Garlic scapes, shoots, greens

[HYoungJoo]

If garlic spears are what I think it is, it's used for banchan (side dish) in Korean cuisine among other things. The stems are pickled, cut into bite size lengths and then tossed in a chili power, garlic, seasame, seasame oil, sugar mixture. I've seen some recipes where it's incorporated into stir fry. I remember it was one of my favorite banchan because the garlic flavor is subtle and the crispy texture made it fun to eat.

[Special K]

If garlic spears are what I think it is, it's used for banchan (side dish) in Korean cuisine among other things.  The stems are pickled, cut into bite size lengths and then tossed in a chili power, garlic, seasame, seasame oil, sugar mixture. I've seen some recipes where it's incorporated into stir fry.  I remember it was one of my favorite banchan because the garlic flavor is subtle and the crispy texture made it fun to eat.

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OK, dumb question: Do I eat the flower buds?

K

[Beebs]

Oooh! I've got some in the fridge too! They're pretty common in Vancouver, although I haven't seen them with the flower buds. I usually stir-fry them with shredded pork, mushrooms, tofu, ginger & soy, or cook them with scrambled eggs. Yum! The batch I recently bought were a little tough at the bottom 3 inches, so might need to peel them a bit.

[HYoungJoo]

OK, dumb question: Do I eat the flower buds?

K

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[crouching tyler]

When I have cooked with garlic scapes, I have found that the flower bud isn't the best part - sort of fibrous and pungent. But the whole thing is edible - stalk to flower bulb.

The bulbs will just need more cooking.

When I cook with them, I often use the scapes (minus the bulb) in stir fries.

[Special K]

Thanks, HYoungJoo, Beebs and Crouching Tyler. I'll try all of your recipes. I think I'm going back to Top Banana today to load up! I also found a recipe for pesto and another one for a fritatta. I think we have a tasty, (mildly)garlicky weekend ahead of us!

K

[Ktepi]

I love garlic scapes, and right now I'm cooking some potatoes in order to make a potato salad dressed with a mayo/scapes/arugula dressing that smells amazing. I'm going to try roasting them tomorrow, per Abra's suggestion -- that's my favorite way to have asparagus, and it never occurred to me for scapes.

Has anyone tried pickling them? Do they stay crisp at all? I used to make a "tartar sauce" with pickled garlic, and using pickled garlic scapes might be an interesting variation.

[Nyleve Baar]

I just spent an hour helping some friends pick the scapes off their ridiculous crop of 1200 (give or take 500) garlic plants. I was paid in scapes. I'm thinking...what about a potato leek soup but with scapes instead of leeks? This could be frozen.

Really - there are a LOT of them.

[Kerry Beal]

Got some at the farmer's market a couple of days ago, blanched a few and put them on a pizza. Very tasty.

[Nyleve Baar]

Warning. Do not try to make potato-leek soup with garlic scapes instead of leeks and expect it to be exactly the same and just as easy to make. It seemed so simple, so straightforward. How wrong I was.

Ok, so the beginning was simple. Cut scapes into 1-inch chunks, saute in butter until softened, add chicken broth and potatoes. Cook until everything is tender. So far so good. Now puree the whole mess in batches in a blender (I wanted it really smooth). Looks fine but...yikes! The scapes have these little fibrous bits that I didn't know about. It was like there was straw in the soup. I ended up having to run the whole business through a food mill to get rid of it - which worked ok, I guess. But it was a lot more fiddly than what I had been planning. I've frozen most of it - will add milk or cream when reheating.

I guess I'll appreciate it in January.

[tazerowe]

Looks fine but...yikes! The scapes have these little fibrous bits that I didn't know about.

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Ok, to revive an old topic. I always seem to have the same problem with garlic scapes - what I get is fiberous and inedible - like eating the top of a stalk of lemongrass! I've tried different sizes and over multiple years, and cooked them in a variety of forms. Sometimes a portion of what I cook is ok, but I've never had a dish that didn't involve picking out tons of little twigs. If I had to guess, there might be a need to disgard some portion of the lower stalk - like mature asaragus? If so, where do you stop?

