(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!)
After a long hiatus from cooking due to my hectic life and schedules, I am back with a healthy, vitamin C-loaded dish. Everyone needs greens and I thought I would share this very special vegetable with you–chive buds.
I love chive buds; they’ve got taste, texture, fiber, and those delicate little buds that are pretty and edible. Chive buds also impart a tint of garlicky and oniony flavors once they are cooked, so I always add multiple ingredients to my stir-fried chive buds…
For this recipe, I used some straw mushrooms, scallops, and shrimps. Toss in some oyster sauce, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine and you will have a restaurant quality stir-fried dish. Really.
Can you smell the aroma coming out of my picture?
Recipe: Stir-fried Chive Buds
Ingredients:
1/2 lb chive buds
10 straw mushrooms (cut into half)
5 shrimp (peeled and deveined)
5 scallops (slice each scallop horizontally into 3 pieces of equal size)
1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine/rice wine
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 dashes white pepper powder
3 tablespoons water and 1/2 teaspoon corn starch (mixed)
3 tablespoons oil
5 slices peeled fresh ginger
Mix the corn starch with water, set aside. Heat up a wok and add in the oil. Add in the sliced ginger and stir well until you smell the gingery aroma. Add in the shrimp, scallops, and straw mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute. Add in the chive buds and continue to stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add in the seasoning (oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, sesame, wine) and the corn starch water. Do a quick stir for 30 seconds, dish up and serve hot with steamed white rice.
Cook’s note:
- Do not overcook the chive buds. They should remain a bit crunchy.
Get new recipes via RSS and reader or subscribe via email
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
lurve the crunchiness of these chives. usually fried with tau kwa
Reply
Ben voyons…looks astonishing, the last picture with the small white tiny smoke! Perfect! I will not do that since it is just impossible to find these chives…too bad !
Cheers
Claude
Reply
I have this recipe too but the simple no-frills version. If skin of stalk is peeled correctly, the stalk is very sweet indeed. Isn’t this the same as leek flower??
Reply
Rasa, from where can I find chive buds?
Reply
yes i can smell it! yummmmmmm :) i’ve never seen chive buds at the market, i’ll keep my eyes peeled. Beuatiful pics!
Reply
Delicious! What beautiful and mouthwatering photos! I’m saving this recipe, I love chive buds.
Reply
Delicious looking. SO fresh! I have never tried to cook these this way, great idea!
Reply
I haven’t had chive buds in a long time. Was this inspired by your recent trip to Beijing?
Reply
Wonderful recipe, and great timing — I have chive buds in my herb garden!
Reply
That looks really simple and refreshing. I really don’t know what these buds looking veggies are called but thanks to you I know now. I keep seeing them in the markets but never tried them before.
Hmm will try them soonish :)
Reply
RM- love that last pic! No chive buds here in my markets :-(
Reply
Babe - yes, with tau kua is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Claude - No? It’s OK, you can use some other vegetables and create the same tiny smoke. ;)
Pablo - I think they are also called leek flowers, but I am not good with names. :P
Marvin - I got mine from Ranch 99. It’s seasonal I believe because I don’t see them often, but when they are available, I always buy them.
Aria - Thanks. Yes, please be on the look out for them. ;)
Amy - thank you!
Bea - thanks. How do you usually cook your chive buds? I wonder if I could make them into a soup…I think the garlicky and oniony flavors might work well with heavy cream, LOL. I really don’t know. ;)
Nate 2.0 - no, they are not Beijing-inspired. I have always loved chive buds…been cooking them since I got here to the US about 10 years ago. Hehe.
Lydia - WOW, you have your chive buds that you could just “pluck” from your herb garden? I am so green with envy, how convenient. I want I want, hehe.
Expedited Writer - yeah, you should and I hope you will like them as much as I do. :)
Steamy - me too. It’s hard to cook something with aroma like that, I was busy snapping away when I saw that tiny little smoke coming out of the heap of chive buds. Amazing!
Reply
Stumbled upon ur blog n I’m just amazed by the pictures-did youreally take them urself??What kind of camera and any tips on taking pics of food? Ur pics are simple, colorful and just awesome!
Reply
Those raw vege in your pic do look quite alive - snaking some peeks.
Reply
Ohh so this is chives. I like this but have no idea what it’s called. (…even in any other language)
Reply
Wow! What a mouth-watering dish!
I like lots of chives with my char kuih teow.
For a quick simple dish, taugeh stir-fried with chives is ok for me but it would be better with a taukwa and a sprinkling of salt fish.
Reply
Your chives look so beauty and so lifely like they are flying out of the picture. My compliment to you. Do drop by our new site bigboysoven.blogspot.com. We will be launching 1stJune2007. Hope to see you there. Well done mate!!!
Reply
Oh, look at that smoke…now I can even see the “aroma” :D
There are green and white chive buds, right? I remember green buds are usually used to make kuih and the white ones usually to fry prawns and even with noodles.
Even I ate a lot (delish!) last night, I still can eat this ;p
Reply
Such a lovely post! I like chives especially in lamb salad - stirfry chives (with buds) in the same pan used to sear lamb meat. Serve with the pan seared and slice lamb (well marinated with Maggi seasoning and chopped garlic), roasted beet root slices, chopped roasted walnuts and crumbled feta. Drizzle with dressing of balsamic vinegar/olive oil/garlic/Dijon mustard and a bit of honey.
Reply
Hi RM! What a coincidence,- I just got a bunch of these today from our local chinese gourmet store. I cook them the way you do too. They are called ‘Kau Choy Far’ in Cantonese. Translated in English literally, it’s called ‘Dog flower vegetable’! Funny isn’t it?
Reply
I do, I do :). I love chives but have never had chive buds. Pics and dish looks superb.
Reply
can can, can smell ! ( but dunno the names and meaning also )
Reply
Can substitute the Shaoxing wine/rice wine with something else or not? OR can I do without the wine at all?
Reply
Terri - Welcome to Rasa Malaysia. Yes, I took all the pictures myself. When I first started, I used a Canon SD450 Point-and-shoot and it did a great job taking food pictures. Recently, I upgraded to a digital SLR (Canon EOS Rebel XT). I think it’s important to take pictures with as much natural lights as possible, and I use paper cardboards as the backdrop, white serving plates/bowls to draw out the color of the foods. Last but not least, a little post processing does wonders. :)
Tummy - you are right…they were snaking around…LOL.
Teckiee - Never mind the name, as long as you know how to pick them out from others. Hehe.
Bayi - you are a pro. Tau Kua and salted fish…perfect combo for this veggie. :)
Big Boys Oven - welcome and thanks for your note. I checked out your site…hope to read more soon.
Tiga - I don’t know about green and white chives…in the US, I only see the green kinds. LOL!
Diary of KL - Wow, the dish is described sounds fantastic, very 5-star restaurant kind, I will have no idea how to make it. :P
For the love of food - LOL, dog vegetable flower, that’s too funny. But you are absolutely right, it’s called “kau choy far” in Cantonese.
Cynthia - thanks. :)
BSG - Smell good leh? Don’t know name or meaning is OK, as long as smelling good. ;)
Anonymous - It’s OK if you don’t have shaoxing or rice wine. You can do without it, but adding cooking wine jazz up the taste. :)
Reply
so simple..yet to elegant when plated..definitely deserves the nomination
Reply
thanx 4 ur tips on food photography; really nice of u to share. carry on with ur wonderful pics and recipes!
Reply
Iv never had stir-fried chive buds before but il surely try your stir-fried chive buds recipe.
Reply