
For the few weeks they are in bloom, I put chive blossoms on everything. Even so, I struggle to use them all before they go to seed and cast their thousand black specks across the yard like confetti. They have to be picked before this time or my entire yard would be chives.
One year I tried drying the flowers to use through the winter. I had recently had a lamb tartare that was garnished with dried onion blossoms. The meat was good but what I really took away from that dish was the dried onion blossoms. I thought, “Wow! These are fantastic! Really beautiful and flavourful. I can probably do the same with the copious chive blossoms in my yard.” I tried, but the chive version was fibrous, chewy, basically inedible. Maybe the onion flowers on the lamb tartare had been freeze-dried?
The easiest way I have found to preserve the flavour and elegant mauve colour of the flowers is in chive flower vinegar. Put the flower heads in a jar, cover them with vinegar, and in just a few days the liquid is richly stained and aromatic of allium.
I’ve been making non-traditional vinaigrettes using things like herb oils and fruit juices, so it seemed natural to try an all-chive version with happy green chive oil and stately purple chive flower vinegar. Presented the same way Earl’s serves their pan bread with a dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (do they still do that?). In the photo above the vinegar has been diluted with water and sweetened with sugar.