What on earth are garlic scrapes? Precisely what I thought when I walked into the market today. Yep, we still haven’t done a weekly shop.. and to be honest I am not sure if we will! So, it is to the store or farmers market every day! yay! So, I saw these little curly bundles of garlicy joy in the local store and thought I would give them a go. Garlic scrapes are the stem and blossom of a garlic plant. They look really funky, wound up into little coils with a closed blossom on the top. So, what to do with them? They looked like they should be cooked quickly to me.. Apparently, you can use them raw in salads, but I thought they might work better being grilled – this should hopefully bring out more of their soft garlic flavor.

The scrapes are tossed in olive oil and salt, and cooked on a hot grill. When cooking they just smell fantastic. The garlic smells really fresh, yet soft. You get the impression that you could eat a bunch of them, and not be overwhelmed by garlic. The radishes are sliced thinly using a Japanese slicer. The radishes and butter beans are arranged on a plate, and a dressing of apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and olive oil is drizzled over the top. Pile on the grilled garlic scrapes. This would honestly be great by itself, without the salmon. Jeez.. not often I say that!

The salmon is slowly sauteed in a pan, until the skin is really crispy. I enjoy serving fillet’s skin side up, especially when the skin is crispy. This is the typical presentation throughout Europe, and well, it is a pleasant change for me and reminds me of home!

This was a really quick dish to prepare too – everything comes together as the salmon is cooking. Perhaps 10 minutes cooking time, and 10 minutes to warm the grill. That makes it a perfect mid-week meal. Pretty light too, which is great on a crazy hot day like this.

My favorite part of the dish? Those funky garlic scrapes. I always love walking into a store and market, seeing something I have never cooked with before and giving it a go. It is really worth a try the next time you are down the store. If we don’t, we just end up eating the same thing over and over, and missing out on some really fabulous ingredients. So, the next time you are down the store pick up something odd looking, and give it a go. Google it if you have to, but enjoy a bit of creativity and experimentation!