Tuesday eating from your yard tip ~ Hooray the garlic chives are in flower! Few people are more fond of invasive plants than I am, but my friend it is in your best interest to eat the garlic chives flowers before the prolific self seeders take over. Allium tuberosum commonly called garlic or chinese chives have edible garlic flavored leaves and flowers. My favorite use is to put the flowers in my cooking wine to infuse a slight garlic flavor into the wine. Mary Ayer commented that she adds chives to her veggie salad made with a tarragon vinegar. This got me thinking about making a garlic chive flower and tarragon vinegar~what do you think? Herb infused vinegars are easy~you just put the herbs in a jar and cover them with your favorite vinegar for four weeks. I also really like garlic chive flowers with chopped nasturtium flowers mixed in cream cheese. One important thing to note is that the garlic chive leaves are tougher than onion chive leaves, so it is wise to chop them finer. Both the flowers and leaves are a nice garlicky addition to potatoes or egg dishes ~ especially deviled eggs. Deborah Yost made mash potato with garlic chives, lemon oregano, garlic, and double cream Gloucester cheese, butter, milk and of course potatoes for Garlic Nosh. She also commented that she liked them diced in macaroni salad and pilaf. Judy Easley Shutts added the chopped leaves to her homemade marinara. Alex Kuhel thought he would try the flowers with fresh dill on a grilled salmon. Last but not least Laura Walther Schaefer told me about her favorite Vietnamese restaurant putting a single garlic chive in the center of the spring roll with it sticking out one end.
The Pollyanna good in unchecked garlic chives taking over the known universe is that the pollinators love them and when we had grass my son liked the smell of mowing the garlic chives that had escaped the garden into the useless vegetation commonly referred to as turf grass. How do you eat garlic chives?
