The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor

INTRODUCTION

FOR AS MANY YEARS AS I’VE BEEN A CHEF, I’ve always been asked the same three questions: Do you cook at home? What do you cook at home? And why aren’t you fat?

Yes, I cook at home—very often. I’m bound to my restaurant stove four nights a week, but on the other three you’ll find me in my Seattle bungalow’s kitchen, and it’s pretty hard to drag me away. I love to fiddle at home, but not fuss. When I cook on my nights off I don’t want to feel like I’m at work, so Monday through Wednesday—my nights at home—I put on a completely different hat than the chef’s toque I wear in my restaurant. I cook food that I crave or that pleases my partner Stephen and my guests, and though we eat very well, the preparations have to be simple. The common thread, whether I’m cooking at home or at The Herbfarm, is fresh herbs. Herbs appear in most every dish I prepare for my nine-course restaurant menus, and they make their way from my backyard garden into much of the food I cook in my home kitchen.

Like most home cooks, I search for fast and easy-to-prepare recipes that taste extraordinary. When I cook with fresh herbs it’s easy to achieve amazing results with little effort. As I experiment at the restaurant, inventing dishes and pondering different ways of incorporating the herbs, I always think about how I can translate the same techniques into no-fuss home recipes. I’ve collected the best of those recipes, added some favorite versions of familiar classics that I’ve enlivened with herbs, like lasagna and stuffed eggs, and organized them according to the occasion, whether a workday supper for the family, a special dinner for two or four, or a feast for a table full of guests. If you’re already accustomed to cooking with fresh herbs, these recipes will inspire you with new ideas. If you’re just discovering them, I know you’ll get hooked when you taste what they can do for your cooking.

As much as teaching how to cook with herbs, I strive to encourage more people to grow them, so I’ve included important tips on the varieties, culture, and characteristics of each herb I coot with. A backyard herb garden, or even a big planter filled with herbs, is an endlessly rewarding project for any avid cook. Instead of spending a couple of dollars each time you buy a few sprigs of questionable freshness, you’ll have a rejuvenating supply with just a small initial investment of time and money. Freshly picked culinary herbs are far more vibrant tasting and you’ll have a much wider selection of varieties, including those you can’t buy as a cut herb in any store. Beyond that, there’s great pleasure in the very act of harvesting the herbs you are going to cook with. Even though you might have only plopped the plants in the ground and watered them, you can’t help but feel the accomplishment of raising these useful and delightful ingredients yourself.

As to why I’m not fat, what if the herbs …?

FROM

THE HERB

GARDEN

TO THE

CUTTING

BOARD

starting an herb garden

IF YOU RANDOMLY CHOOSE A GROUP OF GARDEN PLANTS, they’ll likely have differing needs. Some prefer moist roots in dappled shade, some rich soil in full sun, but luckily most culinary herbs like the same conditions and will grow quite happily with one another in the same plot of earth with little fuss. With a little attention they’ll flourish.

CULINARY HERBS ARE SUN-LOVERS. Put your herb garden or herb planters where they will receive at least 6 hours of direct sun a day. There are a few exceptions, such as chervil and sorrel, which do well in part shade.

BE SURE THE SOIL DRAINS WELL. When you water, it should soak into the soil within a minute or so, rather than standing and pooling at the surface. If you have heavy soil, you’ll either need to dig in lots of organic matter, like compost, or create raised beds.

BEGIN WITH GOOD SOIL. Even though some herbs are native to dry, rocky hillsides, they will grow best in your garden if you provide nutrient-rich soil with good tilth. Compost, readily available at garden centers, is the best thing you can add to your soil, as it improves both its fertility and structure. A 2-inch layer, worked in with a garden fork, will yield a dramatic improvement. Supplement it with an application of a balanced organic fertilizer in the beginning and middle of the growing season.

ONCE ESTABLISHED, some herbs (particularly sage, rosemary, thyme, and lavender) are quite drought tolerant, but all your herbs will be their most productive if you water them regularly and keep them from drying out completely.

PRUNE YOUR HERBS BACK DURING OR SHORTLY AFTER THEY FLOWER. The exceptions are rosemary, bay, and scented geraniums.

