Garlic Scape Spread

[smitty55]

Another experiment for me that will certainly be on the list for each year from now on. This should appeal to all the garlic growers in particular. I am now down to growing 100 hardneck garlic a year. Each year I'm always looking for something to do with my garlic scapes that I harvest in mid June. I store them in plastic grocery bags with some wet paper towels in the basement fridge and they last a real long time. So with around 75-80 left I decided to experiment and make a spread/dip with them and it turned out great. So far I've had it as a veggie dip, on crackers with smoked oysters and smoked sardines, mixed in pasta after draining it and before adding my Puttanesca sauce and garlic shrimp and today as a spread on a  sandwich with some fresh from smoker pulled pork I got from a local food truck called the Smoke Box that I swapped for a bag of smoked bread crumbs.
So out of all my scapes I ended up with 4 cups of trimmed and chopped. I took 2 cups of that in the food processor down to a finer grind, removed it and then added 1 large vidalia onion and a over a cup of chopped wild leeks and ground them down before adding them to the mix. Then I took a half pound of feta cheese, a block of cream cheese, whipped that up and then added a good grind of black pepper and a good 1/4C of EVOO to the mix, enough to soften it up so it will just flow off a spoon at room temp. Then I added all the garlic/onionmix and whipped that for a couple of minutes. Out of the fridge it's definitely thicker. Did up the other batch today as I needed more cream cheese. Very happy how it turned out with a very unique flavour profile, my daughter found it quite strong but still liked it, my only hope now is that it will freeze well as I'll be vacuum sealing at least 10 of the containers and putting them away. In the meantime I'm sure I'll find some other uses for it, I've got some smoked chorizo burgers in the  freezer that come to mind. Might make for a good salad dressing base too.

Cheers

[Weeds]

Damn. I was thinking about going to bed. Now you got me thinking about eating something. Sounds good

[smitty55]

So while not directly about the spread I may try it on this anyway and I didn't want to start a new thread.
My daughter phones me late this morning and says dad I picked up a treat for you at the farmers market in Carleton Place but she wouldn't tell me what it was. 15 minutes later she comes in carrying this flat bag and pulls out the most amazing looking rectangular loaf of fresh baked this morning Focaccia bread. This lady who bakes it creates a picture on top of the loaf with mostly veggies from their farm. The loaf was so soft yet dense with good weight. Turns out that the texture and flavour of this bread beat the looks and was safe to say the best I've ever had. No way I was going to take it all after her paying $15 and delivering it to me so I cut it in half for her to take it home. We both tried a piece right there and it was awesome. Well go figure when she got home she had to get into it and ate it all  in one shot with not even butter on it. It was so good she couldn't stop. Well I still had a 1/4lb of pulled pork left over from the Smokebox so I knew what I was having for lunch. I sliced of two long slabs from the loaf, spread some of their home made BarB sauce on one slice and opened up a jar of hot mustard sauce I had recently bought at a local street fest. It had a good bite so I just put a light smear on the other slice of bread. I added some bacon fat to the pork and nuked it for 40 seconds, it came out sizzling hot and made for a nice thick pile on the bread. Well I make some damn good sandwiches but this bread along with that meat and those condiments put this one over the top, best I've ever had. Too bad they're not open tomorrow or I'd be getting more pulled pork. I do have some smoked boneless thighs in the freezer that I'm thinking will make an appearance though. So if anyone here is in the CP area Saturday mornings or at the Parkdale market in Ottawa Wednesday evenings I couldn't recommend this bread any stronger, it's that good. Cheers

https://www.flyingmoonfarm.ca/