Postings from Germany

Harbingers of Spring

· Days are obviously lighter longer every day. You notice it and it lifts the spirit.
· There are daffodils, crocuses, and teeny green buds on the trees. You notice it and it lifts the spirit.
· It’s Bärlauch time. It’s green and tasty and lifts the spirits.

Bärlauch? Yeah, well, Bärlauch.

It’s a German word and literally translated is Bear Onion. In English it’s ramp or wild leeks. In the northern climes (Germany, or West Virginia or Maryland), green things are so welcome after winter and therefore, celebrated even though the taste may be garlicky and sharp – then again, it really wakes you up after the long winter slumber. It's one of the earliest green things to come up.

It was new to me when the ladies at the vegetable stand at the green market introduced it to me as a specialty some years ago. Now it is a favorite of ours and this time of year I ask for it every week till it appears. Of course, it’s become one of those “in” things in the meantime and you can find it on all kinds of menus and used by all the fancy chefs. OK by me, so long as I get my share.

If you go to gather it yourself in the wild, be careful. It looks a lot like lily of the valley. Bärlauch you can eat. Lily of the Valley is poisonous. Oops.

The flavor is a cross between onion and garlic (more garlic than onion) and the leaf is on the tough side; it never gets the texture of spinach when cooked. But after so many months of gray and wet and cold, the green and fresh is so welcome. They say bears looked for it after their winter hibernation, hence the name.

That said, lily of the valley was for me the more welcome sign of spring as a child - white and pure, overpoweringly sweet when you are close to it but at the same time modestly clothed. Then again, I grew up in Baltimore where the Lily of the Valley grew in our yard. Bärlauch was foreign.

Tonight we had roasted chicken with Bärlauch sauce. Here’s the recipe, if you can get some ramps:

1 shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 bunch ramps
1/4 cup
vermouth
1 cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons cold butter in pieces

Sauté the chopped shallots in butter. Add the vermouth and stock and reduce by half. Add the butter bits at a time till the sauce binds. Season with salt and pepper and add the ramps. Mix with an immersion blender. Serve. Yum.

Green is good.