{"id":4942,"date":"2015-08-13T01:08:50","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T01:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=4942"},"modified":"2015-08-13T01:08:50","modified_gmt":"2015-08-13T01:08:50","slug":"lamb-with-ramp-fruit-artichoke-olive-tomato-saute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=4942","title":{"rendered":"lamb with ramp fruit; artichoke-olive-tomato saut\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"artichoke_olive_tomato_saute\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"artichoke_saute_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"lamb_chop_artichoke_saute\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The images above show two stages of the\u00a0vegetable saut\u00e9 process, and as it was served with the lamb.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Better than ever, thanks to ramp fruit.<\/p>\n

The two lamb chops we had last night were the second of two pairs inside\u00a0a single package I had brought home frozen from the Greenmarket over two\u00a0weeks back. \u00a0I defrosted the first two overnight and\u00a0prepared\u00a0them<\/a>\u00a0the next day, finishing with a little sliced shallot and some sorrel butter. At the time I thought lamb chops do not come any better, but the treatment I gave the second pair yesterday (again, defrosted overnight) may have excelled them.<\/p>\n

The reason lies in one simple ingredient: ramp fruit<\/a>, my favorite new thing, and one which is making its\u00a0appearance just when I had decided the spring ramp craze had gotten totally out of hand.<\/p>\n

The fruit were displayed on long stems in Franca’s Berried Treasures stall at the Greenmarket this past\u00a0Friday; \u00a0they were new, and I had no idea what they were. \u00a0Her hand-lettered sign didn’t help much , since someone on the farm had put\u00a0the wrong one in the truck that day. \u00a0There was still a good chance I was going to take some\u00a0home, even before Franca said something about ramp buds, or maybe it was ramp capers, adding, when someone else asked what to do with them, that we should think of them as garlic.<\/p>\n

I was now sold. totally.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday I still had some ‘buds’ remaining from that same\u00a0bunch (‘bouquet’), even though I had been using some in virtually every meal I’d prepared since. \u00a0Last night I snipped off another small amount of fruit<\/a> from the end of\u00a0their long dry stems and I did little more than gently heat them in a small tin-lined copper pan (recently acquired from a sidewalk vender, and\u00a0becoming increasingly indispensable to\u00a0my\u00a0kitchen\u00a0operations. \u00a0The tiny\u00a0fruits gave up a terrific aroma and ended up on top of the pan-grilled chops. The meat had been\u00a0seasoned with salt and pepper, but I did noting else to it squeeze a bit of lemon and a drizzle some olive oil over it. \u00a0It\u00a0was terrific, the taste of the excellent lamb had grown a little garlicky and subtly floral.<\/p>\n

I picked\u00a0the superb\u00a0vegetable recipe<\/a> [from Mark Bittman] that accompanied the lamb\u00a0as a way to use 12\u00a0of the smallest of artichokes which I could fine\u00a0in the Greenmarket on Monday. \u00a0I had selected\u00a0them from a basket containing both them\u00a0and some a bit larger, because I had thought a\u00a0diminutive size would make it\u00a0unnecessary to perform any serious operations involving\u00a0pulling off petals, slicing off ends and\u00a0tops, or removing hairy chokes.<\/p>\n

The au naturel<\/em> route\u00a0worked for me, but then I’m someone who always eats grape pits, usually skins of all kinds, and occasionally even peanut shells. Barry preferred to remove the outermost leaves before consuming the rest of the artichoke and its\u00a0companion\u00a0vegetables, so next time I\u00a0really should bring home more artichokes, and allow myself a few more minutes of preparation time.<\/p>\n