Allium tuberosum (Jiu cai or Chinese garlic chives)

In celebration of Chinese New Year, today we had my hands-down favorite Chinese vegetable: Allium tuberosum, known in English as 'garlic chives' and in Chinese as 'jiu cai.'

I still vividly remember the first time I have jiu cai. When I was studying abroad in Nanjing in 1998, my Chinese teacher took me and another student out lunch for jiao-zi – Chinese boiled dumplings. I had maybe been in the country for 10 days and the long list of dumpling fillings baffled me. But I quickly learn the characters for jiu cai. I think Tyson and I ate 7 plates of jiu cai dumplings that day.

The English name – 'garlic chive' – is apt. Like chives and onions, jiu cai is a member of the Allium genus. The plant is grown and harvested like chives. And it had a rich, full flavor that somewhat resembles garlic. Like garlic, it also has a persistent aftertaste that hangs with you for a while.

I consider that a virtue.

I've had good luck finding jiu cai in Chinese and Korean grocers. The jiu cai I got at Hong Kong Market here in Portland comes from specialty grower in Massachusetts. Jiu cai shows up in a number of Chinese dishes, but it mostly closely associated with dumplings.

Chinese dumplings are typically made with ground pork. For the recipe below, I prepared a 'vegetarian' version with egg. Half of the fun of dumplings is filling them. We had a Chinese New Year party: filling dumpling together as a family. There's really no wrong way to fill them – so long as you don't put in too much filling.

The kids had a blast filling and decorating their own dumplings – although Ezra, my carbo-holic – didn't care for the jiu cai. And I pretty sure he filled at least one dumpling with plain white rice...

Veggie Jiu Cai Dumplings

4 cups jiu cai, chopped

4 eggs

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

sesame oil

salt

50 dumpling wrappers

a bowl of water water

1. Finely chop the jiu cai and set aside.

2. Liberally line the bottom of a frying pan with sesame oil over a medium heat. Whisk the eggs and add to the warm pan with the chopped garlic.

3. After 30 seconds or so, add the chopped jiu cai. Turn once, and remove from heat. The eggs should be cooked, but still moist. Sprinkle with salt to taste.

4. Hold a dumpling wrapper in one hand. With the other hand, spoon in a small amount of dumpling filling into the center of the wrapper.

5. Dip your fingers in the water and paint a circle around the edge of the dumpling wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and pinch it shut. It doesn't have to look pretty, but it does have to be sealed.

6. Set aside filled dumplings on a plate until you have 10 or 20 dumplings.

7. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, add the filled dumplings and boil for 3 to 5 minutes.

I tend to put the dumplings in a strainer and lower the strainer into the hot water as this makes it easier to fish them out later. It's also important to stir the dumplings once they are in the water so that they don't stick together.

8. Serve hot with a bowl of vinegar to dip them in. If I don't have Chinese dark vinegar, I use one part balsamic and one part water with a little bit of sesame oil.

Note: You can make your own wrappers. But rolling them out is a pain in the neck. For my money, the premade dumpling wrappers at most Chinese grocers are a bargain at $1.25 for 50.