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.