Earlier, I wrote about the glories of pickling ramps. Tonight, I decided to use the ramps I pickled over the weekend. Luckily, I still had some wonderful ingredients from Saturday's farmers market: asparagus, new potatoes, and scallions. So I made a warm salad. I quartered the new potatoes, tossed them with olive oil, coarse sea salt, and pepper and put them into a hot oven to roast. When they were nearly done and getting caramelized, I add the asparagus and scallions, which I cut up in small pieces. I have some thyme growing in my kitchen, so I tore off some sprigs and added them as well.
When the vegetables were caramelized and tender, I took them out and squeezed a lemon into them, then added the zest of that lemon--and a handful of pickled ramps. Some more coarse and salt, and I had a wonderful warm spring salad.
For our main course, I took baby swiss chard (which I'd also bought at the market) and wilted it in olive oil, then set the greens aside. I made a sauce by mixing creme fraiche with the strained pickling liquid from my ramps, plus salt and pepper (you whisk it and gets wonderfully foamy). Then I seared off six sea scallops, which I'd seasoned first, adding some butter after turning them initially, then basting the scallops with that delicious brown butter.
I put a bed of swiss chard on the plate, topped with a couple of sea scallops, put some pickled ramps on the plate, and spooned on the sauce. The dish was absolutely incredible and tasted like the essence of springtime.
I'm out of produce. Tomorrow I'm ordering a pizza.
