Who’s seen the Bear?

Why would you name a small vegetable after a large predator …? Because they both roar (Ingredient Special on Bear’s Garlic plus Recipe ‘Phantom Bearlings’, Rcp# 37)

It has been called by many names: bear’s garlic, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood leek, buckram, ramps or ramson. Just to mention a few. And there are certainly many more, as this plant has inspired many people across cultures and centuries.

Perhaps this is because it is one of the first edible plants to appear in the spring under the large trees of old forests and parks. That is, of course, if you know where to find it and can distinguish it from its not-so-edible neighbors (tulips, lilies of the valley, and autumn crocuses, for example, are poisonous). The bears were able to do that in those vast old woods and meadows. They sniffed out the right plants and dug them up to eat the whole early delicacy, giving the plant its most curious name.

Beyond its bold appearance as a herald of spring between the early year’s frosts, Bear’s Garlic has many virtues of its own. Known for its healing properties, Bear’s Garlic has been used for centuries in the natural medicine of the cultures where it grows. And the plant even proved its alleged magical powers, according to medieval beliefs, by founding a glorious city that became one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Well, technically, it was the name of the plant in a Native American language that laid the groundwork, because what is now covered with houses and streets was once blanketed with Bear’s Garlic. Lush, bright green, sprinkled with little star-shaped blossoms that stretched across the vast floodplains of the nearby river. That, or perhaps the infrastructural adventures of the network of waterways connected to that river – not to mention a huge lake.

Today, there are many places that celebrate ‘Bear’s Garlic’, ‘Buckram’, ‘Ramps’, ‘Ramson’ etc. . Because not only does this plant create memorable sites and landscapes, but it has had a considerable influence on the history of food and medicinal plants in many areas. For example, I just learned that at one time it was planted in every abbey or castle garden because it was often used for cooking as well as for healing. Some of the health benefits of Bear’s Garlic have been scientifically proven. Also, if you ask people who live in areas where it grows frequently in early spring, you will find that quite a few of them have a story to tell about how and why they consume Bear’s Garlic when they are not feeling well.

But of course, since this is an ingredient special on the Parsley-Lane Blog, we can’t get lost in any vast area, be it of expertise or space and time. So if you have studied my recipes, you will notice that I have used bear’s garlic in many of them. Because it is a wonderful ingredient. I usually do not let the aroma dominate the dish, but rather add it as a nuance to round out a particular flavor. Because this ingredient works either as a substitute for an onion note or as a replacement for garlic. It depends on what other ingredients you are pairing it with. And if you do not have Bear’s Garlic, you can substitute it with a small amount of garlic and chives. The garlic should be fresh or frozen. The same goes for chives. The reason for this is the special quality of Bear’s Garlic flavor: It literally tastes fresh.

So just as the new season announces a fresh cycle of nature, so does this remarkable plant with its bright green, bushy – and fragrant – forest carpets. Welcome spring!

Side Notes:

• You can find some background information about Bear’s Garlic on the [InfoByteSized] page, which contains all the links to external content on this blog. You have to search for ‘I’ as Ingredient Specials’ and ‘Bear’s Garlic’. And of course, if you are curious about the magnificent city I mentioned above, as usual, the background on Bear’s Garlic on Wikipedia is, as usual, quite solid in all aspects (Thank you for your work!!). Also the guide websites of ‘The Windy City’ might have some funny background stories about the heritage of the city’s name derived from Bear’s Garlic 😉
• I am writing this to you from the beautiful island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, which I wrote about last fall (see [‘Local Food: Island Rügen – Baltic Sea (Part One)’]). Right now they are having the ‘Putbus Bear’s Garlic Days’. Among many other attractions, there is an annual market with a variety of local products inside a large historic hall amidst the famous castle garden of Putbus. Very colorful and delicious. You will read more about this on April 19th.
• As usual, you can find a recipe for this ingredient special below: ‘Phantom Bearlings’ … (Rcp# 37)

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Phantom Bearlings

(With Ingredient Special on Bear’s Garlic, Rcp# 37)

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Ingredients of ‘Phantom Bearlings’

