Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

I couldn't imagine cooking without herbs, and although I'm not keen on gardening, I've managed to grow quite a few herbs in my garden: chives, bay, mint, sage, thyme and rosemary.  I'm especially proud of my bay tree which was given to me by my Mum a few years ago, at the time it was about 18 inches tall, and now it looks like this:

I often prune it and give friends a bouquet of bay leaves, if they'd like some. The chives and sage are in pots, the thyme grows on the rockery; and the rosemary bush is on the left of the bay tree in the above picture.  It's my second rosemary bush, I tried to move the original one and it died, but this one is doing well. The mint does go a bit mad - it came from a friend who gave us some of their home grown potatoes and some mint to cook with them. I didn't use all of it, and put the rest in a glass of water on the window sill. It grew some roots, so I planted it and now we've got a massive patch.  I've also got basil on my kitchen windowsill, which gets used and replaced every few weeks, and other herbs (flat leaf parsley, dill, tarragon, coriander) I buy in bunches and keep in green bags in the fridge (see my "waste not want not" post to learn more about green bags). Mum also has a lot of curly parsley in her garden, she dries it in the microwave and crumbles it for me. Dried herbs often don't have as much flavour as fresh but the microwave drying seems to retain the green colour and more of the flavour too.  Some of the bunched herbs can also be frozen either as they are, or in cubes of ice, or even better as herb butters.

Can you spot my cat in her favourite spot between the rosemary bush and the bay tree?

Sage and chives.

Thyme on the rockery.

A friend has offered me some more herbs to grow, so I might soon add some others to my collection.

So, what can you do with herbs? The possibilities are endless, and some herbs have a particular affinity for certain foods - like dill with fish and rosemary with lamb.  It would be a very long post if I rambled on about all the uses of herbs in cooking - and I'm always discovering new things but here some of my favourites:

Add to risotto - at the end to retain the flavour.  Use when making stock - tie up with string to make a "bouquet garni". Even just the stalks of parsley are good for stock. Use in dips, I made a lovely fresh dip with mint, yoghurt and radishes once.  Use in bread, dumplings and stuffings - our Easter Sunday roast turkey was stuffed with sage, walnut and apple stuffing. Talking of roasts, make holes in a lamb joint and stick sprigs of rosemary in with garlic and/or anchovy fillets, or use a rub made with finely chopped rosemary and paprika.

Bay is great with potatoes, lemon and onions, baked with whole mackerel on top, add dill too if you have some.  If you're cooking a whole salmon, stuff it with lemon slices, herbs and a splash of white wine. Also bay goes well in a lasagne, in either or both of the sauces.

Herbs and eggs are a good combo, I've used thyme in cheese souffIes and a variety of herbs in Iranian spinach tortilla - very fresh tasting! Some parsley and dill really makes a warm mackerel salad with new potatoes and steamed green vegetables. I've made a smoked trout pate recently too, accompanied by beetroot and dill relish.  Added to breadcrumbs, herbs will liven up the coating for a chicken or  pork schnitzel, and a herb crust for fish can be enhanced by adding some Indian spices. Basil is great with most pasta dishes and made into a basil and cream sauce for ravioli, or a basil, white wine and lemon dipping sauce for asparagus. 

One of my favourite pasta dishes uses chopped fresh rosemary with dried oregano, fennel seeds, garlic, harissa paste, red wine, chilli, tinned tomatoes, prawns and chorizo - added to linguine with parsley scattered over..  It smells amazing!

You can use herbs in sweet dishes too.  Nigel Slater does a gorgeous white chocolate and cardamom mousse using bay infused milk - this has become a family favourite; and I've made a milk chocolate mousse with rosemary infused milk - though the flavour was a bit delicate and next time I'll try infusing it overnight. Another Nigel favourite is lemon and thyme cake, and I've made a raspberry and thyme custard tart.  I can't find my own photo so here is one from delicious. magazine but mine did look exactly like the picture!

I also love just infusing some fresh mint leaves in boiling water to make a mint tea, very good for the digestion!

Next I want to try some of the more unusual herbs, so if anybody is growing some please let me know if you have some spare...

More soon, thank you for reading :-)

Caroline.

Photo opportunities.

One Friday recently my husband was away and my friend came for dinner.  We combined both our hobbies by having a photographic dinner party. She never goes anywhere without her camera and wanted to have a go at food photography, and I was happy to cook her dinner, pour the bubbly and entertain her with intelligent conversation (ahem!).  This particular friend is quite special because without her you wouldn't be reading this.  It was her idea that I should write a blog, she encouraged me and she also came up with the name.  So I owe her a lot of thanks.

