About this Blog

As I go into my second year blogging about cooking and eating locally, I am thinking more and more about my own heritage. Why is cooking and eating locally sourced food important to me? What values am I honoring by doing this and how were these values instilled in me.





Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Garlic Scapes

The thing I love about belonging to a CSA is that it provides me with an opportunity to learn about new veggies. In our share for this week we received garlic scapes. I had no idea what a garlic scape was or that something like this even existed until last week when I picked up my weekly farm share. There was a recipe for soup using scapes attached to our weekly CSA newsletter and I thought of trying it; however, I wanted to learn more so I went onto the internet for information and recipes.

The first site I found is called the Amateur Gourmet (http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2009/06/garlic_scapes.html) where I found a photo of garlic scapes as well as photos and commentary about garlic scape pesto. There was also a link to a recipe in the New York Times for White Bean Dip made with scapes. Both the pesto and the white bean dip intrigued me as I had just recently begun making my own pesto and had been mixing and matching various greens with other types of nuts. I am also a big fan of hummus and other bean dips, so I was interested in trying white bean dip with scapes...maybe my son would like it for an after school snack. I also liked this blog called a Mighty Appetite (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/06/my_friend_the_garlic_scape_1.html) which featured another photo of garlic scapes as well as a recipe for pesto. Mother Earth News (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2005-10-01/Garlic-Scapes.aspx?page=3) offered up a recipe for sauted scapes. Another useful site was from eHow ( http://www.ehow.com/how_2325835_use-garlic-scapes-shoots-recipes.html). My favorite was a newsletter article found on the Moscow Food Coop Website entitled: The Garlic Scape: Eat it or Wear it? (http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/scape.html). This article had recipes for white bean dip, fried scapes and a spinach and scape frittata.

I made the Frittata following the recipe from the Moscow Food Coop. I added one leek which I needed to find a use for before it went bad. This was my first time making a frittata and I am a convert. Like the omlette you can mix and match veggies and meats based on what you have on hand, but making the frittata is almost easier than scrambled eggs. I cut the frittata I made into 8 wedges. I used two the first day with a mixed green salad and ate it for lunch. I tried it on my son, but he wasn't a fan. Although he likes both eggs and spinach, he's still at the stage where he likes his food separated. I found that the frittata also stored well, so that I could make one and put the wedges in a pyrex container and keep in the refrigerator for a few days. My husband used leftover wedges on toasted bagles for a breakfast sandwhich on the go.

I also made the white bean dip which my husband and I both enjoyed as a Sunday afternoon appetizer. In addition, I made two different batches of pesto using scapes...one was a more traditional pesto using spinch leaves and basil and in the other, I used carrot greens. As I read in several of the articles about scapes, the flavor of the scape is milder than the garlic itself. The scape is easy enough to store and prep although I have not tried to keep it for any length of time. For now, like strawberries, I will look forward to it's appearance again in late spring and early summer.

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