either case, is better too wet than too dry, as the finished horseradish will continue to absorb liquid as it sits in the refrigerator. Please BE CAREFUL when you remove the lid – there will be strong fumes! Spoon into clean jars and refrigerate. Horseradish keeps well in the refrigerator for months but will lose potency over time.

Dressing Spring Vegetables

April 27, 2016

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When artichokes and asparagus are as beautiful and fresh as they are right now, I want to make them often. A steamed artichoke is a treat with melted butter but is elevated to another state with a scrumptious dip. Hollandaise sauce, a traditional accompaniment to both artichokes and asparagus, has alway been too rich for me. Plus, unless I’ve met the chicken whose eggs I’m eating, anything with raw egg in it makes me feel squeamish.

Growing up, we dipped our artichoke leaves in a homemade mustardy vinaigrette with chopped, hard boiled eggs. My mother clipped vinrecipe the recipe from a monthly newsletter more than 40 years ago and still pulls it out out every spring to sauce artichokes. When I went to copy down the recipe decades ago, it was already worn and speckled with drops of oil and now my own copy looks much the same. The vinaigrette in the newsletter came from Paul Steindler, a Czech chef who ran La Popette restaurant in New York.

For years I made Mom’s recipe just as she had prepared it, but then it occurred to me that a few changes might suit me better. I swapped in apple cider vinegar for white distilled, replaced the white sugar with maple syrup and went back to the Dijon mustard that was in the original (not the bright yellow “French’s” hot dog mustard we used at home). The newsletter recipe called for half a cup of olive oil but that made the vinaigrette too rich for my taste and tolerance. I cut the oil to 2 tablespoons and instead of adding a chopped egg at the end, I added 2 hard boiled eggs and blended them completely to thicken it all into an unctuous and tangy dip, similar to but lighter than the original.

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We still celebrate spring with artichokes and asparagus dipped in this delicious mustardy vinaigrette and I feel good about making it. This combination of a vegetable with a protein makes it a meal, especially if you don’t want a heavy supper. If there is any sauce left over, it makes a pretty good dip for carrots or cold, cooked asparagus the next afternoon. You can prepare this vinaigrette ahead, as it will keep in the refrigerator a day or so, and just re-blend it while the artichokes or asparagus are steaming.

UN-HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Blend well:

3 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 tsps maple syrup (or honey)
1/4 tsp Worcester sauce
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Add and blend until smooth:

2 hard boiled eggs, peeled

Great as a dip for artichokes (pour right into the center of a cooked and cleaned artichoke) or drizzled over steamed asparagus (or served in a small dish on the side). Store any leftover in the refrigerator for one day. Fills 4 large artichokes.

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