Perhaps you jumped on the spring rampage with me and pickled a whole lotta ramp bottoms a few days ago. Which means you got a bunch (or two or three) of ramp greens sitting around waiting for you to fulfill their destiny.
Here’s my version:
Ramp Greens Kimchi
approximately 1 lb. ramp greens, cleaned & thick stems removed
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons aleppo pepper (or korean chile, or 1/2 cayenne & 1/2 sweet paprika)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
One half gallon mason jar, or two quarts
1. Stack the ramps on top of one another to slice in 1 inch sections. Place in large bowl, add all of the ingredients except soy sauce and oil. Toss to distribute evenly.
2. Stir soy sauce and sesame oil together and add to ramp greens. Stir.
3. Distribute to half gallon jar, or two quarts. Let sit at room temperature overnight.
4. Place in the fridge. Every day or two give it a shake or a mix with a spoon. As it goes through the fermenting process, you’ll want to get the top greens down to the bottom. After 5 days or so, you can transfer to 1 quart jar.
The kimchi will be ready in about one week. You will know when the raw grassy smell dissipates and in its place comes the most mouth watering aroma.
Ramp kimchi will last in the fridge for months.
As with all types of kimchi, you can eat ramp kimchi with just about anything, and it will never say no to being placed in a bowl of steaming rice for a simple and nutritious lunch. You could however decide to take this whole thing even further and tuck a bit of this ramp kimchi into a few soft pillowy steamed buns.