Camacho Watcho

As I said in my last post, finishing up these last recipes from Bon Appetit wiped me! With the days I was out of town, I ended up with more than I had bargained for and going into the last week I questioned whether I should finish. Asking this of my husband, however, he assured me that I should and encouraged me to keep going. In the end I’m glad I did, as I made a few recipes in the last couple days that were outstanding! As well, I got to experiment with ramps, which I had never cooked with before. And so…this is the rest of the story.

As I mentioned, I had never cooked with ramps before and, in fact, I can’t recall ever eating them before either (turns out they are sort of a leek/green onion/garlic hybrid and are quite good when they are cooked long enough to mellow the garlicky flavor). The first challenge was finding ramps, as they have a very short season and were not readily available the last week in April. The Wedge had some that were shipped in from the West, but I was hoping to find some local offerings. After several calls to almost every co-op in town, Mississippi Market on Selby came through and I headed over to pick up a couple bunches. (As a note, local ramps are now more readily available in all the co-ops if you’re looking for them – but act quick because they will be gone soon!).

The first recipe I made was the Ramp and Sausage Risotto. In my attempt to cram as many recipes into the last two days of cooking, I actually served this for breakfast, which was really tasty. The recipe was good – a pretty standard risotto recipe – so I have no complaints about it, but I will make sure to get a spicier, less sweet sausage next time as it unfortunately dominated the flavor of the dish. But it was very good and I would make it again.

The leftover risotto was put to use in another breakfast, mixed with a little egg and cooked into a patty topped with a poached egg (surprise surprise!) – I actually thought the egg balanced out the sweetness of the sausage, so I liked the leftover version better.

Next up was the Seared Salmon with Linguine and Ramp Pesto (pictured above). I served this for a dinner that I had invited some friends over to share. I highly recommend making the pesto the night before, as it gives it time to blend the flavors and mellow. I tasted the pesto upon first making it and found it extremely spicy (from the garlicky ramps) so I was a little hesitant about whether my guests would like it. After a night in the fridge it did mellow, but I served it on the side of the salmon (grilled instead of seared) just in case. I also made the linguine with parmesan cream sauce (without the vegetables) again to serve alongside the linguine with pesto. Fortunately, however, I was wrong and everyone loved the pesto and overall both dishes.

Before dinner I made the Classic Gougeres recipe, a heavenly addition to the magazine from Molly Wizenberg, writer of the spectacular blog Orangette. They whipped up quickly and were in the oven in no time – puffing up to the expected “lighter-than-air” texture with the heavenly taste of Gruyere cheese throughout. The recipe made two dozen and I think the four of us ate eighteen or so – if these are on your party menu…be sure to make a huge batch! I can’t wait to make these again!

The next day (April 30th) was a big one – four recipes to be made before the challenge was over. For breakfast we had the Ramp and Buttermilk Biscuits with Cracked Coriander and the Scrambled Eggs with Ramps, Morels, and Asparagus. Although I rolled the biscuits too thin, they were still really good – buttery and crisp with the perfectly matched combination of ramps and coriander. If you make this recipe – do not forget the coriander…it definitely makes the recipe perfect!

The eggs were good, but nothing really to write home about. I thought it was a bit strange that there was no addition of milk or cream to the eggs and I think that is why they turned out one dimensional (I love fluffy eggs in my scrambles). Also, instead of morels (which are insanely expensive and not to be found in April in MN) I used skitakes – but that couldn’t be helped. I love to make egg scrambles, so I’ll probably just stick to my own concoctions that I make with leftover ingredients from now on.

For lunch I made the Tuna, Asparagus and New Potato Salad with Chive Vinaigrette and Fried Capers. I don’t like canned tuna, so it spoiled it a bit for me and I really don’t get why the capers need to be fried (skip the mess and just toss them on the salad raw, in my opinion). Otherwise the chive vinaigrette was really good and the combination of the potatoes, egg, asparagus and capers was really tasty. I’ll probably make this again but add grilled chicken or flaked salmon in place of the tuna.

The last and final recipe of the day and the month was the Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Baby Carrots. This was extremely tasty – spicy, tender and sweet at the same time – and I will most certainly make this again. The minor adjustments I’ll probably make to the actual recipe are as follows: roast the carrots in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper in a glass baking dish for 15 minutes, then drizzle the carrot marinade over them and toss just before putting the seared pork on top. Finish it all as directed (about 18 minutes) until pork is done. I found that the carrots got too done when they roasted for almost 50 minutes total and the marinade burned onto the pan after that amount of time in the oven.

And that, my friends, is the end of the April 2009 Bon Appetit challenge. I found some recipes that I really love and will definitely make again (like the tarts, gougeres, chicken, biscuits, coffee cake, halibut, scallops, lamb, pork, another chicken, pizzas and sandwiches) and I reconfirmed my aversion to tuna in a can. I also declared a new kitchen rule: No using sharp knives before the first cup of coffee in the morning (that was a close call!).

And now on to Mexi Month…Oh, did I forget to mention that May is Mexi Month? More about that soon…

Tags: challenge, Food, recipes

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 11:34 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.