Sometimes, silly little things give me the biggest thrill.
I love to garden, the dirt under my nails, soil stained knee’s, and the smell of fertilizer. I also love my low maintenance container herb garden. Rubbing the little leaves between my fingers and taking a huge whiff of their individual aroma’s always makes me smile. Last year, my mother in-law gave me a clump of chives she had dug up from a friend’s house who was moving. Sadly, I haphazardly plopped them on top of a pot but never got around to properly transplanting. How insanely lazy does that make me sound? Ugh. To my surprise, they thrived and even wintered. This Spring when I saw that they were coming back, I made sure to provide a proper home. The best part about chives is that they blossom. This was the happiest moment of Spring for me, one by one they opened up into fluffy purple EDIBLE flowers.
I snapped this picture on a Saturday morning, just after a passing rain shower~
When cilantro goes to seed (flowers), it becomes coriander and people either stop this from happening or they embrace it. When chives blossom, you can harvest the flowers for a number of uses, cut the stalks down and let them flower AGAIN!
Toss them into salads, instead of sliced red onion. Chop them up and place under the skin of chicken or add to compound butter. Fold them into savory muffins or scones, or infuse a mild vinegar.
For my first experiment, I wanted to infuse two different types of vinegar. One an organic rice wine vinegar, the other a white wine vinegar.
The process is simple and I happen to love vinegar almost as much as I love salt, ALMOST. Since the rain had done the rinsing for me, all I had to do was sterilize two mason jars. Otherwise it is recommended that you rinse the flowers and let them dry.
Once that is done, you can toss the blossoms into the jar.
For the organic rice wine vinegar version.
and one for the white wine vinegar~
Pour warmed vinegar over top ~ and seal the lid. *Don’t let the vinegar boil*
- After one night of steeping.
Then store the jar in a cool dark spot. Steep the blossoms for 1-3 weeks depending on your taste preference. I filtered the rice wine vinegar through a mesh sieve after only 4 days, and below is the result. The longer you let it sit, the darker in color it will get and stronger in flavor.
I plan on using these in dressings, mignonette’s, marinades, and anywhere else vinegar or Allium is appropriate! This would make a great gift for foodie friends too, that is if I can manage not to use it all. SO GREEDY!
~ Happy Friday friends