Monday, June 25, 2018

To those of you who found your way here due to us meeting in Lyndhurst June 25, 2018




                 Which Herb  that starts with an "L'... we shared it on Mon. evening

l’m glad to see you again! You were a good group; fun to work with


I am posting links to other parts of this blog, as well as some outside links, 
that concerned what we talked about on June 25th.
Flip through them, you will pick up nuances we didnot quite manage to cover.

Go through the rest of the blog, if you wish---you never know when something
becomes a good idea for you! There is also a FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/urbanherbanhttps://www.facebook.com/urbanherban

Just a few: 

Broad look at families of herbs This wwill help you sort them out.m These families cover most of what we use.


Specific herbs: three wth ore ideas:


Lovage
Lavender
Lemon verbena

And the recipe:
Persian Salad


And, last, the 1946s Dept of Agricultureguide to cooking with herbs.

Bon appetit, enjoy the summer garden!

-Pat

Tips for Cooking with Herbs 
  
Given today’s budget crunch (winter time fresh herbs cost about $3.00 for a small amount), it is wise to use ALL of the plant; leaves in salads, sauces, stems in slow cooking, flowers in salads, plant as whole vegetable. Cook them at their best.

--Use with a light hand—the aromatic oils are strong.
--Blend judiciously for different purposes. Have a leading flavor and combine two to four less pronounced flavors with it.
---Never emphasize more than one of the very strong herbs in a blend.
---Blend or heat with butter, margarine, or other cooking fats, as the best way to draw out


and extend the flavor of the aromatic oils.
---Fresh (unsalted) "sweet" butter gives more satisfactory results than salted butter or mar-garine.
---Have salad oil tepid, not chilled, when using herbs in French salad dressing.
--Cut or chop the leaves of fresh herbs very fine.


For some purposes they should be ground in a mortar.
---The more of the cut surface is exposed, the more completely the aromatic oil can be ab-sorbed.
---Keep in mind that dried herbs are three or four times stronger than
 fresh herbs.
--The delicate aroma and flavor of savory herbs may easily be lost by extended
cooking.
(Excerpted from Savory Herbs: Culture & Use, Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1977, 1946,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/SavoryHerbs/SavoryHerbs. html