Fermenting garlic scapes lets you enjoy their mild garlic flavour all year long, while also benefiting from all the goodness imparted by the fermentation process - win, win! This paste is great added to anything you would normally use garlic for, like salad dressings, dips, spread onto bread, or drizzled onto soup or eggs after cooking.
What is a garlic scape? Garlic Scapes are the flower stalk of hardneck garlic varieties and are clipped from the plant before they open to encourage the plant's energy to go towards producing large garlic bulbs.
Fermented Garlic Scapes
1 lb. garlic scapes (about 1 quart)
1½ t sea salt
1½ T fresh lemon juice
Cut the flowering tops off the & set them aside to infuse into vinegar They’re too fibrous to puree into a paste.
Cut stems into rough pieces & add half the scapes, salt & lemon juice into processor & blend into a coarse paste. Add remaining ingredients & blend again, scraping down the sides once or twice, until everything is evenly blended to a rough, spreadable consistency.
Pack paste tightly into a quart jar. The paste should become juicy with its own brine, so you’ll want to leave some headspace in the jar.
Use a fermentation weight or plastic bag full of water to keep the paste below the liquid level of the brine, then place a lid or a fermentation lid on, loosely, so that overflow can escape as fermentation starts.
Place jar in a bowl or a dish to catch overflow & set on a cool counter or shelf, out of direct sunlight. Check jar daily to make sure solids are submerged.
Start tasting the paste after one week. It should turn from emerald green to a lighter, pickled green. It should taste pungent but not too sharp, and sour but not bracing.
I am usually happy with the flavor of mine around day 10-14. Store in fridge, where it will keep for up to a year.
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