WHIPPED RAMP BUTTER (from scratch)
Hey! Welcome back to our weekly recipe series. If you're new here, you can discover more of my culinary creations on social media at @alliesbananabread.
It's ramp season, people! If you don't know what ramps are, let me break it down for you:
First off, their season is super short, which explains why everyone loses their minds when they show up. You know that moment in April when you wake up after what felt like forever-winter and you're like "oh hey, it's actually kinda nice out today"? That's ramp time. They're basically the first veggie to pop up after winter.
They’re part of the allium family, so think of them as the cousin to scallions, garlic, onions, shallots, and leeks.
What makes them special? They somehow taste like all of those things had a baby. You can sauté them and eat them solo, throw them in eggs, whip up a pesto, or my absolute favorite: BUTTER.
I make enough ramp butter every spring to last me till the next season. I freeze little butter cubes that I can grab whenever I need it.
Pro tip: you can do this with ramp olive oil too! The butter is my go-to when I'm cooking seafood (which is mainly why I bother), but honestly, it's clutch for literally anything throughout the year.
Ramp butter is stupid simple - just ramps, butter, salt, and olive oil all mixed together. But this time I leveled up and made my own butter. In the past, I always blanched the ramps first, but this year I decided to just use them raw. The biggest difference? The flavor is WAY stronger. Personally, I'm into it because I like that punch-you-in-the-face ramp flavor.
I don't have EXACT measurements, but follow your heart and if you need to add more of something, just do it! Enjoy ramp season while it lasts!
Ingredients:
1 QT of heavy cream
1 bunch of ramps
Maldon flaky sea salt
Olive oil
Instructions:
Cut the bottoms off the ramps, but only the roots-you can keep the stems on.
Wash ramps with water and pat dry.
Chop ramps & put in a blender with some olive oil.
Blend until as smooth as possible. add as much olive oil as you want here.
To make the butter: mix the heavy cream in a standing mixer on medium-low speed until it turns into butter. this can take up to 30 minutes.
Once butter is ready, squeeze all the moisture out (use a cheese cloth if you have one- if you don’t just do your best to squeeze it all out with your hands)
Put butter into an ice bath for about 10 minutes.
Feel free to save the buttermilk if you want to use it at a later time! if not, throw away.
Add butter to blender with the olive oil/ramps and add some salt. start with a little bit and you can always add more later.
Taste and add more salt if needed.