UNLESS YOU LIVE IN AN AREA WITH WARM WINTERS, plant your perennial herbs where they get warmth from the sun in the winter and shelter from winds, such as along a south wall. They’ll also appreciate a blanket of winter mulch.

HAVING ALL YOUR HERBS TOGETHER IN ONE PLOT OF EARTH IS CONVENIENT and can be very beautiful, but I also like to tuck and scatter them throughout my small backyard garden. Weave their shapes and leaf textures into mixed plantings for their beauty and their bounty.

two rules for harvesting your herbs

ALWAYS CUT SPRIGS, not individual leaves. Cutting sprigs encourages new growth; removing only the leaves will weaken the plant. The exceptions are bay laurel, sorrel, or chives.

Plants that branch should be cut at the stem above a set of leaves. Plants in the parsley family (Umbelliferae) should be cut at the base of the stem.

storing fresh-cut herbs

IF YOU GROW YOUR OWN HERBS, cut them just before you need them. Once harvested, they lose essential oils, and, therefore, flavor, the longer they wait for you to cook with them. If you cut more than you need, or have freshly cut bunches from a market or friend, pack them (without washing first, so that their leaves are dry) in resealable freezer bags, press the excess air out, and keep them in the vegetable drawer or on a shelf of the refrigerator. I’ve always disagreed with the pervasive advice of standing herb sprigs in a container of water; I find they hold longer and better in the bags. The exceptions are lemon verbena and basil, both of which can blacken from the chill of the refrigerator and do best held in water like cut flowers on a kitchen counter.

separating leaf from stem

FIRST OF ALL, don’t make more work for yourself than you need to; it’s not always crucial to remove every bit of stem from the herbs you cook with. The most important thing is to remove anything twiggy, wiry, or woody, which you wouldn’t want to chew on. Umbelliferae like parsley, chervil, dill, and cilantro have soft stems; just pull out the very thick ones and chop up the sprigs, small stems and all. And if you are adding the herbs to something that will be strained, or if the herbs will be pulled out after they release their flavor, you certainly don’t need to stem them.

To get the job done quickly, hold the sprig at the bottom and strip the leaves off in one motion. If you get to the top and the soft stem breaks, just leave it in. Sometimes it’s easier to strip the leaves in the other direction, in which case hold it an inch or two from the top and pull down.

chopping, slicing, tearing

WHEN CULINARY SCHOOL GRADUATES first start working in my kitchen, they invariably want to chop herbs to dust. Even many home cooks are inclined to finely mince fresh herbs, as if they should look like the tiny flakes from jars of dried herbs. Easy does it! When you over-chop herbs they bruise and loose their identity. Unless you are making a pesto or puree, lean toward a coarser chop. Herbs can better express themselves in a dish if you can recognize them.

Here’s how to interpret the terms I use in this book:

CHOPPED implies that the herbs are cut to a consistency halfway between coarse and fine. Since medium chopped is poor English, I just say chopped. Exactly how much to chop is open to your own interpretation, but an average-sized piece of leaf would be between ⅛ inch and ¼ inch across. Thyme, which has tiny leaves to begin with, would be smaller.

COARSELY CHOPPED means the herbs should be quite identifiable. An average-sized piece would be larger than ¼ inch.

VERY COARSELY CHOPPED means running your knife through the herbs a couple of times. Some of the leaves may be left whole.

FINELY CHOPPED, a phrase I seldom use when it comes to herbs, means chopped until you have a pile of tiny green flakes. Each piece would be about  inch across.

CUT IN STRIPS is the same thing as a chiffonade. Line several leaves up in a pile, all facing in one direction, and fold them in half lengthwise to make a tight bundle. Slice at intervals anywhere between  inch and ¼ inch apart in one direction so that you end up with thin strands or ribbons.

TORN LEAVES are sometimes a better choice than chopped ones in rustic and robust dishes. Basil is often treated this way. Just tear the leaves in large pieces of varied size, averaging about an inch across.

CHOPPING WITH A ROCKING CUT might sound complicated, but this is a very simple technique. If you master it, you’ll be able to chop your herbs in no time.

