Fresh herbs?

[Donna7]

Hello! We found ourselves inspired to put in a small herb garden, but I realized to my chagrin that I have no idea how to use fresh herbs! I've always used dried. We have basil, thyme, onion chives, rosemary, and flat leaf parsley. If anyone can tell me how to use these, I'd appreciate it!:rolleyes:
Donna

[Mitra]

Thyme and rosemary are usually cooked, so just use them as you would the dried, but use at least twice as much. Parsley, chives and basil are all much better fresh than dried, and don't need to be cooked, though they can be. Chives are generally chopped up small - an easy way to do it is to grab a handful, and use scissors to chop about 1/8 in at a time off the end. Add them to salads, mix with cream cheese or cottage cheese ... whatever you fancy.

Parsley and basil can be left as whole leaves (just pull them off the stalks) and added to salads by the handful, or chopped up and added to dishes. I find that even if I've cooked some in the dish, it's nice to add a bit extra right at the end, both for the colour and because the fresh part of the flavour is sometimes lost in the cooking. Just bruise the leaves slightly with your fingers to find out what they smell like, and eat some to learn the taste, then you can decide for yourself which dishes would benefit from them.

I really miss my herb garden - finding some space for one might be my next project.

[Billie]

I saw a show about a week ago, I can't remember what chanel, but it talked about using fresh springs of rosemary, wrapped in a small damp towel, then put into the microwave for I believe they said one minute. They offered this to their guests to use before dinner.

At our house it's a great idea, because we seem to be washing out hands nonstop thanks to our dog. But offering something kind of fun for guests might be special.

Whole springs of rosemary work well in so many things, lamb and pork for starters and stews and soaps. Our mint will be used mainly for garnish.

[kevinpa]

I saw a show about a week ago, I can't remember what chanel, but it talked about using fresh springs of rosemary, wrapped in a small damp towel, then put into the microwave for I believe they said one minute. They offered this to their guests to use before dinner.

At our house it's a great idea, because we seem to be washing out hands nonstop thanks to our dog. But offering something kind of fun for guests might be special.

That was Ham on the street on the food network billie. He was making microwaved curry chicken while his intern tried to catch a chicken to see who finished first.....lol

Donna, I use parsly, thyme, and chives in my lc breading for baked chicken......that combination is great with chicken.

[Billie]

:D I hope that wasn't the show Kevin, all my credibility is out the window if it was!!! We watch the food network, but can't do Ham on the Streets!

[LisaS]

:D I hope that wasn't the show Kevin, all my credibility is out the window if it was!!! We watch the food network, but can't do Ham on the Streets!

not even "guess the mystery meat on a stick" ?

[Billie]

Ah Lisa or the chocolate thing too, we just flip that one right over now!

[LisaS]

hehe - the gimmicks (turkey bowling, meat-on-a-stick, rice crispies on the back of the taxi) - are pretty silly - but at the end he usually has 1 or 2 normal dishes that look pretty good.

[kevinpa]

hehe - the gimmicks (turkey bowling, meat-on-a-stick, rice crispies on the back of the taxi) - are pretty silly - but at the end he usually has 1 or 2 normal dishes that look pretty good.

yes, I made his microwave eggs Benedict....it was quite tasty :thumbsup:.....not with corn meal though

[Donna7]

not even "guess the mystery meat on a stick" ?

Welllllllll...I don't have TV, but sounds like I am missing out on some really informative cooking shows...

Thanks for the herb advice, all...I can't wait to try them! Does anybody have a good recipe for homemade pesto? I looked through the herb/spice section and didn't see one, but didn't run a search yet.

Thanks again! Donna

[Gaelen]

Donna, I think I put a pesto recipe in there somewhere; if not, I'll get mine uploaded later this weekend, along with some other herb resources. I love my herb garden; the only thing that takes less garden effort for equal reward is my black-eyed susans. ;)

[Donna7]

Thanks, Gaelen! I'm looking forward to your recipes!
Donna

[Gaelen]

Donna, my citrus pesto (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27) recipe is in the Savory Sauces thread in "Appetiizers, Small Bites and Side Dishes." I made it several ways with the various basil harvests last summer--one lemon, one lime, and one orange. I really liked the lime variation the best. Another thing that you can try is to search the "Let's Cook" section by individual herb. I'm still a little under the weather, but I'll try to get to more recipes tomorrow.

