Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard - Cooking with Green Garlic and Chrysanthemum

I've been growing edible chrysanthemum greens in the past two years, I plant them for spring and fall harvest.  The fall crop is used for hotpot and dumplings, the spring crop is used to make cold side dishes. I also planted some garlic in early spring for the purpose of harvesting baby garlic, it's a special treat while waiting for the summer crops to come in.

Here are three sample dishes I made from our garden harvests:

Chrysanthemum greens with baked tofu side dish -- blanch the greens for about half a minute in boiling water, drain, and press out excess liquid, coarsely cut the greens.  In a large bowl combine chrysanthemum and baked tofu (finely chopped) together, season the vegetable with some sea salt, toasted sesame oil, and a pinch of sugar, add couple drops of rice vinegar if you like, then toss everything together, and garnish with minced red pepper.

Grilled baby green garlic -- brush garlic with olive oil and grill for about a minute or two, they cook really fast, watch it closely so they don't dry up.  The dip is quite simple, I use Korean seasoned bean paste (comes in a green plastic container), add few drops of sesame oil, pinch of sugar, and some minced ginger, that was it!

This is green garlic stir fry with Chinese sausage, stir frying with beef or pork is another popular Chinese dish when the vegetable is in season.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard is hosted by The Gardener of Eden, drop by Robin's place to see more cooking ideas from home garden harvests around the globe.