Saturday, June 18, 2011

Chive Vinegar

While I was researching methods for drying chamomile yesterday, I noticed an online forum on which someone had posted ideas about what to do with various herbs--chamomile among them. I was excited to see that they also mentioned using chive blossoms to make chive vinegar. This was a fortuitous discovery, considering we had a bowl full of chive blossoms sitting in our fridge at that very moment--way more blossoms than we could conceivably use on salads. (In the interest of full disclosure, the blossoms are from our own garden, not from our CSA share.) The "recipe" is ridiculously easy.


Ingredients:
Chive blossoms
White vinegar

Place chive blossoms in a glass jar (we didn't have a spare jar, so I stuck them in a glass bowl with a lid; I'll transfer them to a jar soon). Pour white vinegar over the blossoms to cover. Let the blossoms steep until you're ready to use the vinegar or to pour it into smaller jars to give as gifts.

Comments:
Today, I was shocked to see that the white vinegar is already beautifully purplish-pink. I hadn't anticipated the color change. And it already tastes chivey!

I'm going to keep letting it steep. I figure the chives will infuse the vinegar with more of their color and flavor the longer they sit there.

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