Ramps, wild leeks from West Virginia

My friend and guest taster, RK, sent me some ramps from his yard in West Virginia.

One ramps.  One ramp?

Ramps (Allium tricoccum) are wild leeks found in eastern North America -- including the mountains where RK lives.

He sustainably harvests them for himself and what he is willing to share with me.  It is always a treat when a package arrives!

The ramps have a broad leaf, which makes them distinctive from garlic and other onions, and they have a scent that I find alluring.  It is hard to describe; I think of it like "garlicky-onion plus."  I get the same sort of "food high" from the scent and flavor that I can get from really good quality sushi.

If you look around the internet, you can find recipes for pickled ramps, ramp butter, ramp pesto, and more.  

But with my batch, I made a simple side dish to go with a grilled steak.

You can see above that my ramps came with roots and some dirt, so my first task was to wash them.  Each one, individually, must be rinsed.  I trim the root end off with scissors and then slide the outer part of the stem off.  The rest of the plant cleans up easily from there.

It does take time to get through the batch, but the scent while I'm working is worth it.

Clean!

Sometimes I cook the ramps by themselves.  This time, though, I rehydrated some dried mushrooms in some hot red wine.  They soaked while I washed the ramps.

I like to chop the ramps, leaves and stems, into about 1-inch long pieces.  Then I start sautéing them in a little butter.

Starting to cook in melted butter.

The greens wilt quickly, but the stems take longer to cook.  Once I saw the stems looking softer and more transparent, I added the mushrooms with their wine.

Ready for the mushrooms

All together now.

Once everything was in the pan, I reduced the heat to let the ramps finish cooking and the wine to reduce.  The last touch was to sprinkle in a little salt and pepper.

Yes, it was that simple.  The flavor of the ramps came shining through.  The mushrooms added some flavor and a nice chewy element to the dish.  The wine, salt, and pepper were a good flavor support team.

It was the perfect match for the steak:  the ramps onion-garlic flavor really stood out to make the meal special.  We included more of the red wine, of course.  

Ahhhh, success.  My one batch of ramps for the year yielded a successful side dish.  I'm glad to have documented it here.

If you can find ramps somewhere -- make sure they are sustainably harvested! -- give them a try.  Maybe you will experience the food high I get from them.

Thanks, RK.