A cold snap did it’s damage here last week. Chives, my go-to herb for so many things, has gone-to mush. I did try some of the chive cubes I had frozen when it was plentiful, in a sauce last week, and was pleased with the flavor. I salvaged a handful of peppers today, but will get no more. The final peppers (sweet and hot) went into a red bean and hominy dish, along with some tarragon, that probably won’t last much longer.

Still holding up to the cold are the thyme plants, marjoram, oregano, rosemary and some tired looking sage. For tonight’s baked cod fillets, I was thinking lemon thyme and rosemary, but when I tried picking and chewing a bit of each together while setting my mental taste buds for fish, it just didn’t work. Parsley with the thyme (processed with some excess crackers and a dash of Old Bay Seasoning for a fillet coating) worked nicely. The outside parsley is shot, but I was able to rob a modest amount from the first growth of the herbs under lights indoors. It makes sense to make the most of the outside herbs while they last, but there is no point in a flavor mis-match. It’s encouraging to think my indoor herb planter will provide a touch of fresh through the winter, and for winter stews and the like, dried herbs will be just fine.

It’s a cold, rainy day here, prompting the first fire of the season. The smell of wood smoke is comforting, and leads a menu planner to thoughts of comfort food. I’m thinking the boneless chicken thighs I’ve got defrosting could be cut into bite sized pieces, and would be happy to share a sauté pan with some sweet onions, garlic and herbs.
A lot of herbs are pretty tough and are still going strong here in zone 6, although tender leaves like basil are not an option today. We’ll try a mince of parsley, rosemary and lemon thyme and see where that takes us, with salt and pepper as indicated if I need more punch.

I’ve still got chives, which are a must for the canned new potatoes my wife still prefers over anything I can grow. Go figure. I picked what is likely to be the last of the New Zealand spinach, which will stand alone briefly cooked in a bit of olive oil, and there’s a chunk of cabbage I need to use up in the fridge, which should pair nicely with marjoram. My stevia is almost gone, but the handful I picked today should sweeten some acorn squash. That’s about as close to a meal plan as I ever get, the details will come out in the final cooking.

Now that we’re well into autumn, both vegetable and herb gardens are responding to the shorter days and cooler weather. We’ve had a couple light frosts here, and some plants have died or turned to mush. So the great experiment has begun, to see what herbs we can grow indoors over the winter. I’ve potted sections of perennials cut from the parent plants (oregano, marjoram, thyme and chives), and started parsley, basil and cilantro from seed (as well as potting a few volunteer cilantro plants from outdoors). What natural light they’ll get through a decent expanse of glass, will be supplemented with grow lights.

Meanwhile, we’d better make the best of the outside herb garden while it lasts. Tonight’s stuffed pepper filling (ground turkey, onions, wild rice) has been seasoned with parsley and oregano, and just a bit of sage. But the predominant flavor will be horseradish from a jar, which I’ve never grown. Maybe I’ll try it someday, but for now, the indoor herb stand is enough of a stretch.

In keeping with my avowed menu planning approach, I started the morning anticipating what the day’s harvest would bring in. A vegetable mélange of okra, beans, baby squash and peppers (some sweet bananas and some habaneras) suggests itself, herbed with chives and cilantro. New Zealand Spinach, sautéed with garlic, thyme and a splash of red wine might be good. The latest batch of pesto can dress up whatever fish is in the freezer, and some sliced tomatoes and cukes on the side will round out a light repast.

Well, not so light, since we ate that entire pot of mixed veggies. The ingredients change with the day’s harvest, but the technique is usually a hit. After coating the bottom with a bit of olive oil, the vegetables are layered down as they come off the cutting board, with the densest on the bottom. In this case, it was beans, then okra, squash, peppers, herbs and garlic. This can be done well in advance of mealtime, letting the covered pot just sit until about a half hour before. Then it goes on at medium high, with maybe a shake or two, until you hear the vegetables sizzling. I uncover and instead of salt, sprinkle on some soy sauce, give it a stir and recover the pot, turning it down to low until you are ready to eat. Pretty foolproof, and good with almost any combination of just picked vegetables and herbs.

Basil is near the top in the pantheon of culinary herbs, and pesto is one of the most classic preparations for basil that I know of, and one that I love. In theory, you can make pesto with most any herb, and I’ve tried variations over the years, but always come back to basil pesto, especially with pasta. Since we’re talking about classics, I like the basic recipe in Joy of Cooking, although use a food processor rather than mortar and pestle. Adding your thin stream of olive oil while the processor is running, really incorporates it into the pesto, and lets you easily assess your desired texture.

Then there is the school of thought that says a classic dish is just a framework to build your own dish around. My only variation tonight, is to combine sweet basil, Thai basil and cinnamon basil, since I didn’t really have enough of the sweet alone for the size batch I had in mind. The three basil pesto was a hit at dinner, although truthfully, any difference from my usual pesto may have been more imagined than tasted.

