Place of origin.

Yesterday I interviewed Daniel Liberson, founder of Lindera Farms in Virginia, for my daily live Instagram chat. Daniel makes vinegars and hot sauces using ingredients sourced through locally foraged products and relationships he has built with local farmers. He combines those ingredients with honey to ferment vinegars with the palate of someone who spent the first part of his career in commercial kitchens working with chefs like Bryan Voltaggio.

During the interview Daniel said something that is still kicking around in my brain: "We didn't create vinegar in America," he said. Vinegar was discovered in both Ancient Babylon and China using the ingredients they had available. When we make vinegar here in the US we are interpreting a product made elsewhere. "What would vinegar be like," Daniel asked, "if we invented it here with products and flavors available here?"

That same question inspires this take on Hawaiian poke I developed for my live demo today. While tuna caught in the Mid-Atlantic would be Bluefin, not the Yellowfin I used today, DC distributor and wholesale-to-the-public seller ProFish is homegrown, as are the ramps and ramp products like the vinegars and hot sauce.

I used Daniel's ramp vinegar, and ramp and green chile hot sauce, as well as his applewood soy sauce inspired by a surplus crop of soy beans produced by a Maryland farmer. To pickle the ramps I used a more acidic, cider-based ramp vinegar from Sarah and Isaiah at Keepwell Vinegar. The ramps themselves came from Spring Valley Farm and Orchard's stand at FreshFarm Markets Dupont Circle market here in Washington, DC.

You might be thinking, right about now, that you don't want to get online and order all of those vinegars and hot sauces and you have no idea where to track down bunches of ramps. No worries! After all, this dish was inspired by the ingredients and flavors I have locally available. So start right at home in your own pantry and at your local farm markets. Let's find out how it would taste if you invented it.

Ramp tuna poke

Serves 2

Poke is raw tuna tossed in soy sauce and vinegar, topped with spicy mayonnaise, toasted sesame seeds and served with quick pickles. We bring it from it's origins in Hawaii to the mid-Atlantic with the flavor of ramps, locally foraged wild leeks. Serve it over rice, quinoa or greens for a meal.

Tuna:

• 1/2 lb tuna

• 2 tbs Lindera Farms applewood soy sauce

• 2 tbs Mirin

• 1 tsp Lindera Farms ramp vinegar

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

• 3-4 ramp leaves, thinly sliced (from bunches used for pickling)

• White pepper

• 1 tbs toasted sesame seeds

Pickled ramps:

• 3-4 bunches ramps

• 1 tsp peppercorns

• 2 star anise

• 2 dried arbol chiles

• 1 cup Keepwell ramp vinegar or cider vinegar

• 1/2 cup sugar

Spicy ramp mayo

• 2 tbs mayonnaise

• 1 tsp Ramp and green chile hot sauce or Sriracha

Directions:

• Pickle ramps: separate greens from white and light green stems. Rinse stems well and pack into a pint canning jar with peppercorns, star anise and arbor chiles. Combine vinegar, sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Fill jar and refrigerate for 24 hours to pickle. Reserve ramp leaves to use when preparing tuna.

• Make mayonnaise: Stir together mayonnaise and hot sauce.

• Prepare tuna: cut tuna into 1/2" pieces. In a medium bowl whisk together soy sauce, Mirin, vinegar and sesame oil. Toss through tuna and ramp leaves. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

• To serve: Top tuna with toasted sesame seeds and mayonnaise. Serve with pickled ramps.