[mtigges]

We always dice them very fine and use as one would chives. Or basil. That includes garlic scape pesto. Yum, and if blogger ever will cooperate and let me actually post you can read about our yummy pesto here: oururbanfarm.

[sadistick]

My family grows our own garlic and garlic scapes are soooo good.

The 2 main uses we have for them is sauteeing or roasting them and pureeing with olive oil.

Or pureeing without olive oil, a bit of water and seasoning and using it as a sauce in soups (yes soups!) we made a fantastic Fava bean puree/soup in a espresso cup with some drops of garlic scape essence as we call it, awesome!

I also take out the good ol mortar and pestil and just make a puree with them raw, with olive oil, S&P and that stays in the fridge for weeks! Great on fish, pasta, even bread!

[LindaK]

Garlic scapes finally appeared at my farmers markets last week, and I've been eating a a lot of them, their season here is so short. Generally I do a quick stir fry with a bit of olive oil and salt, then eat them as a side dish or in pasta. I'm going to try the garlic scape pesto idea, that sounds really versatile. Any new ideas out there?

Last year, in desperation, I trimmed and froze a pound of them, uncooked, to see if they'd be edible. They were, a little bit on the tough side, but in January I didn't care. I'll do it again this year.

[weinoo]

Not that I have a lot to add to this topic, but I do find that the best use of scapes is in a pesto or very finely diced or minced. And here's what they look like, in case anyone is wondering...

[Florida]

Received some of these in my last CSA box. About half went into a minced pork stir fry (essentially Fuschia Dunlap’s recipe for long beans and pork with the scapes taking the place of the long beans) and the other half went into a ricotta frittata.

[nakji]

Received some of these in my last CSA box. About half went into a minced pork stir fry (essentially Fuschia Dunlap’s recipe for long beans and pork with the scapes taking the place of the long beans) and the other half went into a ricotta frittata.

I switch garlic scapes in for long beans when they're in season, too. I often add them into a Thai curry - I started doing in Korea, where I couldn't find long beans, but could always find scapes. It works out really well, if you aren't concerned about being authentic.

[TarteTatin]

Mr. Tarte Tatin made garlic scape pesto but used pistachios as the nut in them. OMG!

[LindaK]

Hurray, it's that time of year again!

I picked up a small bag at the farmer's market today:

and used them for a risotto.

The arborio rice absorbed the flavor beautifully. A bit of parmesan and pecorino cheeses softened it just enough. Very tasty.

[Okanagancook]

I'm going out to the garlic patch this morning to harvest a few of my scapes. Risotto it is

[Will]

Cross-post from the "Chinese Cooking at Home" thread... garlic-scapes stir-fried with smoked shitake mushrooms (vegetarian variation of Stir-Fried Garlic Stems with Bacon － La Rou Chao Suan Tai - 腊肉炒蒜薹 from p206 of Fuchsia Dunlop's new cookbook).

The normal recipe is just garlic scapes, stir-fried in a bit of oil with thick cut Chinese bacon til tender / slightly puckered. The vegetarian variation in her cookbook is to use button mushrooms instead. I don't love button mushrooms that much, so I tried it with some shitakes which I tea-smoked and then marinated for a bit in soy sauce, water, sugar, salt, and sesame oil.

I'm not sure if these were a bit old (they're imported from Mexico, not from the farmers market), or if I just didn't trim off enough of the base, or cook them evenly enough, but some of them were cooked about as the directions stated (just tender), but others were a tiny bit tough.

Edited June 6, 2012 by Will (log)

[GlorifiedRice]

Are these Fibrous or Tender?

[Will]

I don't have much basis for comparison - I've worked with green garlic before, but not with scapes. After several minutes of stir-frying, some of them were somewhat tender, but a lot were still a bit tough, though not horribly fibrous.

[DanM]

Are these Fibrous or Tender?

I think the best comparison for garlic scape texture is to that of a green bean, but a bit firmer.

Dan