Ramson and Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Beginning with some fresh medvehagyma that I foraged from Bakonybél I rolled them up and cut them into a chiffonade.

Medvehagyma

To these I added some homemade mayo, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to make the base dressing.

Beautiful ribbons

Building the dressing

To the dressing I added a handful of previously roasted chicken that had been in the fridge overnight. I served it on a sesame wheat bread from the 'Corner Bakery.'

Chicken Salad with Style

Medvehagyma 2010!

Hello all! About this time last year I wrote about a special find in the farmer's market in Mars tér called medvehagyma, bear onions, or ramsons. Well this year I got to go straight to the source and pick them for myself in the national forest near Bakonybél. I went with a group of foragers from Kecskemét who are interested in learning more about gathering food and nutrients from nature.

Is that grass?

Once in Bakonybél we set out to find the park entrance as this was a special day. There were maybe 200 people who came from all parts of Hungary for a chance to pick their own medvehagyma with the blessing of the park service. We hiked something like 8km that afternoon all the while marveling at how nearly every part of the forest floor that didn't have a trail worn into it recently was covered with allium ursinum.

Nope, just bear onions.

The hike was only ever stopped to listen to the park rangers about different plants or animals native to the area or, of course, to pick bear onions, mushrooms, or forest herbs.

They're everywhere!

After the hike we went back to the village where a bear onion feast awaited us. They had infused all known types of Hungarian food with the leafy onion vegetation. We first tried some pálinka that had been infused with medvehagyma, then some soup and salads of the stuff then followed by bread with bear onion pesto or a type of Hungarian quark called túró topped with medvehagyma. There were also pogacsa, little bicsuits, and lángos that had the onions inside. Happily the wine was kept bear onion free! Unfortunately I was so hungry after all of the hiking I didn't even think of taking pictures of all of these different foods until it was all gone.

Droppin' some knowledge.

Finally, after everyone had satiated their hunger and thirst, a woman from the community stood up and spoke about all of the wonderful attributes of medvehagyma along with the other herbs found in the area. They handed out, and I came home with, a sheet of medvehagyma recipes as well as a bag full of the onions that I had collected.

Medvehagyma

Bear onions? Why would these be called bear onions? I turned to my usual methods for sleuthing items from the farmer's market that I don't recognize. I start with the Hungarian name and try to find a reference on the internet with a scientific name; then I use that scientific name to search for the English handle. In this instance medvehagyma, a word I can translate with my very limited Hungarian to "bear onions," turned into allium ursinum. This translates to ramsons, or wild garlic, or bear's garlic. According to Wikipedia, it is a close relative of the chive, and I can smell the resemblance! So what do bears have to do with these leaves that look like they were stripped from a Lilly of the valley? Again according to Wikipedia, brown bears love to dig up the bulbs in the spring when both the plant and animal come out of hibernation.

The bulbs spring forth with the water and sunshine and so do the bears in need of some good fresh nutrients, and what easier plant to find than one that you just need to follow your nose to! And why not? We all know garlic is good for us, and there are studies and articles (here and here) to back this up. Bear's garlic, like most or all varieties, contains sulfur compounds (divinyl sulfide, dimethyl thiosulfonate, methyl cystein sulfoxide and the latter’s degradation products: methyl allyl thiosulfonate and methanethiol). It was only upon looking up these compounds that I learned what the plant really does for our health. All of those sulfur compounds relax blood vessels and may fight chances of developing various cancers. When preparing garlic and garlic varieties be sure to chop, mince, or crush your garlic at least 10 minutes before cooking it. According to said studies and articles that time is needed to produce the enzymes to do all of this good work. And it's yet another reason to complete your mise en place!

After I got them home and washed them I noticed the smell had dissipated. If one is worried he or she might be eating a Lilly of the valley instead of ramsons, don't panic; simply rub the leaf. If you smell garlic, you're at the right plant! According to a few sources, including Spice Pages, there are no other species that look like allium ursinum that have any hint of garlic as part of their profile, but always be careful when foraging. For my North American readers there are many celebrated relatives of ramsons (including ramps!), but I have found no evidence that ramsons grow in your backyard, unless of course they hitched a ride as good plant species often find ways of doing.

When I first tasted it by itself I was welcomed with a fresh garlic taste and a crisp texture similar to fresh romaine lettuce. Ramsons can be eaten as part of a salad or make up an entire salad on its own; the flowers and bulb may be eaten as well. I found the flavor of flowers to be even stronger than the leaves. As I continued my research on this plant I found numerous allusions to eating the plant leaves as fresh as possible because the perfume will fill the kitchen and not the food when cooked too much. Think about stirring some chopped leaves into a just finished potato cream soup and letting the heat soften them. As a pesto it has a dominant "green" flavor with only a little bit of a spicy edge. Yum!

Happy "bear" hunting!