Cooking with herbs

[kai_lis]

I just received some beautiful dried herbs from my uncle's garden--bay leaves, thyme, fennel seeds, rosemary, and sage. I'd love to put them to good use, but I'm not sure where to start. Any recommendations? I am still a bit new to cooking, but I'm enthusiastic and don't mind something challenging or time-consuming

Comments

[rock_grrl]

You could start with a roast chicken and season it with thyme, rosemary and sage. Then use the bones, those spices plus a few bay leaves, and make a chicken stock. You could then make a chicken soup with veggies and beans, and more spices.

[kai_lis]

Thanks for the suggestion! Roast chicken sounds awesome and I am definitely a fan of soup.

[kai_lis]

Oh, that sounds excellent! I'm still working on perfecting my own lentil soup recipe, so I'll definitely try this out!

[cygninae]

Bay leaves are fantastic for soups and stocks! We have a bay tree in our garden, and I'm forever grabbing a couple of leaves from it. Make sure you take them out though, they're not edible!

Rosemary goes well with lamb, sage is fantastic with pork and apple, and I also add it to cheesy scones. I'm not very good with fennel, but I know you can add them to bread to make it unusual. In fact, you could probably add rosemary to bread too.

[kai_lis]

I'm very excited to use my bay leaves--and yes, I do know not to eat them. =)

Thank you for the suggestions!

[a_boleyn]

Bay leaves won't kill you if you do manage to eat them, it's just that they're tough and even after extensive simmering in liquid, more "chewy" than I care for. :) Plus, they've given all their flavour to the dish so toss them.

Dried thyme is a wonderful herb used in a lot of Jamaican recipes ... fish stews, jamaican beef pies and jerk chicken or pork come to mind. I have a good jamaican beef pie filling (plus the curry pastry) if you're interested.

[kai_lis]

Yep, I'm aware. You can also cut your mouth on them if you're particularly unlucky, so even if ingesting them won't end you, they're not really worth eating, all things considered. Close enough to inedible for my purposes. =)

I don't see myself making the pies anytime soon unless you can cook them in foil, but I'm sure I could find a use for the filling! Think it'd be any good over rice or in a tortilla? I'd love the recipe, anyway.

[kat_food]

Use sage for Chicken Saltimbocca. So damn good it should be regulated.

And I pretty much use thyme like some people use parsley. IN EVERYTHING. :)

[kai_lis]

Ooh, I love chicken saltimbocca, and haven't had it in forever! I'll have to try making it.

I may just try out your method of using thyme. =)

[kai_lis]

That sounds heavenly.