Dressings and marinates with little or no cooking, often benefit from fresh over dried herbs. Looking for something different to do with the yellow squash and peppers in the harvest basket, I ran across some fresh vegetable relishes from my grandmother, while browsing though our little metal box of favorite recipes on index cards. The extended family on both sides while I was growing up included some great cooks, and sharing recipes on index cards (like Momma’s distinctive ones) was sharing the love. My mother was raised on a farm, and her mother, Momma, could and did feed the masses, largely with food they grew and raised, and cooked in a distinctly delicious country style.

Along with the produce she picked that day from her sizable garden, her succulent meats and all the fixings, she would set out a jar of vegetables she had pickled, or a relish of corn, or cukes or tomatoes. I’m going to take the theme from three of her recipe cards and see if I can apply it to some cubed yellow squash, sweet and hot peppers and some onion. And I’ll have to add in a bunch of herbs, to put my stamp on it.

I blanched the vegetables in some sweetened vinegar and water while picking an assortment of herbs. The chopped mixture of thyme, marjoram, chives, rosemary and sage were added and stirred in before straining off the liquid for reduction. While the vinegar liquid reduced (added salt and pepper, mustard seeds to it) the cubed veggies cooled. Then that was cooled, reunited with the squash et al and put in a jar to flavor meld and chill for an interesting side dish. The result is totally different from her’s, but has her feel to it, and it absolutely does evoke the emotions of those delightful family feasts at the farm.

Perennial herbs are often one of the first offerings of spring, which may have influenced me to choose the title I did when starting this blog in April. Now that the main season garden is producing, I sometimes think it should have been “Cooking with what you grow Guy” or a similar sentiment.

My wife says the hardest part about cooking for her, is planning the menu. In winter or for a special effort, I may agree with that. But right now, for routine feeding your family a good meal, before you plan, you harvest. Once you see the produce in your basket, and which herbs are looking good, the bulk of the planning is done. Just pick a cooking method, and go to town.

Tonight, a cheesy casserole for the yellow squash, steamed zuchinni and mushrooms (both with sweet basil), parsley in the green beans, chives in the smashed potatoes and the chicken breasts will get nuked lying on sprigs of thyme. And it goes without saying, for as long as they last, sliced tomatoes on the table.

Marinades and herbs are made for each other. They are both all about infusing flavor into food. And it can’t be a coincidence that the garden season and grilling season overlap. Fresh vegetables, enhanced with an herb marinade, and cooked on the grill are a summer delight.

For tonight’s kabob’s, the garden is providing cherry tomatoes, yellow squash and sweet peppers, with mushrooms and Vidalia onions we got at the store. Shrimp and scallops sound like and nice kabob addition, but will grill quickly, so they’ll get skewered with the cherry toms and added to the grill after the squash et al is almost done. They can all share a marinade of oregano, marjoram, thyme and just a bit of rosemary in a balsamic vinaigrette base. The seafood will get tossed with some Old Bay seasoning before its marinade bath.

Herb rice is always a nice companion to kabobs, so we’ll simmer that with a big load of chives and some flavorful stock. Gotta love the summertime.

Each sage of the garden is a joy and a frustration, some heavier on the joy (ie spring) and some on the frustration (that would be winter). Summer is a working season (at least in zone 6) , with harvesting required almost daily for a mid-sized garden, or you will loose a lot of stuff. I guess if you don’t grow zucchini and summer squash you have a little more leeway. Anyway, the garden can be demanding or venting, depending on your frame of mind.

So now I’ve got to repair the damage of one week of not watering my herbs. I found a few pretty pathetic looking basil plants at my local nursery, which after thinning from thirty plants in an inch of soil to two, and watering the heck out of, are looking pretty good in my planters. Basil is something I can’t have too much of.

T’he Herb Guy has been gardening for almost thirty years, but has only recently been paying so much attention to the herbs. That’s due to the cook in me. The more I care about how food tastes, the more I appreciate the subtlety that fresh herbs add to a dish. I’ve not bothered before with continuing the season with herbs under lights, but I look forward to trying that this year, and in the mean time, I’m going to go pick some fresh herbs

Our bounty of herbs is slimmer now, with the summer heat leaving some plants behind. It doesn’t help that I forgot to get someone to water them for me while we were on vacation. Most of the perennials are still producing, but I guess it’s time to try replanting some of the annuals.

The good news is, the summer garden is moving into it’s stride, so there are lots of fresh veggies to dress up with our surviving herbs. Chopped fresh tomatoes mixed with basil, oregano and parsley are ready to join some sautéed onions, garlic and peppers for a last minute heating before providing a sauce for bowtie pasta. My harvest of green beans got some fresh dill, and the pork and potato dish got chives mixed with hoisen sauce. I do love the garden season.

