Herbs For Cooking
Published by Carolin on Tagged Herbs, Oils, Salads, Vegetarian, recipes
Fresh herbs, I can not say enough good about them. For the most part if I can use fresh herbs over dried I will. Cooking with herbs is great especially when they are fresh. You not only get the fragrance from them but the flavor is incredible. See once you chop herbs especially fresh ones the essential oils are releases. Now I am not saying don’t cook with dried herbs because they definitely have their place in cooking. It’s just the fresh herbs have so many more benefits. Now a day you can go to your local grocery store and find all kinds of fresh herbs. You are not just limited to parsley. You can also grow your own herbs. I do this in the summer, but my mom has started growing her herbs inside for the winter. They won’t grow as well as they do outside in the summer but they definitely will grow and you have fresh herbs all year round. If you think about it, it is no different then growing an indoor plant. Except this plant you get to eat.
A few things I think everyone should know about fresh herbs is that: if you really want to taste the freshness of them, then when you are cooking with herbs add your fresh ones closer to the end of your cooking cycle. Another point is do not over chop your herbs, you can finely cut them without crushing them. When you over chop them you end up bruising them and they turn in color, which is not appealing to the eye. One last point is if you are preparing your dish ahead of time (i.e. a salad) that calls for fresh herbs, go ahead and chop them up ahead of time and then wrap them in plastic and just before you serve your dish add the herbs. This way they stay their fresh color.
I really encourage you to cook with fresh herbs and try growing some fresh herbs indoors for the winter. So today I am going to share a way of using fresh herbs in an olive oil. I do this a lot so I can always have the availability of fresh herbs.
Herbed Olive Oil
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/8 c each of rosemary, oregano, basil and flat leaf parsley finely chopped.
Mix the herbs in with the olive oil and put in a jar with a lid. Use within 2 weeks.
You can use any herbs that you think will go together, or just one herb. It is totally up to you and of course availability.
I use this a lot with potatoes. I take the small nugget potatoes and slice then in half then I place them on foil and spoon some of the herb oil over top with some salt and pepper. Wrap them up place in a 400° oven for about 35-45 minutes and wow you have some good potatoes.
You can use this on chicken, fish or shrimp. You could even mix some in with ground beef to make meatloaf or hamburgers.
TIP OF THE DAY
If you grow Rosemary use the bigger stalks for skewers instead of the bamboo skewers. They add a lot of flavor to your dish.
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