Use of chives
This perennial aromatic grass is cultivated both in garden and pots, in the kitchen, in order to be able to harvest it according to your needs. These leaves are tasty ingredients that bring freshness and delight your recipes. Discover on the "Recipe" tabUrban Cuisine Our suggestions: Verrine avocado, salmon & common chives, Common chives vinaigrette, Potato puree and common chives and many others.
You can harvest your chives anytime, however for keep it fresh all year round, it is important to know how to keep it.
How to keep the chives?
First step: take your chives strands
Once your chives will be about 15cm, Cut a few strands with scissors. Be careful to cut down, otherwise they will harden and their ends will become yellow.
Sort the stems and keep the best. Rinse them to remove the earth, then drain them in a colander. Finally, roll up a cloth around the strands of chives so that they can dry.
2 tips to keep the chives in the refrigerator
1) for a week
- Mamp a paper towel with a little water
- Wrap it around your strands chives
- Place everything in a freezing bag or in an airtight box that you will put in the vegetable trap of your refrigerator
- Repeat the absorbent paper every two days
2) Refrigerate for 5 days
- Tie up Your bouquet chives
- Put this bouquet in a glass of water
- Cover the chives with freezing bag or plastic film
- Last step: put everything in the refrigerator
2 tips for freezing chives
Freezing is particularly suitable for preserving certain aromatic herbs such as chives, parsley and the mint Because it allows them to be cool while keeping all their flavors.
1) In a freezing bag to freeze for two months
- Chop the chives
- Place the chopped chives In a freezing bag
- Note the date and name of the variety
- Put the bag in the freezer
2) In an ice cube tray
- Chop the chives
- Divide the chopped chives in an ice cube tray
- Fill out The holes with water
- Put everything in the freezer as you would with classic ice cubes
2 methods for drying the chives
THE drying helps keep aromatic herbs for several years. It is particularly suitable for the thyme, THE rosemary, bay and oregano. However, the drying of parsley, chives, coriander, of the mint and basil will be able to lighten their flavors. If you really want to keep these fresh herbs, in this case, promote freezing methods.
1) In the open air
- End your chives stems in bouquet
- Hang the head down in an airy place and out of the sun
- Leave them suspended for at least a week
2) In the microwave
- Arrange the chives flat on paper towels.
- Cover with another absorbent paper
-Put it everything in the microwave next to a ramekin filled with water
- Heat 30 seconds
- Check the sheets of the leaves
- Heat again 30 seconds if necessary and this until the chives are dry
How to keep the chives flowers?
1) Dry the flowers
- During the flowering season, harvest the stems that have flowers (this will also make it possible to delay the rise in seeds andmaintain the plant)
- Hang the stems in an airy place and out of the sun
2) Prepare a flavored oil with another aromatic grass: thyme, rosemary, oregano
- Arrange the dried chives flowers in a glass bottle
- You can add an aromatic grass of your choice to combine the flavors
- Pour oil into the bottle
- Leave to macerate for 3 weeks
Do you want to start storage of chives?
Discover our products perfectly suited to its culture, starting our cork pot, which allows you to cultivate a common chives for several months thanks to our crop: a 3-in-1 capsule including soil, seeds and nutrients In order to ensure your plant as good growth as possible!
Also discover all our tips to maintain and keep your fruits, vegetables and aromatic herbs on the Urban Cuisine blog: "How to keep the coriander? ", "Lettuce to cut: our maintenance tips", "The culture of Cayenne pepper: what you need to know" and many others.