The fun thing about cooking with herbs, is that once you get a sense for what goes with what, you can do pretty much whatever you want to. Start with a favorite recipe, see what herbs are looking and smelling good today, and take your standard recipe to a new level. Tonight I’m going to recycle a family favorite that starts with cooked chicken and softened cream cheese, mixed with (fill in your herbs and seasonings of choice) and then surrounding that filling with purchased crescent roll dough, which is then rolled in dry bread crumbs (mixed with more herbs de jour) and baked. The possibilities are endless, and as long as you don’t use an excess of overpowering herbs, the result will be delectable but not predictable.

In our climate zone, it doesn’t get much better than this, with the garden coming in, lush herbs, and only a foretaste of the bugs and swelter that comes with full summer. While enjoying the here and now, it’s not a bad idea to prep for the cold, gardenless months to come. Even though I’ve claimed the august title of “Herb Guy”, I don’t claim to be an expert, and I’m still learning, as I try different growing and preserving techniques with my herbs. I’ve always reached for dried herbs to enhance my winter stews, but this year I’ve going to freeze some of my excess produce. Most of what I’ve read calls for spreading the herbs on a cookie sheet to freeze them, but I’m partial to the ice cube tray method, in which the chopped herbs are packed into ice cube trays and frozen to yield nice little cubes of flavor.

Freezing should lock in the herb flavor, but does destroy the texture of the leaf. This is not a problem for a long-simmered stew or sauce, but may be an issue with, say, an herb omelet. So I’m going to experiment this year with blanching, dumping the chopped herbs into a big pot of boiling water, and then straining them almost immediately. Since (as mentioned in a previous entry) I have a virtually unlimited supply of chives, I’m freezing a batch of raw chives and one of the blanched herb. I’ll let you know this winter if there is any discernable difference between the two versions.

Almost everyone loves pasta, and the fresh herb season brings a whole new dimension to pasta sauces. This is a serious win win situation. Just cook a quantity of your favorite pasta and chop up a pile of your herbs of choice. Depending on mood and your judgment of what would tickle the taste buds of the folks you are feeding, there are several directions in which you can turn. Purists may prefer to just toss the hot pasta with olive oil and herbs, and maybe parmesan cheese. Or cook a sauce, incorporating the flavors of meat, tomato or stock, quick cooked or long simmered, and don’t forget the garlic.

For tonight’s farfalle, I started by browning and draining the fat from some Italian sausage. Next a couple chopped onions and garlic joined the sausage until tender, and them some slivers of sweet and hot peppers (first harvest from this year’s garden). For the herbs, I picked and chopped a huge pile of oregano, basil, curly leaf parsley and chives, and some stevia since I like a sweet touch to the sauce sometimes. No tomatoes from my garden yet, so I added a large can of chopped tomatoes and some V-8 juice. Whoops, too watery now, so a little dissolved corn starch to thicken as desired. Season to taste, and enjoy.

Oregano seems to have an affinity for ground beef, and is used in a lot of Mexican cooking, so it’s a natural addition to taco meat. And of course, some finely chopped chives. These are not to take the place of your usual taco seasoning, but a fresh herb addition. It’s become part of my cooking routine, to look at every dish with an eye towards what herbs might add a bit of fresh flavor.

The growing season is a joy primarily because of the immediate connection between the plants you pick and the food you eat. Freezing, canning or drying your excess vegetables and herbs carries with it some of that pleasure of having grown it yourself, but with a slight remove, and certainly with a loss of the fresh factor. You just can’t beat going right from the picking to the pot.

Lemon thyme lends a nice flavor to pork, among other favorites. A marinade of your herbs with oil and vinegar (olive oil and balsamic vinegar on pork loins tonight) can be left on the meat as it cooks. When I first started growing herbs, I avoided thyme because the tiny leaves were a pain to pick. Then I saw a TV chef working with herbs, and realized how much easier it is to pick the whole stem of thyme and strip the leaves down the length of the stem between thumb and finger. This is now my preferred technique for any of the herbs that grow as leaves along a stem, such as oregano, marjoram, lemon balm and rosemary. And it has the added benefit of giving you fragrant fingertips. For those stems of thyme and the like that branch extensively, making them less amenable to the fingertip strip, I use in the water for steaming vegetables or just lay the whole stem on top of the cooking food and discard it before serving.

One underutilized technique for cooking with fresh herbs is a rub. Most fans of grilling and barbecue know about dry rubs, in which a mixture of dried herbs and spices are sprinkled onto your meat, fish or poultry and gently rubbed into the surface with your fingertips. I don’t know if it’s still technically a dry rub, when you are using fresh, moist herbs, but it sure works great.

