There are so many things you can do with herbs it's uncanny that more people aren't out in their yards foraging! Here in Upstate New York we don't start to get the bulk of our edible herbs until late April to mid May.
One of the first herbs I can always count on is Allium Tuberusom, otherwise known as Garlic CHIVES!
Garlic Chives tend to grow in clusters like this one shown. The biggest indicator that what you've found is actually chives is the smell. As soon as you pick a couple blades off you will immediately smell the onion/garlic smell. If it doesn't have that smell, it's not Allium Tuberosum.
Alright, so you've picked some and you want to use it in the kitchen! Most people will cook with it right away. They are good in stir fry's, with eggs, on a roast, etc.
Wild Chives do no have a good shelf life though, unless you dry them or cook them immediately. That's why I like to make butter with mine. It keeps the Chives a little fresher for a little longer and gives you a super yummy butter. The best part?! The kiddos can help with this recipe, and you'll want all their energy for this one too!
Ingredients:
1. 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
2. 1 tsp Salt
3. Fresh Picked Garlic Chives
4. A hard Bead or small polished rock
After you've picked your chives, chop them up real good. About a 1/4-1/2 inch will do.
Pour about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream into a mason jar with 1 tsp of salt and your desired preference of chives. Drop in your bead or polished rock, put a lid on and your ready to go. That was the easy part though!
NOW SHAKE!!! This is workout. I always try to get the bead to hit the bottom and top of the jar so I know I'm shaking hard enough. You're going to be doing this for about 10 minutes so switch off with someone if you can. This is where the kiddos come in handy with this recipe. My son loves getting out some energy on making butter.
You're going to notice the cream expanding and coating the jar, KEEP SHAKING!
You'll see it start to separate, this is good! It will get a bit harder now to hear the bead hitting the top and bottom of the jar. BUT, KEEP SHAKING!
It's finally starting to look like butter! Not done yet though. At this point you'll really start to see the butter separate from the buttermilk. You'll want to keep shaking, trying to slap the ball of butter against the top and bottom of the jar to get out as much buttermilk as you can.
This is what it should look like when you're done. You should have a good size ball of butter and buttermilk.
Separate the butter from the buttermilk (which you should most definitely save! Anyone say biscuits???) And you're done!
Now you can leave it in it's original jar, but I always like to put the butter in a container that is easy to get to.
Hope you had fun making home made butter. What a difference in taste to store bought butter and the chives just give it that awesome little kick!
Tell me how your butter came out!!
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