Season's Eatings: Chives

Around here, spring, when it finally arrives, comes quickly. Last week’s snows water this week’s daffodils. Forsythia’s bare branches erupt without warning into a riot of bright yellow flowers. I know that many of you have been enjoying spring weather—and spring’s bounty—for weeks already. But here in the Northeast, spring has, until the last few days at least, seemed very far away.  

Fortunately, like snowdrops and crocuses, some harbingers of spring persist despite early spring snowfalls. And some, like chives (and crocuses, for that matter) are even edible, giving our winter-starved palates a foretaste of spring’s delights to come. Like crocuses, too, chives can catch you by surprise—even though I live in the city, I saw patches of chives this week stubbornly cropping up and thriving on the edges of neglected postage-stamp front yards, probably planted there by previous owners years before.  

If, like many of us, your familiarity with chives is limited to their use as a garnish or their long-standing partnership with sour cream as a baked potato topping, consider expanding your acquaintance with this underutilized herb, whose subtle oniony flavor seems to embody spring’s flavor and essence.  

Chives have been cultivated since at least the seventeenth century, although it seems likely that they were used in their wild form centuries before that time. Chives are one of the easiest and most forgiving herbs for home gardeners to grow, thriving in windowsill planters or even (as my neighbors’ yards attest) surviving perennially when planted out of doors.  

Chives can be harvested throughout the growing season. Try adding chives to a creamy potato salad dressing or to mashed potatoes. Include a generous amount of chives with a mild cheese to make the perfect spring omelette. Incorporate chives’ tender flavor and spring green color into any cream soup. Sprinkle chives generously onto a simple shrimp or scallop sauté. It’s so easy to snip off a bit and add their delicate, hollow stems to countless dishes, knowing that they’ll keep growing back and you’ll have a ready supply all spring and summer long. 

Above all, however you use chives, savor their understated flavor by adding them at the last minute and (with the exception of baked goods like the biscuit recipe that follows) using them raw or barely cooked. Like spring itself, chives’ flavor is fragile and fleeting; their subtle taste, however, offers not only its own delights but also the promise of all the delicious things to come. 

Selection: Choose moist, bright green shoots that do not appear dry or withered. 

Storage: Wrap fresh chives in damp paper towels, then in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to four days. 

Preparation: Mince or snip fresh chives just before using. 

Recipe: Cheddar-Chive Biscuits 

Cheddar cheese and chives are a classic combination. Here, they join forces in a flaky biscuit whose flavor is reminiscent of the bread at a popular seafood restaurant. 

Makes 10-12 biscuits 

2 c. all-purpose flour or cake flour (cake flour results in a higher-rising biscuit)

¾ t. salt

1 T. baking power

4 T. cold unsalted butter

½ c. buttermilk

2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 c. chives, snipped into ¼” lengths 

1. Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Put the flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl and stir to combine well. Cut the butter into small pieces and work them into the flour with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Add the buttermilk, stirring it in gently with a rubber spatula just until the mixture begins to gather into a mass; don’t overmix. Turn the dough out onto a floured board. With your hands, flatten the dough into a rectangle about ½” thick.
4. Spread 1 c. of the cheese and about half the chives evenly over the top of the dough. Fold the dough in thirds (like folding up a letter) and flatten out again. Repeat with the remaining cheese and chives.
5. With a glass or 2” biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out the biscuits and place them about 1” apart on an ungreased baking sheet. You can gather the dough scraps and pat them out again one more time to cut additional biscuits (doing so much more than this results in tougher biscuits that won’t rise as high).
6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. It’s normal for some cheese to seep out of the biscuits during baking. Allow the biscuits to cool at least 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm.

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Norah Piehl, Food Correspondent:Norah’s column, “Season’s Eatings,” published twice monthly to Gather Essentials: Food, considers  the importance of eating seasonally and locally. The number of farmers’ markets in the United States has increased by more than 100 percent in just the last decade, making fresh, locally-grown produce more accessible and affordable than ever before. “Season’s Eatings” helps the growing number of farmers’ market shoppers make good choices at the market, highlighting in-season produce that might be unfamiliar to readers and offering information on its history, taste, selection, and use, often including a recipe or two. Norah’s column will also profile local growers and markets, discuss other items (from cheese to chutney) that might be found at your local market, and generally offer resources for those who wish to continue exploring their local and regional agricultural offerings.

Norah is a professional writer, editor, and book reviewer whose articles and reviews have appeared in Pregnancy magazine, Brain, Child, Skirt!, Literary Mama, Publishers Weekly, The Horn Book Guide, and BookPage. Her personal essays have been included in two anthologies and on American Public Media’s Weekend America. In her spare time, Norah enjoys knitting (and blogging about knitting) and playing handbells with Boston’s Back Bay Ringers.

You can find all of Norah’s columns at www.gather.com/seasons eatings

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