PrintRamp Compound Butter
Dirty, dirty ramps.
Ramps are only in season for about a month or two, but there are a few ways to preserve them so you can enjoy their flavor all year long. My favorite long-term preservation technique is making ramp compound butter and storing it in the freezer. The ramps, locked inside the confines of the frozen butter like Han Solo in carbonite, are essentially stored indefinitely, capturing the "rampy" essence of early spring at any time of year.
The most common compound butter is beurre maitre d'hotel, or hotel butter, composed of shallots, garlic, fines herbes, lemon zest, salt, and pepper; the recipe that follows is a variation on this theme. Generally used for broiled or grilled meats or fish, hotel butter functions as a sort of flavor-inducing sauce. You may find a slice of it sitting, slowly melting, on top of a steak in your steak frites.
Ramp compound butter is great in a pinch, as you can easily pull a log out of the freezer and cut off a slice or two. It's especially good on pasta, in a risotto, or—my preference—tucked underneath the breast skin of a chicken. If you can keep it until fall, it works great under the skin of a Thanksgiving turkey. Don't delay—ramp season is short and is almost over.
The ramps are cleaned and then blanched, ready to be chopped.
Ramp butter mise en place.
After mixing, about a 1/2 pound of butter per roll will do.
The compound butter is rolled up tight.
Ramp Compound Butter
Ingredients
1 1/2 pound ramps, trimmed and cleaned
4 pounds unsalted butter, cut up and at room temperature
2 lemons, zested and juiced
Salt and pepper to taste
Thyme (optional)
Goods
Parchment Paper (or wax paper)
Freezer Bags
Procedure
1. Trim the ends off of the ramps and clean them well under cold, running water.
2. Blanch them quickly (30 seconds) by dropping the ramps in a large pot of salted, boiling water, and then shock them in ice water.
3. Drain the ramps, squeezing as much liquid out as you can. With a sharp knife, thinly slice the ramps.
4. In a large bowl (or Kitchenaid with a paddle), mix well butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, ramps, salt, and pepper.
5. On sheets of parchment, form logs of butter of approximately 1/2 pounds each, and roll the parchment tightly around the butter.
6. Put the butter logs in two sets of freezer bags and seal tightly, removing all the air, and store in the freezer.
Notes
As an alternative to using parchment, you can use all the leftover butter wrappers to make small logs. Plastic wrap or wax paper can be used as as well.
Related
Recipe: Pickled Ramps
Recipe: Ramps with Linguine
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Sponsored Link
Recipe
Mango Bean Salad
Fresh fruit and hearty beans make a refreshing side for our Morningstar
Farms® Southwestern Style Veggie Cakes.
Get this recipe »
8 Comments:
Haven't you heard? Blake Royer is so. Tired. Of. Hearing. About. Ramps.
:)
mballena at 10:31AM on 05/06/08
butter butter butter logs of butter mmmmm want
roboppy at 11:04AM on 05/06/08
I did a variation on this last week. I blanched the ramps and ground them in the food processor with butter, salt, and a bit of olive oil (for flavor and texture, as I wanted an easily spreadable butter). Adding the ramps after blanching made the butter a brilliant green that was gorgeous on sandwiches with tomato confit and sliced Yukon Gold potatoes.
thatgrrl at 11:25AM on 05/06/08
looks incredible -- love your first shot =)
onedaylingers at 3:06PM on 05/06/08
@onedaylingers: thanks!
Raphael at 8:41PM on 05/06/08
butter log. those words are music to me ears.
i'm a huge compound butter fan (gorgonzola butter is my favorite, on a nice medium-rare, charred rib-eye...drool) and this one's definitely going on the list.
thursdaynightsmackdown at 11:34AM on 05/07/08
I must admit, I had no idea what a "ramp" was. Never heard of it where I'm from. Do they taste good? Where do you buy them?
carol107 at 2:22PM on 05/07/08
Ramp compound butter, yet another great way of preserving ramps, thanks.
In NYC, right now, ramps are in the greenmarkets for the short early spring season when they pop up. They are a wild onion/leek, and the taste profile is somewhere in between leek, onion and garlic.
It is wonder in your mouth.
Of course people get tired of hearing about ramps this time of year, they are so abundant, like any time of abundance. Who isn't hearing about the election right now too?
But this butter is a great way of bringing them back when you miss them (like when someone you hate is elected, makes you yearn for election time). Thanks a million Raphael.
angrywayne at 3:20PM on 05/12/08