RECIPE FOR CHINESE CHIVE FLOWER FLATBREAD
My family and I have been in Beijing for the past few weeks. This always means a lot of food and at a great price!
We always return to locations, but our local wet market had something fresh for us to discover on this trip.
You can’t go wrong with chives!
It’d be nice to have a flatbread for lunch, as well… To be continued!
If you plant Chinese chives (or normal chives) in the spring, you’ll be able to enjoy them throughout the spring and summer. Pick the blossoms before they set seed to prevent them from spreading throughout the garden (and prepare this delicious flatbread while you’re at it!).
In the end, he reasoned that because they were being sold by an older woman in big piles, they must be good. As a result, we bought an absurdly large number and brought them back to the farm.
The salad was the first thing my father suggested. I’m not a fan of eating petals at first blush (who is?). But we could sprinkle some on some spring mix to spice it up a little bit…
Except when I tried the raw blossoms, they were too much for me. It’s similar to a concentrated extract of onion. The grass is also included. All of this can be found in the nibbling of a single small flower. Strong as ever.
But then we had a lightbulb moment. Isn’t baking or frying everything better than cooking?
Right.
Always.
Using chive flowers and scallions, we first made an onion flatbread with frizzled chive flowers (and then we made chive flower tempura, which was AMAZING). It’s important to soak the scallions and flowers in olive oil before placing them in a hot oven, which causes them to get frizzled and fried.
The caramelized onion flavor is still present, but the chive flowers’ flavor has mellowed and become sweeter. As only scallions can, the red onions crisp up beautifully in the olive oil, and the scallions add a zingy, complementing note to the dish that is all their own.
As long as you’ve got the flowers on hand (and already know how to make our flawless pizza dough), this flatbread recipe is straightforward and delicious. To amaze your culinary guests, serve it as an appetizer with beverages, an afternoon snack (with a substantial crunch), or a salad for a delicious lunch or dinner.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 recipe pizza dough
- 1 pc. of large red onion (thinly sliced)
- 2 cups of chive flowers (washed and trimmed of any debris)
- 1 bunch of scallions (cut into 2-inch long pieces if you have thin, tender ones)
- extra virgin olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper and salt
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes after dough is done rising. Make sure your pizza stone or cookie sheet is in the oven before you begin cooking!
- Pull out a chunk of dough and knead it as you mean it. It doesn’t matter what shape it is; a square, circle, oval, or rectangle will all work. For easy removal from the board, use a lot of flour on the surface.
- Apply a thin layer of olive oil to the dough. There’s no need to take any measurements: people’s eyeballs, eyeballs, people.
- Onion rings and scallions should be spread out equally, followed by the chive flowers. You need a lot of flowers in a huge bouquet for the most intense flavor. A little more olive oil, a little more pepper, and a small amount of coarse salt are all needed to finish the dish—Bake for 10 to 13 minutes.
- An extra sprinkle of coarse salt is a must when fresh from the oven, as with all crispy treats. Get it on the table as soon as possible by cutting it into pieces! Simply cluster around the cutting board like starving Neanderthals, as we do.