Green Garlic & Cheddar Scones

Baby leeks? Giant scallions? Nope...that's Green Garlic, which several farmers' market vendors were selling this week. A culinary secret, green garlic is immature garlic that hasn't yet developed its garlic bulb and has a much milder flavor than the mature bulbs, yet still has that distinct garlic flavor. It can be used in any recipe in place of regular garlic or leeks, and can be used raw or cooked. Alice Waters has a delicious sounding Green Garlic Soup recipe in Chez Panisse Vegetables, which I would have tried except that I'm hitting the holiday road today and wanted to make something easily transportable.

So I decided to make an adapted version of Farm Girl's Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones. The only changes I made were substituting the green garlic for the scallions and cheddar cheese for the feta. I used all but the leafy ends of the green garlic and sliced and chopped them just like scallions. If you want an aromatic zen experience, chopping green garlic is an excellent meditation — the smell is incredible, you won't be able to think about anything else.

I also cut my scones into 12 rather than 8 and reduced the cooking time to 18 minutes. The scones were a delicious vehicle for the green garlic - very tasty and aromatic, yet mild. Next time I'd increase the amount of cheddar cheese (I used 4 oz of sharp cheddar) as the cheddar taste was too mild for me, at least right out of the oven. I noted with the original scone recipe that the flavors seem to develop more the next day and were delicious toasted. I suspect the same will be true for this version. Serve fresh from the oven ot toasted the next day with butter or cream cheese — heaven.

p.s. I'll be gone for a few days with the kids (Spring Break and my mum's birthday) and not sure of mum's computer's photo abilities, so I may not be posting till mid-next week (give me strength!)