Ramps-'n-a-Biscuit

I got ramps galore, and I been cravin' me some biscuits. Solution: RAMP BISCUITS. Because, why not?

The base recipe is courtesy of Ms. Paula Deen, and then I just chopped up a bunch of ramps and sauteed them up in some butter before incorporating them into the dough. A clever little dusting of crushed coriander seeds was a nice idea from the folks at Bon Appetit.

I also made a lovely, simple and spicy carrot ginger soup garnished with some ramp greens.

 

Then I wanted dessert, so I pulled out my fig jam and planned to consume it slathered on another biscuit, because, again, why not? That seemed like a good idea until...

If Josie or Martha sees that I ate this, they might get mad...

but the good part tasted so good. Thriftiness requires a sense of adventure, I say.

Crepe Monster

What do you do with leftover chicken, onion, mushrooms and Gruyere? Make a fat crepe! Alton says to let the batter sit, but who has time for that? I don't. But I do have buckwheat on hand. So I used that, too.

Then I made a maple-and-blackberry confit to stuff inside the leftover batter, which I sweetened up with sugar for my dessert. Haaaavava.

The Essence of Spring

This is it: The Essence of Spring. Mark Bittman says so.

I very much loved that I had ginger, peas and stock on hand and craved soup, and that a quick Google search for peas and ginger gave me this. I put my last leftover scallion into the pot, too.

I could maybe eat a refreshing cup of this soup every day in lieu of tea for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Char Siu for Me and You!

A rare 9am rise last Saturday morning put me at the farmer's market relatively early, so I was able to catch the last of the day's ramps after waiting in a 16-person-long line.

I took the ramps home and threw them into a very healthy breakfast of duck-fat-fried potatoes extra-thinly sliced on my Lil Beni. I also definitely did not cut my finger on my Lil Beni. Huff.

My dinner date had requested pork for dinner, so as soon as I smelled the springy onion-garlic wafting up from the duck fat, I knew these had to go into a pork stir-fry, and as soon as I knew there was pork stir-fry in the future, I knew I had to make Char Siu (aka that bright red Chinese pork deliciousness).

The amalgamation of a recipe I decided on involved hoisin sauce, ginger, soy sauce, and maltose. Because these are ingredients available everywhere. Of course. 

 

But they are available at Asian Foods Express, which happens to very conveniently be located approximately 38 seconds from my apartment's front door, and which now happens, after this visit, to be my absolute favorite new foodie establishment in my already well-hung 'hood. They had everything I needed, including the quirky maltose (see above!) and this secret Lobo seasoning pack that turns the pork the requisite red in lieu of scary food coloring--it's a bunch of Chinese five-spice and... wait for it... beet powder! The best part was that the place is CHEAP.

The Meat Hook hooked it up with a couple pounds of pork shoulder, and the Char Siu sauce went all over it for a nice long saturating bath. 

 

With the power of television--er, internet blogosphere thing--I now present you with the final insanely delicious, I-want-to-eat-this-every-day result:

The original plan was a stir-fry with crap-tons of ramps, so the end dish was a sweet-umami Char Siu stir-fry with added shiitake and enoki mushrooms and snow peas over a bed of crunchy-chewy Chinese egg noodles. Stupid. Just stupid.

The First Pesto of the Season!

Look how pretty!! It may be from a greenhouse, but here's the season's first pesto with basil, spinach, almonds and the extra-special game-changer ingredient: Preserved Lemons! Extra excellent.

I slathered this all over a crusty baguette, covered my spinach linguine with it and even dipped roasted asparagus spears in it.

Tacos Without the Truck

I love me a taco. I love tacos sometimes more than I love pizza. And I love pizza a lot.

After living in Los Angeles for seven years, I got this taste for great tacos--preferably from trucks, preferably extra-greasy and absolutely smothered with cilantro and onions that came out of a plastic jug on the truck's side shelf. I can't find tacos like that here, so I have to make my own.

My refrigerator had a half a piece of steak leftover from the Farewell Winter meal, and I had a half a lime, some onion and fresh baby spinach in there, so all I had to buy was corn tortillas and cilantro... oh, and avocado, because I love those so much I could possibly live on them.

Pee Foods Key Foods has Chinantla tortillas which are made just literally down the street from me in Brooklyn, so I felt like a happy locavore buying them, and they're blue corn! These are pretty tasty when slightly charred over an open flame, but they're really tasty fried up in some vegetable oil until they're half-crisp, half-chewy-floppy.

I seasoned the steak with a bit of paprika, cumin, chili powder, cayenne and salt, sliced it really thinly so plenty of flavor coated each bite, and then really quickly heated it up in sauté pan.

All of the green ingredients and the onions were splashed with lime juice and some salt and black pepper before they were piled over the steak.

Add beer; the end.

Lotta Colla'ds

Collard greens take up entirely too much room in the fridge, their massive leaves all swarming into the OJ's space and overlapping on the yogurt container. They had to be used, and quickly.

The solution was a little Southern ditty of smoked pork shanks (thanks, Meat Hook!) smothered in barbecue sauce and slowly braised to fork-tender perfection set up side by side with the requisite accompaniment, collards. We cooked these up with some of the braising liquid from the shanks and a bit of yellow onion.

Cornbread--of course--rounded out the meal with some buttermilk mashed potatoes and a very pretty Pahlmeyer Pinot. Meanwhile, Napoleon cleaned up the kitchen...