WPFF addendum: From farm to table!

Holy Mother of God Almighty! I nearly forgot one of the most important pieces to my latest, ever so authoritative, report from When Pigs Fly Farm -- the dish on my latest WPFF dish: Grilled Scape and Fennel Frittata. This comes in tribute to my bronze fennel plants, which came down this weekend before they went to seed, which would have required some serious Fennel Family Planning without this intervention. Read into this what you will.

I did harvest and dry a truckload of fennel fronds, which I'll use like dill in the months to come (tried some on grilled salmon last night, as a matter of fact -- the verdict: Yum).

Anyway, here's what I threw together a couple weeks ago with my first harvest of fresh fennel fronds -- any version will work. It's a nice, light summer supper if I do say so myself.

7.26.11 Whoops! Left out the star of the show. Mea culpa!


WPFF Grilled Scape and Fennel Frittata

1 Yukon gold potato, cubed
1 garlic chicken sausage (or more if you're feeling sausage-y), meat removed from casing
Half a sweet onion, chopped
1/2 c (or whatever) leftover grilled scapes,* chopped

* Scapes: The long, curly tops of garlic. Yes. People harvest these, they are weird-looking and they are delicious! No. You won't find them at the grocery store. Check your area farmers markets.

2 gloves garlic, minced
2 T fresh finely chopped fennel fronds (or 1 T if using dried)
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese (most any other cheese probably would be fine, though), divided
5 eggs, beaten well
2 T extra virgin olive olive
Salt and pepper
3 T Panko breadcrumbs

Combine 1/4 c parmesan with the Panko bredcrumbs and set aside.

Heat a large overproof skillet and add olive oil. Heat oil till warm and "ripply." Add potatoes and brown. Once potatoes are slightly browned and becoming tender, add crumbled chicken sausage meat, onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes and add chopped scapes and fennel. Cook till potatoes and meat are done, stirring frequently so things don't scorch. Much.

Combined 1/4 cup grated cheese and eggs, season with salt and pepper, and add to potato-meat mixture. Let eggs set for 1-2  minutes, then start loosening the cooked edges so the liquidy egg is evenly distributed. Repeat the edge-loosening step until the eggs are cooked evenly through. Once they appear to be firm and set, turn on the oven broiler to medium-high or thereabouts.

Top with cheese-Panko mixture and place about 2 inches under the broiler. Broil till mixture forms a lovely golden "crust." Said frittata can be served warm or at room temperature.

Garlic scapes: Scary or scrumptious?

There were aliens in our box of organic produce from Fresh Abundance this week. Green and contorted, they actually WRITHED as I pulled them out of the bin.

Garlic scapes. And, spoiler alert, they are scrumptious.

Scapes are the tender above-ground sprouts of a young garlic. As the garlic matures and hardens underground, this sprout, or stem, or whatever, straightens and dries out, but for a magical few weeks in May-June, it's tender, curly and delicious. A curious, redolent mix of onion, garlic and, well, the best way I can put it is, the last taste of spring and the first of summer. Because of their brief window of deliciousness, you probably won't find them stacked in the produce bins at your local grocery store. Chances are, you'll have better luck finding them at farmers' markets or through community-supported agriculture (CSA) vendors.

Last year's mid-June Fresh Abundance box was my first introduction to garlic scapes. WTF? When I pulled the tangled mass of sprouts out of the box, I was truly buffaloed. But, thanks to the miracle of Google, I was rewarded with a rich, pungent scape pesto recipe, which we snacked on the entire following week. Breath mints optional, but recommended.

Monday night, I took a handful of garlic scapes, spread them out in a grill pan and topped them with a salmon fillet seasoned with a little salt, pepper, brown sugar and lemon juice. The Wonderfully Patient Spouse grilled up this concoction to perfection. Toss in a fresh red plum-orange-celery-red onion-ginger salsa, and we were not suffering. The scape are ridiculously tasty grilled -- and still crunchy!The fish infused with just a hint of garlic and onion, and interestingly, extra moist as well. Too bad we ate it all up before I could grab a picture.

Intrigued by the grilled scape application, I tried it with lamb loin chops tonight, adding a couple of stems of mint to keep things interesting. Again, grilled to perfection. Again, yum. Obviously lamb is a gamier piece of meat than fish but it still retained a subtle, smokey garlic nuance. The mint I'm sorry to report basically melted and was not a player.

And once again, we ate it all up before I could grab a picture. I think my career as a food stylist could be in serious trouble.

Alas, I'm now out of garlic scapes, and what with their short season and all, I probably won't see them again till next June. But I've got plans, oh I've plans. Sautes? Gremolata? All of the above? We shall see, we shall see.