These chive blossoms are slightly past their prime, but they’ll work very well for a flavored vinegar.
Chive blossoms are just so pretty, aren’t they? Something about those puffy lavender tufts atop their slender green stalks strikes me as totally elegant, yet thoroughly wild, particularly if you find them in a giant patch — such as I did at last year’s first CSA distribution.
Our house came with a cute little chive patch out front, and I planted some potted chives to join the existing ones when we moved in. Though the front yard gets sun for only about half the day — in the morning it is dewy and cool — the chives have absolutely taken off. Where last year there was about a fistful of chives there is now possibly a good several pounds’ worth. After the heat and rain over the last few weeks, the chives were just about rioting with delight at being alive, so, being the killjoy I am, I decided to behead them and concoct an herbal vinegar.
It’s silly to call this a recipe, really. It’s more of a set of guidelines. How many chive blossoms you need will depend on the size jar you want to use to make the flavored vinegar. I used an old glass peanut butter jar with an aluminum lid, and ran both through the dishwasher before beginning.
When you set out to pop the blossoms off the chives, work from the back forward — the stalks release a clear sap when you clip (or pinch) the blossoms off, and you’ll quickly become covered with sap if you work willy-nilly through the patch, as I did. Watch, too, for insects, and gently remove any you see as you go. (Or be surprised, as I was, by the presence of a rather disgusting sac of baby spiders on the underside of an otherwise innocent-looking blossom.)
This picture is for reference only — it’s not a good idea to store your vinegar on the windowsill.
Once you’ve picked your fill of blossoms, remove any dead or dessicated bits and swish the blossoms around in a bit of cold water to remove any insects and dirt. (One recipe I saw uses a tiny bit of bleach in the water as a sanitizing solution, but I’m not sure I’d want to go that far.) Drain and toss a few times in a colander to release some of the clinging water. Stuff the chive blossoms into a clean, sealable jar or other vessel — you want to fill the jar as much as possible, packing in the blossoms a bit. Once the blossoms are in, fill the jar with white wine vinegar, covering the blossoms completely. Seal the jar and place it in a cool, dark place for a few weeks so the chive blossoms can release their flavor into the vinegar.
Once the vinegar is ready, strain the blossoms from the vinegar, pouring it into a new, clean container. I just made this vinegar last week, so next week I’ll post a couple of shots of the finished product along with one of my new favorite salad dressing recipes.