Choose a sharp knife that has a curve to the edge, like a typical chef’s knife. Make sure that your cutting board is level and stable; put a damp towel underneath it if it slides. Gather the herb leaves into a mound. Grab the handle of the knife and hold the palm of your other hand firmly across the top of the front end of the knife to steady it and use as a pivot. Keeping your pivot hand stationary, lift the handle up and down in a rocking motion over the mound about eight or ten times, rotating the handle away from you a little after each stroke, as if you were cutting eight or ten thin slices from one-quarter of a pie (the center of the pie is your pivot hand). Do it quickly and with determination. Gather the herbs back into a mound using the side of the knife blade and repeat the rocking cut. Continue until the herbs are as fine as you wish. If you’re chopping large leaves, like sage or basil, you can take a shortcut: Begin by gathering the herbs into a tight bunch and slice down the bunch in one direction as if you were cutting strips, then go to the rocking cut.

measuring

EXACT MEASUREMENTS OF FRESH HERBS are difficult to standardize. A quarter cup of coarsely chopped sage leaves that you let fall into a measuring cup will be a fraction of the amount of a quarter cup of tightly packed, finely chopped sage. And herbs vary in strength. Tarragon from your summer garden will be much stronger than the sprigs from the supermarket in winter. But relax; a little more or a little less of an herb will never ruin a dish.

I’ve tested the recipes in this book with herbs from my garden that I consider to have good strength of flavor. All the measurements are for gently packed herbs, which means filling the measuring spoon or cup with whole or chopped leaves, then softly pressing or tapping on them.

It’s implied that all herbs in these recipes are fresh unless dried alternatives are suggested.

HERB

GARDEN

BEGINNINGS

POPCORN CHICKPEAS

RYE-THYME CHEESE STRAWS

JUMP-IN-THE-MOUTHS

SIMPLER SUMMER ROLLS

PROSCIUTTO MELON WITH LIME AND CILANTRO

WARM FIGS FILLED WITH GOAT CHEESE AND BACON

MINTED LENTIL AND GOAT CHEESE STRUDEL

SMOKED TROUT TOASTS

SMOKED SALMON STUFFED EGGS

ROASTED OYSTERS WITH SORREL SAUCE

ROSEMARY MUSSEL SKEWERS

SPICY VERBENA MEATBALLS

TOSS CANNED CHICKPEAS IN A HOT SKILLET with lots of olive oil, then finish them with rosemary and garlic, and they transform into this warm, chewy, and irresistible cocktail munch.

popcorn CHICKPEAS

2 CUPS

One 15-ounce can chickpeas

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped rosemary

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a strainer. Turn them out onto paper towels or a clean dish towel and pat them dry. Pour the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and toss in the chickpeas. Cook them for 5 to 7 minutes, shaking the pan often. They won’t really brown, but they’ll turn several shades darker, shrink a bit, and form a light crust. Pour the chickpeas back into the strainer to drain the excess oil and then return them to the pan. Lower the heat to medium and add the rosemary and garlic. Stir for another minute or two until the garlic begins to brown. Sprinkle with the salt and a few grindings of pepper. Toss again and pour them into a serving bowl. Serve warm.

SALT

I use three kinds of salt in my kitchen:

KOSHER SALT is my all-purpose salt. I used Diamond Crystal brand to test the recipes in this book. If you must substitute table salt or fine sea salt for kosher salt, use one-third less.

FINE SALT is best for baking. I use fine sea salt, but ordinary table salt is fine.

COARSE SEA SALT is best sprinkled on food, especially meats and seafood, at the last minute. Fleur de sel is a wonderful French pure white salt, but there are many other good ones, such as Celtic gray or sel gris.

remember ROSEMARY

Most rosemary plants are upright shrubs growing 4 to 6 feet tall, though some varieties trail and can be used as a ground cover. Even though there are many specific rosemary cultivars, they essentially all taste similar. If I had to choose a favorite it would be Tuscan Blue, which has lush branches, an attractive upright shape, and brilliant blue flowers in early spring.

ROSEMARY WILL NOT SURVIVE THE WINTER outdoors in very