I usually take photos of my food with my phone, as it's handy, and I don't really have the time to style it as the family are often starving and I don't have time to hang around.  When I take a photo with my phone, it's automatically uploaded to dropbox on my laptop and netbook, so wherever I write my blog, the photos are there ready to be added. 

Sometimes, if it's a cake for example I will take the time to find a background (possibly the floor!) and some decent lighting, but on the whole the photography aspect is a bit rushed. However, I think photos are really important when describing food, a picture really does speak a thousand words, and if you look at a cookery book where not all the recipes are illustrated, you will know what I mean. 

So... we had champagne and nibbles, and a platter of prosciutto, fennel seed salami and bresaola and olives... and let her take photos of whatever she wanted, the food, the kitchen, the table... with fabulous results.  Having a decent camera and lens AND knowing what to do with them makes all the difference as you can see:

For the main course I made a lasagne, served with a simple green salad.  When you have made a lasagne without using jars of ready made sauce, you will never go back.  I made the tomato sauce in the morning, before work so it was ready to add, and just cooked steak mince and added it (with the secret ingredient, a splash of Worcestershire sauce) and some red wine. Then I made the bechamel with lots of nutmeg and a bit of double cream in.  It only needs a little bit, but makes it taste really luxurious. I layered it up with some fresh lasagne that I had frozen a few months before when there was some left over in the packet, topped it with cheese and put it in the oven.

By the time it got to dessert, we had finished the champagne and a bottle of prosecco, AND put the world to rights -  and somehow there wasn't a photo of the pud - but we had frozen berries with hot custard and vanilla meringue kisses that I had made the night before.  A light but delicious girly dinner - and a very good time was had by both. 

I tried to use the above photo of some of my cookery books as a background for the blog template, but it had problems uploading it, so I've given up for now.  And I had to include a photo of my pride and joy, which looks rather fetching in black and white.

I hope to feature more of the photos in future posts, but as they were such high quality they took a long time to upload, so I can't feature too many at once - and I hope it won't be the last time I have a photographic dinner party, as I enjoyed it so much.  And hopefully I'll be a bit more inspired to take better photos of my food from now on, if my family will let me!

Thank you for reading :-)

Caroline x

Let's do lunch.

Lunches are a  very personal thing, and in our family, a very different experience for each family member.  My son has a packed lunch at school, consisting of a ham or turkey sandwich, a yogurt, some fresh fruit, some raisins and a drink of water.  My teenage daughter has an allowance of £12 to spend at school on food for the week, loaded onto their high tech system which enables her to pay with a fingerprint.  I nag her to try and have her five a day and have extra fruit at home but I doubt she does.  My husband has crackers or ryvita with soft cheese or hummous, plus tomatoes and fruit.  I am the chief user-up-of-leftovers. In fact, I often make a bit extra so there are definitely going to be leftovers. If there aren't any leftovers, I see what's in the fridge or cupboards and improvise.  Or treat myself to sushi.  Or chips from the staff canteen!  I don't often have a sandwich, I really do find them boring, but then it does depend on the filling.

A while ago I bought a book on lunches which was really inspiring and was going to try and make loads of interesting soups, salads, bagels and pasta based things but after a while it kind of fizzled out, I do make something interesting when I have time (and when there aren't leftovers) and the highlights have included hot smoked salmon, green bean and red pesto pasta salad; brown rice salad with tomato, cucumber, avocado, mozzarella and sunflower seeds; mozzarella,tomato, basil and anchovy bagels.  I also sometimes do a chickpea, olive, thinly sliced fennel and parsley salad with a simple lemon juice dressing.  And my complete favourite is Vietnamese chicken noodle salad with beansprouts and a lovely fresh tasting dressing using fish sauce. The problem usually is that it's all too much trouble after a day at work to be making fancy salads, especially if you're cooking a meal from scratch too.  I'm not superwoman (though some people may think otherwise!)

My daughter made me an amazing sandwich for lunch this weekend - she invented the recipe and it's basically two pieces of cheese on toast, sandwiched together with layers of ham, pesto, avocado and tomatoes.  I could only manage half and a bit, and was so full for the rest of the day I only had a "mini-meal" for dinner!  She had the rest, and one of her own. Here it is in all it's glory:

In other news, I've recently been diagnosed with lateral epicondylitis (you might know it as tennis elbow, but the medical terminology sounds much more impressive) - unfortunately as it is the right elbow, avoiding using it as much as possible has included me attempting some left handed cooking. Stirring is ok, grating and pushing things through sieves is much slower than usual; and I have to ask for help opening jars. It should get better by itself, but only if I'm careful. No heavy pan lifting for a while then...

More soon, when you will read about my combined girly dinner and photo shoot...

Thanks for reading,

Caroline.