Chive Jive: Cheddar Chive Cream Biscuits

It's chive season again. I've got a couple of big chive plants, one of which is an offspring of one from my grandmother's garden in upstate Pennsylvania. My mother took a clump from her mother's garden while I was still in college; I drove Mom home with the plant in the back of the car, along with a small armchair for my dorm. When Mom and Dad downsized to a smaller home, she dug a clump and planted it in her new yard. She divided a piece off and gave it to my for my rocky first garden. I've divided clumps from that original plant three times, until Mom's home was sold. The one I have in my current garden was snitched from my ex-husband's yard while he was at work. I may have split from the guy, but I wasn't leaving my chives. So I still have some of my Mom-Mom's chives. If I ever move again, they'll go along. It's my Chive Jive.

Last year I was all about the flowers. Chive flower vinegar is a wonderful thing; you can find instructions here. I scatter those pretty purple, edible flowers over anything I want to have a faint onion flavor; after all, chives are a perennial allium, which means they are in the onion family. They are wonderful, the mildest and most well-mannered onion you'll ever meet.  

But it's those long, green leaves, with their mild, but pungent onion flavor that I just adore. I first loved them as a kid-- while other little girls were eating PB&J in the school cafeteria (this was before all the allergies) I was chowing down on thin white bread with cream cheese and chives. I was one weird kid, I guess. Chive season starts early, and thank goodness it lasts pretty much all summer. You can find them bundled into bunches in most farmer's markets starting in May, but you can easily get a small plant at the garden center, and with very little care, you can start your own family tradition...er, Chive Jive.

On Friday I came upon White Lily Self-Rising Flour (finally!), which happens to be my favorite biscuit making flour at my local Wegman's, and ran home with a chunk of old Vermont cheddar cheese to make these cheddar - chive cream biscuits for dinner. I ate three. Too good, so you should try them. Chives and cheddar cheese are a wonderful combination. I start salivating just thinking about the leftovers in the kitchen. I may have to excuse myself for a biscuit break. 

Cream biscuits are good to try for your first attempt at biscuit making. Instead of having to cut in shortening or butter, you just use heavy cream, which has enough fat in it to make a good biscuit. The texture is shorter in a cream biscuit,-- a little more cakey than flakey, but the dough is far more forgiving. Never roll the dough out more than two times. Whatever you have left after that, just toss it our. Over handling biscuit dough is a bad thing; it develops too much gluten and makes them tough.


Note: I've had my little old 2" biscuit cutter so long, I used to cut out Play-Doh with it. If you don't have a 2" cutter, try using a smallish drinking glass, or just cut them in squares with a knife -- less waste!

The Family Chive Jive: Cheddar Chive Cream Biscuits

Cheddar Chive Cream Biscuits

Makes 10 2" biscuits

2 cups White Lily Self Rising Flour (or whatever is available in your region)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 5 oz.)
1-1/4 cups heavy cream (plus an extra tablespoon or so if the weather is dry)
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment or a Silpat.

2. Mix the flour, the garlic powder, salt, chives and cheese in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cream, gently with a silicone spatula, until all the dry ingredients are moistened. If there are any dry patches, dribble in a bit more cream until the dough is just slightly sticky. DO NOT OVERMIX. Let the dough sit for about 5 minutes.

My cutter is nearly as old as I am...

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and gently pat or roll the dough until it's 1/2" thick or just a bit thicker. Cut each biscuit out with a 2" round cutter, dip in the melted butter, and place about 1/4" apart on the parchment or Silpat-covered baking sheet.

4. Bake about 12 minutes until golden brown and well-risen. Remove to a napkin lined bowl, spread with butter and devour.

The great, great, great, great, grand-daughter
of Mom-Mom's original Chive plant.

  

Copy Cat Blog: Compound Vinegar with Lovage, Thyme and Garlic

Vinegar with Thyme, Lovage & Garlic

Ok, this is probably the third blog where you’ll see this vinegar, but it was so beautiful when I saw it on Marisa’s blog “Food in Jars” and then again on “Lottie and Doof”, and well, I have a big old chive plant in the middle of the veg garden. So if I'm going to be a copy cat, the least I can do is borrow a topic from the big bloggers.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

But there’s more. I really want to talk about compound vinegars. That’s the old-fashioned name for flavored vinegars. This is the Chive Blossom vinegar from my garden’s chive blossoms. And we’ll make a different kind here today too.

There is nothing like dressing a salad in the dead of Winter that’s scented with fresh basil from last July’s Farm Market. Or that beautiful pink chive vinegar in a cruet on the table. Making flavored or compound vinegars allows you to be completely creative and make something totally unique. Try unusual combinations of herbs or spices that appeal to you; you may hit a winner. At this time of year, late Spring, the fresh herbs and aromatics available  are fabulous.

The simplest way to make seasoned vinegar is just wash and dry whatever it is you’d like your vinegar to taste of, pop it in a jar, cover it with vinegar, put the lid on it and store it in a dark coolish place for a few weeks and then enjoy the flavored vinegar. The acid in the vinegar preserves the vegetation (herbs, chilies, garlic and the like) you’ve put in there and the vegetation flavors the vinegar. If you’d like to speed up the process, just heat the vinegar to just below a boil and pour the hot vinegar over your herbs in a clean glass jar or bottle. You can certainly vary this even further with the addition of spices like black peppercorns, mustard seed, coriander, cloves or whatever makes your taste buds happy.

A chopstick helps push the herbs into the bottle.

It’s wise to pick fairly unassertive vinegar to start out with, if you want the flavor of your additions to really come through. I like white wine vinegar, and plain unseasoned rice wine vinegar. You can use cider, red wine or sherry vinegar, but they need bold additions to co-exist with their bold tastes.

Just needs the vinegar added,
 and then we wait...

The Non-Recipe for Thyme, Lovage and Garlic Vinegar

I’ve kept this batch simple. I’ve simply added homegrown fresh thyme, a few bruised, peeled garlic cloves and a perennial herb called lovage from my garden ( it tastes a lot like celery) to white wine vinegar in a nice Italian glass bottle I got here. Use a chopstick to push the herbs into your bottle or just use a clean glass canning jar. Pour the vinegar over to cover. Store for a few weeks in a cool dark place. You can strain out the solids before you use the vinegar if you wish. Yum in salads, recipes, and if you are brave with seltzer as a cooling beverage.