May 25, 2011 CSA Delivery
Recipe Suggestions from Conne Ward-Cameron

There’s one vegetable in your box this week that you’re never going to find in the grocery store - the garlic scape. Most people have never heard of garlic scapes, and when they see them have no idea what they are. Long slender round stems with a funny little flower bud at the end, many people call them “pigtails” because of the way they curl. They’re the flower stalks of hardneck garlic plants and actually vary in taste depending on the variety of garlic being grown. A hot garlic will have a hot scape. Garlic with a sweeter bite, will have a sweeter scape.

Why harvest the scapes? I interviewed Mary Denton of Denton Flower Farm in Covington for a story that will run in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution next week. Mary is well known to many MellowBellies members since she has offered bouquets on Suzanne’s porch over the years.

Mary told me, “Most people agree that cutting off the flower stalk allows the plant to put its energy into growing a bigger garlic head. We start to check the garlic about two to three weeks after the flower stalk is cut to see if it is ready to harvest. The plant begins to yellow and die back. If you dig too soon, it will be to green and may not dry right. If you wait too long there may not be enough papers, the white thin stuff on the outside of the garlic bulb, to protect the garlic head.”

So how do you use garlic scapes? You can use them just as you would garlic. If you look on the Internet, or can find a recipe in a cookbook, you’ll find the most common use seems to be as a substitute for basil in pesto and we offered a recipe for garlic scape pesto last year. Look for it at www.grassfedcow.com/recipes.html. Next week there’ll be a recipe for a really delicious garlic scape stir fry in my “In Season” column in the AJC food section.

For today, how about a frittata? If you want to blanch the collard greens or bok choy, you could use them in this recipe, or try it with the arugula specified.

Greens and Scape Frittata

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped garlic scapes
8 eggs
1 cup (1/2 lb.) finely chopped arugula
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, heat olive oil until hot and then sauté garlic scapes until tender, about 5 minutes.

While garlic scapes are cooking, in a large bowl, stir together eggs, greens and Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.

When scapes are tender, pour egg mixture into skillet and put skillet into oven. Bake uncovered for 10 minutes or until the top is set. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or cold.

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Seeing all the radishes in the box reminded me of a wonderful recipe I’ve made for years. It’s a radish salad adapted from Jane Brody’s Good Food Cookbook. Here’s my version which is about as loose a recipe as it’s possible to have. Use the green onion tops from your pretty onions in this week’s box, and add a few garlic scapes if you’re so inclined.

Radish-Swiss Cheese Salad

Radishes, grated
Swiss cheese, grated
Green onions, finely sliced
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari
1 teaspoon honey

The proportion of radish to cheese should be about half and half. Add green onions according to how much you like them.

Toss the radishes, cheese and green onions in a salad bowl.

In a small screw-top jar, make a vinaigrette by combining vinegar, mustard, oil, soy sauce and honey. Shake well and pour over salad. Depending on how many radishes, etc. you’ve put in your salad, you may need to double the vinaigrette recipe. Serve right away or chilled. It will keep about 2 days in the refrigerator before the radishes start to lose their wonderful crunchy quality.

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And don’t compost those radish leaves. They’re wonderful as a cooked green or they make a terrific pesto. Yep, just about any green thing, and a lot of other colored vegetables too, make delicious pesto. Just puree them with a little olive oil, some Parmesan and nuts of your choice. You can never have too much pesto.

See you over next week’s box.

conne

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