Like I said yesterday, I'm using as much of what the garden gives us as I can this year. Yesterday, I made a soup using chive blossoms, chicken stock (from our most recent roasted chicken), salt, dried thyme, and a bit of flour to thicken.
Three of the four of us thought this smelled and tasted liked cream of mushroom soup. My opinion that the most prominent flavor in canned cream of mushroom soup is onion powder has been confirmed.
I picked and washed about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of open chive blossoms while thawing a scant quart of homemade, unseasoned chicken stock. I cut most of the green stem off the chive blossoms, but I didn't fuss too much over it. Using a medium saucepan, I brought the chive blossoms and chicken stock to a boil. After the chive blossoms had simmered in the chicken stock for about 20 minutes. I allowed it to stand and cool before pureeing. Just a note, cooking the chive blossoms turns them gray. I had hoped the pretty purple would remain.
Once cooled, I dumped the whole batch into a pitcher blender, adding a couple of tablespoons of all-purpose flour to blend in while pureeing. After the mixture was smooth, I returned all to the saucepan and brought it back to boil to cook the added flour and thicken. At that point, all that was needed was some salt (about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon) and a pinch of dried thyme.
So, delicious. I went back for seconds.
Last week I made 2 jars of chive blossom vinegar, which is about all we will use in a year. I still have a lot of chive blossoms on my plants. Now that I know I can make a good soup (and a good cream of mushroom substitute for casseroles) from the blossoms, I plan on harvesting and freezing as many of the blossoms as I can in the next day or two.
Do you grow chives? Have you found ways to use the blossoms?
I admire how you try not to let anything go to waste, Lili. I try to do the same, but I am not as vigilant as you are. I grew chives at our old house, but not now. My husband does not like any kind of onion taste, so I don't bother. I still cook with onions sometimes, but it's not a main ingredient.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI know you do, too. I recall you said you used the carrot greens like parsley in cooking. And that reminds me that I still have some carrot greens in the freezer that I need to use. Gotta use those up.
Wow! I admire your ambition. I actually have some chive blossom that is on it's third year growing in a planter. What else are they used for other than soup? Not sure we would want more soup. By more, I mean I just made a batch of "everything in the refrigerator that needed to be used up" soup that included a lot of good bits and pieces. It was so good.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteThank you. Since you already have some soup made, you can crumble blossoms over bowls of soup, as a garnish that adds a little flavoring. You can do the same over a tossed salad or mixed in with potato salad or chicken salad. To make chive blossom vinegar (a slightly onion flavored vinegar for using in oil/vinegar salad dressings), wash blossoms, pat dry with a paper towel, put into a glass jar close in size to the amount of blossoms. Pour white vinegar over the blossoms until the jar is full. Cap and store in a dark, cool cupboard for 2 months. Then strain and pour into a nice bottle. Throw out/compost the used chive blossoms. The finished vinegar will keep for many months.
My husband has a few chives that grow in his herb garden (that sounds so fancy--it's just a patch of herbs growing behind the tool shed). There aren't really enough chives to amount to much, although he did add them to potato salad last weekend. I don't remember adding chive blossoms to any food items, but they sure are pretty.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteNow that sounds like a respectable herb garden to me. I'm sure the herbs don't mind that they live behind the tool shed. I figure any place the herbs grow is the herb garden.
Some years we don't get very many blossoms. This year was a good year. In years that we don't have a lot of blossoms, I tend to do what your husband did and just add what I have to something like potato salad or top soups or salads.