Sorrel, lovage, savory, chervil, borage. What is the deal with these lesser-known herbs and what are they good for?
I see them sometimes at the farmer's market and am curious to know if people use them in recipes, and are there any other under-appreciated American herbs I forgot?
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Also, I LOVE bush basil. They always have it at the farmer's market in summer. Delicious in salads (and also because it is a powerful aphrodisiac).
I can't grow herbs because I live in a fourth floor Brooklyn walk up. The only thing I have growing is a pot of my Grandma's 'oregano de bruja', which grows to be huge in its natural environment, but for me, the few leaves I can coax are about 1" in diameter.
Thanks for all the advice, everyone! Soups, salads, sauces, cocktails...it is going to be a very interesting spring/summer.
French Sorrel, not to be confused with the common weed, remains a beautiful soft clump that can be picked every day. Its tart lemony flavour can be used as the base ingredient for salads without fear. Also look for potato and sorrel soup recipes.
Basically celery comes in three forms, for the stem-celery, for the huge stem base-celeriac and for flavouring stocks-lovage. I love lovage.
Savory, hmmmm possibly I should try harder, but as far as I'm concerned you're not missing much.
Chervil, is just soo pretty, it's certainly a great substitute for parsley but I can never bring myself to cut it.
Borage, candy flowers for decorating cakes, use the plentiful flowers for decorating the top of the salad and grow in hanging basket above head height to see that glorious blue. Great for attracting bees too. Many strawberry growers still swear by it.
Other under-utilized herbs include tarragon, great for flavouring bland veg like zucchini and making herb vinegar.
Horseradish, use young leaves in salad and a handful of older boiled in the milk of a white sauce for fish dishes. Grate the root for beef of course.
Laksa, (vietnamese coriander) an always there substitute for cilantro with peppery and lemony notes.
And there's those that are more vegatable than herb but often overlooked. Stinging nettle dipped in boiling water loses all pain but makes the tastiest and most nutritious spinach. It's so well protected because everything wants to eat it. Then there's the goosefoots. I'm a recent flabbergasted convert to Chenopodium murales, (nettel leaf goosefoot) and Good King Henry . NB another chenopodium is quinoa :-) Then there's Portulaca oleracea for putting some crunch into your salad. Amazingly in countries where portulaca is still, and rightly so, a prized vegtable there are something like 60 varieties grown.
Another one that I remembered that I wanted to share--lemon balm. It's great as an herbal tea and phenomenal when steeped in alcohol and made into a liqueur.
Borage: Delicious in a Pimm's Cup on the porch on a hot day. I never plant it; it seeds itself quite promiscuously in the garden. Lovely blue flowers, too--a good ornamental.
Lovage: once you've got it growing, it will never leave you, even if you want it to because it takes up so much space. (Cut back, it returns in force.) Use it sparingly; it's assertive. The lovage and I ---well, we respect each other but we don't love each other.
Under-appreciated? Chocolate mint. Yes, it's a mint and wants to aggressively take over your herb garden. And it's not terribly chocolate-y, although it has dark stems. But it seems to take the heat of summer in good stride, so in the fall, if you're making mint jelly, it hasn't gone to flower like the other mints; it even seems to make a comeback.
Also under-appreciated: anise hyssop. It's a lovely flowering plant, plus the blue flowers and the leaves are a nice surprise in a salad or as a tea. Super easy to grow.
And how about the pepper-y bite of nasturtium flowers in a salad?
The savories: nice with fresh beans and in a summer salad. Fussy growers for me.
Last, try some Spicy Bush basil---it has teensy leaves, unlike the regular stuff, makes a neat little shrub that can grow in a pot, and has lovely flavor.
Johnnys Selected Seeds has all of these.
I also wanted to put in a plug for another favorite little green to add to salads--salad burnet. It has cute little toothed leaves that add texture as well as flavor.
And I've never thrown chervil sprigs into a salad but my ... what a great idea.
What's your question about growing savory, waldito? There are two kinds of savory--summer savory is an annual, and winter savory is perennial. They're easy to grow (I bought the winter savory I have now in a pot). And I didn't notice this info above--savory is a traditional herb for beans.
One of my favorite ways to use lovage is with swordfish on the grill. Line one of those fish baskets that you can use on the grill with sprigs of lovage leaves. Salt and pepper a swordfish steak or two. Brush with some olive oil and place on top of the lovage leaves so that you have leaves on either side of the fish. Close the basket. Brush the lovage with additional olive oil – not too much or you’ll flame everything. Grill over medium or medium low coals or on a gas grill until the fish is done to your liking, turning once, about 8 – 10 minutes or so. Don’t grill on too high a temp or too close to the flames as the lovage will burn. Garnish with lemon.
Lovage works the same way celery works, and tastes terrific in potato salads. As for savory: I've never successfully grown it.
Chevil works beautifully in sauces, especially with fish. It's light, and delicate, with an anise-like aroma. You can also mash it with butter to put on a baked potato (or as part of a filling for hard-boiled eggs).
To add to Hardlikearmour's tip for borage: it makes terrific tea, too.
I haven't used lovage - but thirschfeld has and he may toss in some advice here.
Savory is commonly used with legumes and poultry.
Chervil is lovely, sort of like tarragon parsley.
Borage - pretty blue flowers with a cucumbery flavor. I nibble on them straight or add them to salads.
Next time you see one that strikes your fancy you should get it!