[Donna7]

Gaelen...Absolutely no rush at all! My basil is only about 3" high! I did find those recipes...thanks! I hope you're feeling better soon. Are you almost done with chemo? Take care and don't overdo!
Donna

[Gaelen]

Gaelen...Absolutely no rush at all! My basil is only about 3" high! I did find those recipes...thanks! I hope you're feeling better soon. Are you almost done with chemo? Take care and don't overdo!

Well...no chance of over-doing this weekend...:eek:
I am not done with chemo for at least another six weeks, maybe longer. But this regimen is much harder than either of the previous two.

Another thing to take a look at with herbs are some of the 32-page bulletins available from www.storey.com like 15 Herbs to Grow for the Kitchen (http://www.storey.com/bulletins/bull_cat.php/y/14/p/0/z/Gardening/isbn/0-88266-275-9). They're very inexpensive, and if you check the "Bulletins" list, there are herb recipes in the cooking bulletins, as well as all sorts of other garden/kitchen/preserving bulletins. They used to advertise in the back of garden magazines and if you bought 4, you got the fifth bulletin free. At one point, between everyone at work, we must have compiled nearly the whole library. ;) I still have the bulletin for jams, and the one for composting, and the one for tomato recipes.

Here's the full catalog of Storey Bulletins (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?z=y&SID=197598) at www.barnesandnoble.com --no discount for multiple purchases, but they do list used versions. Mine are from 1993-1995, and I still use them all the time.

[Nean]

Best advice from my end is start small, especially if it is not an herb you use frequently. My neighbor lets me pick any rosemary or sage that gets on my side of the chainlink. I thought those meats pictured with a sprig of rosemary were so purty. Obviously I needed smell-o-vision. I used too much and it came out smelling like strong, cheep pinesol. :eek:
[I's also a slow learner - 3 different times it came out too strong. Wasted good meat too. :crybaby: Maybe two to three li'l rosemary leaves is all I need]

[Billie]

Ah Nean my rosemary seems to be flourishing, thanks for the reminder!

[Gaelen]

Rosemary is high voltage herb, alright!

OTOH, YOUNG sprigs are wonderful used whole (just one little 'branch' between four and six inches long with very soft leaves and a very bendable stem) stuffed inside of anything that you roast. As a young sprig, it will infuse the meat with its flavor and aroma, without overwhelming it. For any chicken or whole oily fish (like salmon, tuna or mackerel) take one lemon, cut up; one four to six-inch sprig of rosemary, one to five cloves of garlic and stuff them all inside the cleaned cavity of the poultry or fish. Now you've got the beginnings of a wonderfully simple roast chicken-duck-salmon-tuna. But before eating, or carving, or making the gravy, remove the 'debris' from the inner cavity. ;)

The older sprigs, with stiffer leaves and anything even remotely resembling a woody stem, have their uses, too. They are great in herb bouquets, and if the stems are quite stiff, strip off all the leaves but a couple at the tips, soak them in lemon juice and use them as skewers for shrimp, marinated chicken or pork. You may have to drive a metal skewer through the meat first, then remove it and insert the rosemary twig...but it will gently infuse the kabob as it grills or broils.

It's really important to experiment with what you plant...I am still trying to figure out how to use winter savory. But I've come up with more than a few ways to use sage, thyme, and rosemary as I've gotten more used to the stronger flavores. This year, I'm figuring out that savory--and tarragon, which I've never managaed to grow before.

One thing...add the fresh herb in the last 15 minutes of cooking to have a really full-blown flavor, but add it at the beginning, and add it whole, if you want the flavor moderated by the cooking. While you're experimenting, stick to one herb per dish, so that you can really understand how that herb tastes. Then work on combining it with other herbs. I usually only chop up the leafy stuff--basil, cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, mint, sage, chives. When I use thyme, savory and rosemary, I tend to use the whole sprig (because they're easier to fish out of the pot that way.) I do strip the thyme off the stems and use it without chopping, but I love thyme...and I had to figure that out first by using it as the whole sprig.

Another tip...if you don't have one, pick up a stainless steel mesh tea ball. You can fill it with whole herbs and float it in a pot of soup or stew; then fish out the tea ball after it's infused the broth.

Here's a site that I use for a lot of herb information: Organic Lifestyles (http://organiclifestyles.tamu.edu/herbs/herbcooking.html). They have links to recipes on this page (not all low carb, but lots of ideas) and then at the bottom are links to growing, identifying the varieties, harvesting, etc. It's a really good site.