Preserving Spring: Ramp Pickles, Ramp Kimchi

Ramp season is drawing to a close.  The few I picked this week had yellowing leaves and huge bulbs; by this weekend, the season will be over for another year.  But the basement pantry is well-stocked with jars of pickled ramps and ramp kimchi so that we can savor the stench of spring in the winter, when the taste reminds us that February is always followed by March, and never by another February.

Both recipes this year are new ones.  Here they are:

Ramp Kimchi

Ingredients:  

• 1 long white napa (Chinese) cabbage, about 1 lb 3 oz
  1 cup  coarse or pickling salt
  5 cups (1 liter) water
  1 small long white radish, about 5 oz (160 g), cut in 1 1/2 in (4-cm) julienne strips
  1 cup ramp bulbs
  1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
  1 1/2 cup chili powder (Korean, not the stuff for making chili you buy at Kroger)– Or 3/4 cup chili powder and 3/4   papriki for a kimchi that won’t burn your face off
  1 teaspoon sugar 
  2-3oz pickled shrimp
  3oz salted anchovies
  1 large bowl to hold cabbage while soaking in water
   
  

Remove root end of cabbage without separating the leaves.  Put all the salt  in a large bowl and add 4 cups (1 liter) water.  Stir to dissolve all the salt in bowl and wter.  Fit the cabbage into bowl adding water if necessary so it is covered.  Place several heavy plates as weights on top of the cabbage and let sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours.  Drain the cabbage and rinse under running water, and squeeze dry.

In a seperate bowl, combine all other ingredients and mix well.  The red chili paste should look like the bottom left photo so your ingredient amount can vary slightly regarding the red chili powder.  Slightly separate the cabbage leaves and pack them well with the radish mixture.  Pack well into glass jar and press firmly to remove air bubbles.  Cover jar tightly.   If you decided to cut the cabbage into bite sized pieces before adding chili paste that is fine.  You can cut the cabbage into bite sized pieces before soaking in brine water as well.  Just a matter of personal taste.

Once thoroughly mixed, fill the jars with the Kimchi and seal with lids.  Allow the jar to sit in a dark room temperature area for 2-3 days.  Follwoing this early fermentation process place jar in the refrigerator and return to the fridge after each serving. 

Important: Never use a reactive metal container to store kimchi; use porcelain or stainless steel.  Plastic will be permanently stained by chili. Store kimchi in a cool, dark place – a fridge is best.  

Cloved Ramp Pickles

• Ramps
  1 cup water
  10 cloves
• 1 cup vinegar
  3/4 cup sugar
  1/4 teaspoon alum

1. Clean ramps, keeping bulbs only. Pack tightly in jars.

2. Add 1/4 teaspoon alum to each pint.

3. Bring liquid mixture to boil, pour over ramps.

4. Continue making liquid, enough to cover all ramps to be pickled.

5. Process sealed jars in boiling water bath for 5 minutes to seal lids.

Stink, Stank, Stunk

Nothing is more Hill Trashy than a ramp.  This sublimely stinky, insanely pungent weed is the hickster’s harbinger of Spring.  I grew up believing that it’s illegal in at least one West Virginia county to feed your kids raw ramps and then send them to school because the funk was too much for teachers to bare.  This is the sort of thing that I could check, now that we have Google, but it’s also the sort of thing I don’t want to know isn’t true.  So take it with a grain of salt.  Or better yet, some bacon fat and fried ‘taters.

 Doug and Cindy Llewellyn from church were kind enough to give me this big bundle of ramps; the first of several to come.  This harvest was just enough for a three-pint batch of Ramp Kimchi–that unholy mixture of the stinkiest food known made by man and the stinkiest one found in nature.  (There is actually a line in the employee handbook of one of the last places that I worked forbidding anyone to bring Ramp Kimchi to the office under any circumstances.  As the only person in the world who makes this stuff–as far as I know–I feel honored!)

The process of making the kimchi isn’t as difficult as most folk expect.  The secret is to replace all of the leeks, scallions, and garlic in your favorite kimchi recipe with ramps and to only use the bulbs and purple stems.  The green, leafy parts of the ramp won’t hold up to the process, and you’ll get a mason jar full of black slime.  A lesson learned from hard experience.  Also, ramp kimchi takes a little longer to sour.  I tend to like my kimchi a little “green” and usually let it ferment for only 3-4 days.  But the ramps take longer to mellow and blend with the other ingredients, so I usually let the jars sit in the basement pantry for at least six days before refridgerating.

For the next batch of ramps, Cindy has lent me a wonderful cookbook called The Mediterranean Pantry that includes a recipe for green garlic pickles.  She reports that the ramps stayed very hot pickled this way, and I’m looking forward to trying it.  Usually my ramp pickles, which are made the traditional way with lots of sugar, get mild and a little un-rampy within a month or so, but she reports hers kept for probably a year. 

So, thank you Cindy and Doug!  At least, from me, the other folk in the house–who don’t eat ramps, want to smell ramps, or understand my obsession with local wild foods–aren’t quite as grateful.  BUT I’ve also discovered that making Ramp Kimchi is a great way to drive them out of doors to do yard work!