A fairly fine chop helps to prevent your herbs from flaking off the meat. There are plenty of kitchen gadgets for mincing herbs, or you can use a food processor, but if you are comfortable with knives, you can get a pretty fine mince without the gadget cleanup. I’ll clump my fresh herb mix into a compact bunch on the cutting board with one hand and chop along as I feed the compressed pile to the blade. After the initial chop, a rock (holding one end of your large knife or cleaver stationary on the board and rapidly chopping along with the other) or a roll (one hand on each end of the blade alternating pressure as the curve of the blade meets the board) will soon yield a lovely mince of herbs.

For tonight’s boneless chicken thighs, I’m thinking thyme, oregano, rosemary and tarragon, with maybe just a bit of dill. After incorporating the rub into every nook and cranny of the meat (also works with some vegetables) you can grill, roast, bake or even microwave until tinder. If using a larger cut that will require prolonged dry heat, a generous coating of olive oil before applying the rub will help keep your food from drying out. A fresh herb rub is pretty much foolproof, allows endless variations in your mix of herbs, and lets you play with your food before you cook it.

When is a weed not a weed? When it’s an herb. Presumably, most of the herbs we prize so highly were at one point, gathered by savvy cooks from the woodlands and meadows of yore, growing wild. Some of our culinary herbs (like basil) are pretty demanding in their requirements for sun and soil, and many a time my tendency to rush the season has resulted in a late frost wiping out my initial basil planting. Other, equally delightful herbs, are anything but picky, and literally grow like weeds.

Some wise gardener once said, that a weed is any plant growing where you didn’t intend for it to grow. Several years ago, I finally tackled the overdue project of getting rid of the creosote coated landscaping timbers that the gardener who owned this house before us had used to construct their raised beds. After laboriously tearing up and hauling away the offensive timbers, I intensively rototilled the garden patch (after incorporating a truckload of manure, a gift from the stable of a friend of my wife’s). At the time, my herb garden was part of the main garden patch. I did such a great job rototilling, that some little particle of chives and of lemon balm root was spread to every square inch of garden soil. Ever since then, chives and lemon balm have been my biggest weed nemesis.

After years of diligent weeding, I have mostly eradicated my favorite herb (chives) and it’s buddy lemon balm from my current raised beds. My herb garden is now mostly in assorted planters on the deck, so adding some flavor to a dish is only steps away from the kitchen. However, I use such quantities of chives, that I’ve let it run wild in a couple of the paths between my beds It doesn’t mind being stepped on, and provides an endless supply of chivey goodness. Speaking of which, I’ll go hack a few handfuls for tonight’s meatloaf.

It truly is a joy, to have a patch of good soil to tend, be it acres or a few square feet in a planter. To start the day inspecting your herbs and vegetables, thinking “what can I cook tonight that will highlight these flavors?” is the surest way I know to drain away the stress of modern life. There are wonderful cooks who have never dirtied their hands in the garden, and probably a lesser number of gardeners who can’t cook. But to my mind, the herbs and veggies I harvest are a lovely resource just waiting for a creative touch, and cooking your own produce is the best of both worlds.

I consider both cooking and gardening as play rather than work. That allows the freedom to try something experimental without worrying too much about the risk. Certainly my goal is a dish that my family and I will enjoy eating. Some results are mildly disappointing, and I’ve have a few creations that were uneatable, but with experience the winners seem to outweigh the losers. You already know what you like, and develop a feel for your family and friend’s tastes over time. Smell your herbs, admire the bounty of nature, and let the images of food enjoyed in the past drift by.

Pinching the flower heads off some cilantro this morning leads to pungent fingertips that I usually associate with Mexican food. I think I’ve got some corn tortillas left over in the fridge and certainly chicken breasts in the freezer. So what would be fun to layer in a casserole? I’ve got onions and peppers, and shredded cheese. Need tomatoes ideally, and mine haven’t started producing yet, but I have no problem with canned tomatoes. Using ingredients that you haven’t grown yourself is a given, unless you’re a lot more hard-core than I am. I’ll want some additional herbs to back up the cilantro, maybe chives and oregano mixed into the tomato layer, a little sage with the chicken, we’ll see what strikes the fancy when it’s time to assemble the dish.

Welcome!

If you love to cook, you already use herbs; how could you make a tomato pasta sauce without basil and oregano, or how could you roast a chicken without marjoram or thyme? We all have our rack of dried herbs and spices for which we reach daily, but how much better does our food taste when we add fresh herbs to a dish? Dried herbs are great, especially if you dry them yourself or freeze your excess herb harvest for those cold winter months, but fresh herbs are transcendent. Herbs are often the first thing to poke up in your garden as winter is winding down, heralding the arrival of spring. You can take pride in your little patch of chives, so fresh and wonderful that you have to pluck a spear to chew and savor. What can you cook tonight that will benefit from this flavor? (With chives, almost anything!) I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it!