Mystery Solved

And the answer to yesterday’s mystery vegetable picture is “garlic scapes.”  They came unannounced in our CSA share and there were only two of them, but what a find!  Whoever heard of a scape before?

Obviously an anonymous reader (from Leesburg?) who made the correct identification.  Sorry, Kevin -- nice try but a scape’s a scape.

After reading a little about garlic scapes, which are the flower stalks of the garlic plant, I decided they would be perfect in my version of pesto sauce, which was intended to go over whole-wheat pasta.  Sometimes the raw garlic is just too potent and tends to obscure the taste of the basil.  So something a little milder like a garlic scape sounded like the right ingredient.  Into the food processor along with the scapes went unmeasured quantities or parmesan cheese, basil, parsley, toasted pine nuts, and lemon-flavored olive oil.

I loved my pesto, but it did seem to be missing something as I sat down to eat.  Then I glanced at my e-mail only to find a link from my good friend LR, queen of Internet research.  In it I found yes, a recipe for pesto which contained lime/lemon juice, so that’s why a lime adorns my plate.  I also found more than I’d ever want to know about garlic scapes.  The article did confirm what a gourmet treat I had in these two little stalks that came unannounced.

The other green food on my plate is bok choi, also in yesterday’s CSA share, along with the beautiful scallions I used.  I stir-fried it with scallions, garlic, ginger, and a soy-rice wine-sesame oil sauce.

The empty place on my plate is where the grilled salmon steak was supposed to go.  But as it often happens in the late DC afternoon, we are in the midst of a thunderstorm.  So a second helping of pasta with pesto will be more than adequate.

Thanks to my wonderful readers who dutifully answer all the questions I throw at you.  That’s why Blogging is so much fun.