Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Garlic Chives, Two Ways: Garlic Chive Pancakes, Garlic Chive Omelette


Pretty, pretty, pretty.

[ts]
Although we're somewhat familiar with garlic chives -- that is, we've seen them -- we never really work with them at home. But, they looked so lovely at the store that we couldn't help grab a bunch.

Garlic chives are part of the allium family, like garlic and onions. It's usually used in "stir-fries", or used as one would green onions or chives.

Instead of making it merely one component of a dish, we decided to showcase them.



[ts]
I chopped up the whole bunch and got started.

Garlic Chive Omelette


[ts]
First up, what could be simpler than a garlic chive omelette.



[ts]
I broke some eggs, put them in a pan, added garlic chives, and waited until the egg was cooked. Done!


Garlic Chive Pancake


[js]
One of my most favourite things in the world are green onion pancakes, and everytime I order some, I cannot seem to resist finishing it all!

So I thought, why not use these garlic chives instead of green onions and make garlic chive pancakes!

[ts]
By chance, we happened to have seen an episode of Simply Ming where Ming made Chinese hot water dough. Instead of making green onion pancakes, he was making shallot pancakes.

I almost couldn't believe what making Chinese hot water dough entailed. It is simply hot water and flour. That's it! Simply boil some water and add it to flour until you have a dough. I mean, the simplicity of it! Genius.

So, I made a little bit of dough. For each pancake, I pinched off a little piece of dough and rolled it into a circle. I sprinkled garlic chives onto the circle and seasoned with salt.



[ts]
There's a tad too much garlic chives, but no matter. Next, I rolled up the circle into a cigar shape and coiled it.



[ts]
The coil loosened as I had to let go of it to take a picture. But, I tightened it up and rolled the coil into a circle once again.



[ts]
Little bits of garlic chive poked through, but that's all right. It's now ready for frying. I simply added a little oil to a pan, added my pancakes and cooked them until done.



[js]
I thought we were inventing a new kind of "green onion pancake" here but it turns out we're already late for the party.

From the Wikipedia article, it seems that garlic chives are sometimes used in lieu of green onions in a pancake. I guess my "invention" wasn't really mine at all. ;)

In any case, though, I am happy to have made better acquaintance of this vegetable. From the various names of it, it seems that I might have known it before as "ku chai," and my aunt used to make an Chinese empanada-like thing with ku chai.

Hm, it seems we already have a new garlic chives project in the works.



We're submitting this post to Weekend Herb Blogging, a world-wide food blogging event (created by Kalyn's Kitchen, now maintained by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once) with the goal of helping each other learn about cooking with herbs and plant ingredients.

If you'd like to participate, see
who's hosting next week. WHB is hosted this week by Rachel of The Crispy Cook.

25 comments:

  1. Those garlic chive pancakes look so cool! I grew garlic chives once and they were luscious but didn't return as a perennial in our garden, alas. Thanks for creating such tasty recipes for this week's edition of Weekend Herb Blogging.

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  2. I haven't worked much with garlic chives but you've given me a reason to try them out soon! Both dishes looks great!

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  3. I've eaten chives "boxes" - pancakes in which chives + egg + glass noodles are stuffed into the floured pancakes and pan-fried. Yummy!

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  4. My family usually does a simple chicken stir-fry with the flat-leaf chives. I don't think I've ever cooked with garlic chives before actually. Love green onion pancakes. Garlic chive pancakes sound even better. I watched a Simply Ming episode where his mom visited and they had a dumpling-making competition.

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  5. i normally hateeeeee chives, but if they're in such yummy pancakes...come to papa! (or mama?) ^_^

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  6. Garlic chives is one of my favorite ingredients, but it is hardly available here in Manila :(

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  7. I love chives in omelette and yours looks really good!

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  8. I love green onions pancakes. My one try at making them was a huge fail now you are tempting me to try again

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  9. OMG, so freakin' awesome! That stack of garlic chive pancakes makes my mouth water.

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  10. hehe, I didn't know that garlic chives could be used for green onion pancakes... I've read so much about these famous pancakes here and there... I can't wait to give these a try :)

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  11. My favourite is definitely the garlic chive pancakes. Yum!

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  12. Both dishes look great! I need to find some garlic chives.

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  13. Hey Ts... please, save some omelette for me!!!! It looks more than delicious... what a fantastic omelette!!!! If my husband sees it, he'll take the first plane ticket to Canada!!! I still have to try garlic chives, but now I have the best reason :D

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  14. I'm going to have to bookmark this till spring, when my garlic chives pop up again!

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  15. Rachel:
    Thanks!

    tigerfish:
    Oh. Intriguing! I think I've had leek and egg inside the "pancakes" before... but not with the glass noodles.

    Wandering Chopsticks:
    Oh, Now I'm confused. Are those flat-leaf chives also called "garlic chives"? Ming and his mom are funny together, hehe.

    Ning:
    So maybe that's why they weren't that familiar to us!

    kat:
    I didn't realize they would turn out OK, frankly. Hehe.

    Ben:
    Oh, but these aren't "pancakes" in that sense. "Pancake" is just the term that's used when they transalte it into English.

    And hye. what a great idea! Condensed milk with pancakes!!!

    Jessica@Foodmayhem:
    Vicki:
    Teehee. Thanks!

    Antonio Tahhan:
    And JS thought that she was "inventing" these! ;)

    Núria:
    Haha, just your husband will fly here? You should join him as well! ;D

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  16. What beautiful pancakes. I'm drooling over here.

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  17. That pancake looks outstanding.

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  18. The roundup is now up. Thanks for participating with such a cool couple of recipes.

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  19. Glorious photos and I'm really drooling over the pancakes. Thanks for sharing.

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  20. Your opening picture of garlic chives is really great. Now I'm craving craving craving some of those pancakes. They're gorgeous.

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  21. That hot water dough sounds like a fun recipe to play with but really I doubt I could do better than the garlic chive version you have. They look fantastic!

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  22. Sweet Bird:
    Ruthg Daniels:
    Thanks! =)

    Rachel:
    Thanks for the WHB round-up.

    Laurie Constantino:
    Thanks, those garlic chives were pretty all on their own.

    Maggie:
    The hot water dough was seriously easy. Do make some!

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  23. Hey! I hope you don't mind but I linked this recipe and picture on my new blog www.evilscarytofu.wordpress.com to show people what a legit, homemade green onion pancake looks like (compared to an obvious storebought)!! =)

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  24. evilscarytofu:
    Oh, not at all. Thanks for the mention! =)

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