Authors: Ana Sortun

Spice (56 page)

BOOK: Spice

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You can also use 4 deboned, skin-on chicken breasts and 4 deboned, skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe, preparing them as above. Although you won’t be able to create marbled meat, this variation still makes a delicious chicken dish.

FRESH HERB COMBINATIONS

P
ARSLEY
, M
İNT
, D
İLL, AND
S
WEET
B
ASİL

Every summer, I work with an herb farmer named David Gilson, from the Herb Lyceum in Groton, Massachusetts, who grows beautiful fresh herbs. After much deliberation, I choose what I want to grow for the season, and David starts the herb seedlings in his greenhouse. Once the weather allows, we transplant David’s herbs into Oleana’s garden patio—an area behind the restaurant where we offer outdoor dining from May through October. We gather the herbs out of our garden and use them fresh in our dishes throughout the summer season, and Oleana’s customers enjoy the delicate, romantic herbal breezes that waft through the patio. The romance in fresh herbs is related to their perfume, fragrance, and calming effect. For good reason, summer is our favorite time of the year.

You can use fresh herbs, much like spices, to create exciting and bright layers of flavor in your dishes. The fresh herb combinations in this chapter work particularly well together: they complement one another but each herb retains its individual flavor and doesn’t get lost in the mix.

The herbs in this chapter all have a high water content, which makes them bruise easily: they turn black if overchopped or prepared with a dull knife. Parsley and dill are more forgiving and can be finely chopped, but basil and mint need extra care. You don’t need to worry about bruising if you’re making pesto—fresh herbs ground with nuts and oil—but when cutting mint or basil, it’s best to use the French technique called
chiffonade
. Translated from the French, chiffonade means “made of rags,” and in culinary terms, it refers to finely cut strips or ribbons of leafy herbs or vegetables. To chiffonade your herbs, stack about 6 leaves together, roll them snugly, and then slice them as thin as you can using a very sharp knife. Parsley and dill are trickier to chiffonade because the leaves are smaller. I usually gather a small handful and scrunch the leaves up, holding them with one hand with loosely curled fingers and slicing them little by little.

P
ARSLEY

Parsley is the most commonly used herb in cooking because it complements most flavors, adding a bright, clean, green, and almost citrusy taste to food, yet never dominating it. Interestingly, the ancient Greeks never cooked with parsley because it was considered to be a symbol of death; they used it as a funeral herb and fed it to horses. It wasn’t used as part of a meal until the Romans discovered that parsley cleaned their breath after feasts of wine and rich food.

There are two types of widely available parsley: flat and curly. Flat, or Italian, parsley looks a bit like celery tops and has a brighter and stronger flavor than curly parsley. Flat parsley has a fuller flavor and gives you more bang for the buck.

Parsley is full of lovely chlorophyll, making it great to add to blended soups or oils to create a bright green color. I like to whip parsley up in the blender with olive oil to make a vivid green oil to drizzle over pasta and soup. It will keep for up to a week if you add a tablet of vitamin C during the blending process. If you want to make a smooth pea soup greener, add a handful of parsley while puréeing.

As the Romans discovered, parsley diminishes breath odor from strong foods like garlic. Garlic and parsley are the perfect complements and work wonderfully in combination on breads, in salads, and with meat dishes. Of course, the famous French snail dish, escargot, would not be the same without this combination added to melted butter.

Parsley lends itself to most soup and sauce bases because it brightens but doesn’t dominate other flavors. Combined with mint, parsley is the key ingredient in the Middle Eastern tomato salad called tabouleh.

M
İNT

This fresh-tasting herb comes in many varieties, each with different flavor tones, including pineapple, apple, lemon, basil, licorice, and ginger. For cooking, I prefer to use plain spearmint, and I always choose leaves that are smooth and narrow rather than crinkly or fuzzy. Peppermint is not used much for cooking but lends its flavor to candies and chewing gums.

In Greek myth, the beautiful nymph Minthes was transformed into a plant by jealous Proserpina, wife of Pluto. Pluto could not undo the spell, but he was able to give the homely plant its delightful fragrance. Ancient Romans used mint to freshen their rooms.

Mint grows wild all over the world, but especially in the warm, dry climates around the Mediterranean. Italians mix mint with garlic and toss them together with roasted baby potatoes. In Arabic cooking, mint is often used to flavor lamb, eggplant, cucumber, and stuffed grape leaves. Turks use fresh mint combined with parsley and dill—a staple Oleana herb blend—in chopped vegetable or bean salads.

Mint pairs particularly well with lamb: the famous green jelly that is traditionally served with roast leg of lamb is a classic.

D
İLL

The fronds of dill look similar to fennel, but dill is a much stronger herb and has a parsleylike aroma and a hint of anise.

When used modestly, dill is refreshing and can be paired with all sorts of foods—white cheeses, yogurt, white sauces, chicken, fish, eggs, salads, and many vegetable preparations. Dill is classically combined with smoked salmon and capers, and it’s perfect with yogurt and cucumber sauces. My favorite herbs to combine with dill are parsley and mint, but dill mixed with a little cilantro or fresh coriander is equally addictive.

Dill is native to the Mediterranean and southern Russia. The Romans regarded dill as a symbol of vitality and used it to decorate the food given to gladiators. Medieval cooks believed it had magical properties of warding off evil and enhancing aphrodisiacs. The word
dill
is believed to have come from the old Norse word “dilla,” which means to soothe or lull; the herb was thought to be a digestive with calming effects, and dill tea made from the dried, flowering stems of the herb was given to crying babies. Today, dill is used in many countries, but it’s most popular in Scandinavian, Russian, Greek, and Turkish cuisines.

When buying fresh dill, look for bright bunches that don’t show any signs of wilting.

S
WEET
B
ASİL

To me, the flavor of basil is summer. It’s a natural with almost any vegetable, but there’s just nothing like the mouthwatering combination of fresh basil and tomatoes, right out of the garden in late August.

Basil thrives in warm climates, and there are many varieties, including purple, cinnamon, black opal, Thai, and holy basil. Sweet basil, with its refreshing clove and anise tones, is the most popular for culinary use. Basil’s taste is more subtle than its aroma, which is slightly peppery and minty, so you can use it in large quantities.

Basil is considered a sacred herb in India, and it’s been used widely for millennia in Iran, Africa, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. Roman scholars considered basil to be an aphrodisiac; it was given to horses during mating season, and when a lady left a pot of it in a window, it was a signal that her lover was welcome. In Romania, a young man was considered engaged if he accepted a sprig of basil from a young lady.

Basil is now a staple in most Italian cuisines, especially in Liguria, where the precious Genovese basil—as well as pesto—originates. Just past the western outskirts of Genoa, the unique microclimate and the ideal soil favors the growth of this variety of basil, which is especially balanced in terms of taste and aroma. Genovese basil seeds are available through many seed catalogs, including Johnny’s Seeds (see Resources, page 358).

I store my fresh basil, roots on, in a glass, with water just covering the roots. If the water touches the leaves, they’ll rot quickly. Basil kept like this will last in room temperature for up to a week or more, and it makes your kitchen smell like summer. When basil is refrigerated, it suffers and wilts almost instantly. After all, basil loves heat.

RECIPES WITH FRESH PARSLEY, MINT, DILL, AND SWEET BASIL