Chives, leeks, scallions and other lovely lilies?

The white fragrant trumpets of Lilium longiflorum are a classic emblem of Easter along with pastel eggs, cotton tailed bunnies and chocolate.  Never one to strictly adhere to the rules, this year our seasonal feast featured a different lily altogether.  But before I explain, I’d just like to say that while life’s too short to dye eggs once the kids are grown, I’ll never outgrow jelly beans and chocolate.

From Growing Your Own Vegetables, my latest book from Sasquatch Books coming soon to a bookstore near you:

Closely related to lilies, the onion family (Allium) offers rich variety and a broad spectrum of flavors, from the mild and tender leek to the fiery punch of garlic.  Unlike fragrant garden lilies, alliums are rich in sulfur, which gives them their vivid flavor and distinctive aroma.

Even in a ridiculously cold season like the one we’re enduring here in the Pacific Northwest, the vegetable garden yields several varieties of onions for delicious spring meals.  Last week when I cleaned and weeded the herb garden I harvested my overwintered leeks.  I’m sure a better gardener than I would have been out there at the first flake clearing the snow from the beautiful upright stalks.  While the plants are completely hardy and came through our inclement weather just fine, I’m afraid they were somewhat gnarled and floppy after having been buried for 2 weeks straight under a load of snow and ice.  None the less they were a delicious complement to my Sauteed Spring Lettuce and Peas (see recipe below).

We love eggs around here.  I keep flirting with the idea of raising backyard chickens but what I really want is for a neighbor to get chickens; I just want the eggs!  Poached, scrambled, whipped into an unctuous sauce for Oven-roasted Asparagus and Scallions (see recipe below) and yes, even hard boiled – I adore exquisitely fresh eggs.  Everyone knows you have to have chives for scrambled eggs, and baked potatoes, and fresh salads.  I recently dug and divided my chives to get an even bigger stock.

There’s almost no end to the number of dishes that benefit from this mild, slightly sweet onion.  My favorite dessert at Tamarind Tree, a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant here in Seattle is Bánh nếp chuối nướng ~ or grilled banana cake.  Grilled sweet rice and red banana is served with warm coconut milk, topped with roasted peanuts and finished with a sprinkling of finely chopped chives.  I know it sounds crazy, but trust me it works and it’s crazy good!

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are hardy perennials with deep green, hollow leaves that grow in a clump 8-12″ tall.  Their mild onion flavor herald spring.  The lovely purple globe-shaped flowers in early summer are slightly stronger in flavor and when separated into individual floret are tasty additions to salads and make a beautiful and edible garnish.

Planting:  Little pots of chives are one of the earliest culinary herbs to show up in nurseries each spring; they can be set out in the garden when temperatures are still quite cold.  Seeds may be sown 1/4″ deep in fertile soil in full sun once the weather has settled.  Divide clumps every 2 to 3 years and reset into the garden at 12″ spacing to increase your stock; chives make a lovely border to both herb and ornamental gardens.

Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum) are grown for their delicate-tasting, white fleshy stem.

Planting:  Prepare a well-dug, fertile soil in full sun.  Transplants are easier to place than seeds and provide a jump on the growing season when started indoors 50 days before the frost-free date.  Leeks require a long growing season, tupically 105-130 days to maturity, depending on the variety.  When setting the transplants into the garden, trim a few inches from the top of each plants and space plants about 2″ apart in every direction.  This will allow you to harvest the young leeks at a “scallion” stage while thinning to an eventual spacing of 6″ apart.

Scallions actually aren’t a variety of onion, but an early stage in the onion life cycle; these “green onions” are most often the young greens of immature globe onion, harvested when thick as a pencil and at least 6″ tall.  If you want to harvest green onions all summer long, thickly plant onion seed or sets at intervals all spring and thin the young plants as they grow to establish final spacing.

This is just a taste of “the Onion Family” chapter from Growing Your Own Vegetables which also includes growing and harvesting information for bunching onions, garlic chives, globe onions, garlic and elephant garlic, shallots, multiplying and top-setting onions!

Recipes:

Sauteed Spring Lettuce and Peas

Cut the white end of a large leek into fine slices and gently sautee in butter until wilted but not colored.  Add 1 package frozen baby peas (unless you also have fresh peas available) and stir for 5 minutes or until the peas are bright green and thoroughly warmed.  Shred leaf lettuce into fine ribbons, add to the pan and toss just to combine.  Season with fresh ground nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Serve immediately.

Oven-roasted Asparagus and Scallions

Heat oven to 450 and position the top rack 5″ from the broiler element.  Clean, snap and prepare asparagus and cut scallions to an equal length.  Place on a sheet pan and drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, gently rolling the vegetables until they are completely coated.  Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Roast for 8-10 minutes for finger-thick spears (5-7 minutes for thinner spears) or until asparagus is tender and scallions show some nice browning.  Serve at once with lemony egg sauce.

Lemony egg sauce

Whisk 4 egg yolks, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup water together in a small bowl to combine.  Carefully place the bowl over a saucepan of rapidly boiling water and continue to whisk until the mixture is frothy, light and custardy; this will only take a minute or two – do NOT stop whisking.  Remove the bowl from the heat and slowly add 2 tablespoons of melted butter stirring to combine.  Season to taste with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Serve at once or pour into a pre-heated thermos to hold the fragile sauce for up to 1 hour.

(Easter lily photo credit: Wikimedia)

Tagged as: Edibles, Growing Your Own Vegetables