• 3 tablespoons buckwheat (whole)
• 3 tablespoons yellow peas (whole)
• 3 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (whole)
• 3 tablespoons chickpea flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2- 3 tablespoons agave syrup
• 3 tablespoons apple pulp (high quality apple sauce without water, sugar or any other additives)
• 250 ml broth (see [‘Vegetable Broth’])
• Knife tip dried ginger
• 6 tablespoons fine oatmeal
• 3 teaspoons psyllium husk
• 1 medium sized parsley root (about 90 g with peel and ends, 40 – 55 g without)
• 2 – 3 medium parsnips (about 70 g with peel and ends, 50 – 65 g without)
• 1 inner core of a fennel bulb (about 50 g)
• ¾ teaspoon smoked sea salt (½ teaspoon plus ¼ teaspoon)
• Brown millet flour (7 – 10 tablespoons, for crusting)
• A mild canola oil for greasing the pan
• Baking paper (strong, heavy quality)

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Preparations for ‘Phantom Bearlings’

Part One

1. Process the buckwheat, the yellow peas and the pumpkin seeds together in a high-powered blender (make sure the blender is suitable for grinding nuts), then add the chickpea flour and mix well.
2. Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce the temperature to medium (not boiling).
3. Gradually add the flour mixture (made from ground buckwheat, yellow peas, and pumpkin seeds, plus the chickpea flour added), stirring frequently. Wait until all the liquid is absorbed, then turn off the heat and remove the pot from the heat source.
4. Continue to stir the mixture for five minutes, then add the olive oil, agave syrup, and smoked sea salt.
5. Allow to cool completely.

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Part Two

1. Wash, peel and clean parsley root and parsnips (you need to cut out bad spots and cut off the ends, keep peel and tops for making broth)
2. Grate the parsnips, parsley root and fennel core on a fine grating board (sized for parmesan grating), then mix the mass thoroughly.
3. Join with the completely cooled mixture from Part One and leave it in a cool place for half an hour.
4. Add fine oatmeal, psyllium husk, and apple pulp. Finally, add the bear’s garlic and mix again. Work it all together into a smooth dough (you may want to wear gloves for this – the bear’s garlic’s smell will stick, especially if it is fresh).
5. Let dough rest again for about half an hour.

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Part Three

1. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and oil it. If you are not sure of the quality, double the paper. Keep the edges down though, so they don’t touch the top or sides of the oven later. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan assisted heating with added top and bottom heat)
2. Take two large flat plates and put olive oil on one (make a small puddle in the middle) while covering the other with a thin layer of brown millet flour.
3. Shape the dough into balls (between walnut or apricot size) and roll them along the edge of the puddle of olive oil on the plate. Be careful not to soak the balls too much, but rather just give them a little shiny coating of olive oil. Then take the oiled balls and roll them through the film of brown millet flour until each ball is thinly covered with the millet flour.
4. Place and arrange the balls on the covered and oiled baking sheets. Be careful, not to put the balls too close together, they will expand a little.
5. Place the full baking sheet in the oven at a slightly lower than medium height and bake the balls for 15 – 20 minutes, then turn them over and bake again for 15 – 20 minutes. You will know they are done, when they have developed a fine, crispy crust and look just like little fried ‘meat’ balls.

If you do not have a powerful blender, you can use the equivalent weight of buckwheat flour and ground pumpkin seeds for Part One. If you do this, you will need to cook up the yellow peas in the broth for 10 minutes (use 300 ml broth instead of 250 ml) and then blend the yellow peas in the broth with a wand blender. Allow the broth to cool to hand-warm before adding the ground pumpkin seeds and buckwheat flour. Be careful. This will stick and the temperature while mixing must not be too high or everything will turn into lumps.

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Side Notes:

1. This was an instant classic at our place. My husband had some when they were fresh. Then he took some out of the fridge to eat with his take-out lunch. And on another occasion he put pre-frozen ones in his stew (see [‘Smutje’s Otherday Stew’] ) – also on a take-out for lunch – and re-heated both together at work. In each case he was totally enthusiastic. So he keeps asking for me to make more … Which I will do for Easter and then put them in our Easter [‘Sunday Brunch’].
2. You may wonder (again) about the strange name. Well, I grew up with a dish called ‘Fake Rabbit’, which is basically a meat loaf. Since this is the recipe for the Bear’s Garlic Ingredient Special, of course it had to be ‘bearlings’ instead of ‘rabbits’ (I personally would not eat either of the real animals). And since it cannot be ‘fake’ (too obvious), I thought ‘phantom’ would be a nice way to indicate a substitute. And it makes really funny associations, I think …

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