Alho verde

Stir-fried with fatty pork, this is the classic Hunanese pairing, twice-cooked and sliced thin.

Heat against a mild green allium that carries flavour without the raw bite of a mature bulb.

Salt against a stalk that is savoury-leaning already but still needs seasoning.

Smoke and fat against a tender allium, treated closer to a leek than a garlic clove.

Sliced into a stir-fried egg, it behaves like a gentler spring onion.

Fermented beans against a mild allium stalk, savoury depth from one side only.

Warmth alongside a mild garlic note keeps a simple stir-fry from tasting one-dimensional.

Stir-fried with cubes of tofu, the stalk supplies all the aromatics the curd cannot.

Salt-fish against mild allium, the Italian garlic-and-anchovy move with a gentler garlic.