Grow Spring Onions in a Jar

Bring the spring in, I say, bring it in!  We've been experimenting with spring onions 珠蔥 also known as green onions or scallions, trying to find a way to have this essential to Chinese cuisine flavoring unit at hand whenever we need it.  

I don't know if it's just my luck but, really, almost every time I need spring onions, all the stores are out of it!  And if you cook Chinese food, you know as I know that you will always need some spring onion for your dinner dishes, be it a sprinkled garnish, a way to aromatize your oil, or even as the tasty vegetable portion of your stir fry.  

Which is why, here in Hong Kong, I have never understood why it is so hard to buy spring onion after a certain time of the day.  A shake of the head, a shrug of the shoulders...sorry, no spring onions.  Urghh...how devastating to that delectable dish that you have in mind for dinner!  

Recently we have discovered a way to easily insure ourselves against the abyss that is the lack of spring onion:  we have been growing our own spring onions in a jar!

Pickled Mackerel - Fish in a Jar

In Hong Kong people don't like the mackerel. "Ah ya, too oily!" I overhear the ladies at the wet market cackle noisily amongst themselves. So whenever fresh mackerel appear they linger long atop the wet market's makeshift styrofoam tables even though they are priced dirt cheap. Shining fresh fish rows, glittering their silver gray stripes under hanging bare bulbs.