Thursday, June 11, 2009

Scapes and Other Less Palatable Foods


Yes, it's that time of year again, kids! It's scape time! WHEEE!

Okay, so maybe you don't get as excited about these things. Just play along, alright?

I was introduced (actually, I introduced myself) to garlic scapes last year for the first time. Garlic scapes are the flower part of a hard-necked garlic plant. They shoot up in the middle of the plant, and should be removed so the plant spends its energy growing the bulbs more. So, because they are removed before the main garlic crop is ready for harvesting, they're like a freebie. Which is fun. Also fun is the bizarre curliness of scapes. They're kind of ridiculous looking.


Scapes on the left, yet another huge dishpan of lettuce on the right.

So. I deflowered all the garlic yesterday (dirty). I actually weighed them this time and discovered that I ended up with a little more than a pound of scapes, after I removed the flower part at the top (it's a little tough). I considered pickling some of them, but that would have required more energy than I was willing to expend at the time. Laziness won, and I ended up just chucking them all in the blender with some olive oil and freezing most of the resulting green goo for later use.

I did use some of the goo last night to make pesto, though. And of course, we had the inevitable green salad, because we are still battling the never-ending lettuce. I think someone may have given it growth hormone.

And SPEAKING of dinner last night, you'll never guess what A. made as a meat course alongside his pasta. No, really. You won't guess. Although based on the last time A. cooked, you might guess that it was something weird and a wee bit disturbing.

You would be right. He had lamb tongue and heart.

We have these small packages of things like kidneys and tongue and heart in the freezer that I have so far managed to ignore. A., however, went freezer diving for some ground beef a few days ago and re-surfaced with not just the ground beef, but a lamb tongue and a lamb heart. YAY! He was under no illusions that I was going to cook those items, however, so on Tuesday night he decided he'd better do something with them. He boiled them for a couple of hours to tenderize them, then peeled the tongue (EW) and stuck them in the refrigerator overnight. Last night at dinner time, he fried up a couple of slices of bacon, then heated the sliced tongue and heart in the bacon fat.

Now, I've had cow heart before. It's not bad. It's pretty much a muscle like any other, so it's not so far off from normal beef. Lamb heart was the same. I've never had tongue before, though. So I thought I'd better try it before deciding it's on my list of "Things I Don't Want to Eat."*

It's on the list.

The taste wasn't too objectionable, actually. It was the texture that turned me off. Like taking a big mouthful of fat or something. Kind of soft and squishy. Nasty.

So, another item on my Life List crossed off. I have now eaten tongue and can die knowing I have had a full and adventurous life.

Or I can just live the rest of my life knowing I never want to eat tongue again. I'm going with that one.

* Also on that list: liver.

14 comments:

  1. I had pickle tongue (moose) it was good. Maybe you would like pickled lamb tongue? 100% with you on the liver. I have had chicken,moose and beef liver. All bad. Dont care how it's cooked.

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  2. Kristin, that description of A.'s culinary endeavors was too vivid. :-) You get points for giving it a try. I wouldn't. :-)

    The pesto sounds good to me. I've never had scapes. I will put garlic on almost anything though. Do scapes grow on all garlic plants?

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  3. Thank you for not posting any pictures of A.'s dinner.

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  4. Is A training for Fear Factor or something? Gracious! I really like garlic scapes in a shrimp stir fry. They are delicious!

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  5. Sweet baby Jesus.

    I don't eat meat very often, but when I do I like to think that with some local anesthetic and a toupee, the animal could continue living a fairly normal life after I ate a piece of it.

    Even my over-developed sense of deception cannot reconcile organ meats.

    And tongue?!?!?! Seriously?!?!?

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  6. Phoo-D, that's a great idea for a sweeps-week episode. "This week on Fear Factor, country folk vs. foodies. Who's going to ask for seconds?"

    By the way, Kristin, my in-laws have the exact same patio furniture.

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  7. I got blindsided by tongue one time....my Pa made it, I did not know what it was, so, I fixed myself a plate and dug in.....right then and there I decided eating something that could taste me back was wrong....so, no tongue for me....I was a teenager and thought it was sliced up london broil.....no one managed to mention it was cow tongue before I began eating....I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food, so, I'm all for the scapes pesto, but, NO TONGUE!
    S

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  8. Maria: Scapes only grow on hard-necked varieties of garlic, not on soft-necked varieties.

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  9. Ugh, I can't handle textural yuck. I would still try tongue though. You never know until you try!

    The scapes sound delicious though. :)

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  10. So, then, what is the diff between scapes and "green garlic"? We get green garlic during the spring months of our farmshare and it's just the green stalk of the garlic bulbs before they mature. The bulb is right there on the end though, all small and not fully formed yet. I usually use it like chives/scallions - sliced it up for stir-frys or salads.

    Liver. Tongue. Heart. Sounds like you're having Beef Jerky Deconstructed.

    Grody.

    But kudos to you for trying it.

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  11. Green garlic is immature garlic, before the bulbs form. The scape is the flowering stalk of an older plant.

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  12. I was listenng to a cooking show on the radio the other day. They were trying to explain scapes and I just couldn't understand their description. Now I totally get it! Thanks, Kristen!

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  13. I often feel a pang of guilt for throwing out the livers of a whole chicken. I was convinced it's okay when someone reminded me of the function of the liver: to sort out all the toxins. The organ is full of garbage. Well, that's excuse enough for me!

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