Good Examples of Herbs in Recipe Dishes

I found a very knowledgeable Auntie Beryl who gives some good ideas on a few recipes dishes where the use of herbs is just as important as the main ingredients. The site is basically as online shop, but the information and general tips on herbs is very good. Well worth a visit to the Plantbox site if you want a quick guide to a particular herb.

It also gives brief, but exacting information on gardening tips for herbs. Again very simple and very easy to understand and take on board.

To give you a taste of some of the recipe ideas, there are three recipes from the site are given here below:

BAKED CHEESE WITH HERBS Bake a whole soft cheese with rind, in it's box (discard any wrapping) in a medium oven for 15 minutes. Take off lift and cut a large cross through the top. Peel back the quarters of rind and sprinkle over a handful of chopped CHIVES, THYME & PARSLEY. Serve with pitta or breadsticks. CHICKEN WITH COCONUT TARRAGON CREAM Fry chicken breasts or thighs in 1 tbsp of chopped TARRAGON with large knob of butter. Cook for 5 minutes each side until golden. Add small carton of coconut cream and cook, covered over a moderate heat for 5 - 10 minutes (or until cooked), turning once and basting occasionally. Season and add another 1 tbsp of chopped TARRAGON for garnish. PANCETTA AND SAGE WRAPPED CHICKEN Lay out 2/3 slices of smoked pancetta, slightly overlapping, top with a few SAGE leaves and season. Lie the chicken breast at one end and wrap in the pancetta tightly. Saute in a hot pan until pancetta crispy and chicken cooked in middle. www.plantabox.co.uk

A Beautiful Beef and Herb Recipe

The flavours that some herbs give combined with other foods just are beyond description sometimes, especially is they are fresh and grown away from commercial enterprises. This recipe was taught to me from my father who was a professional Cordon Bleu Chef in one of the top London Hotels. He used to grow all his own herbs in our London garden and use those in his home cooking. These were memorable moments being brought up on these flavours, which I can still taste now. He used to get the meat from Smithfield market at 4:00 in the morning before London had woken up.

Roasted beef fillet is one of the legends of the meat genre; it needs a little bit of fat on, as it isn’t natural for beef without fat. Unfortunately many food chain companies demand all the fat cut off, if this is the case and your only source of beef get some bacon fat to use with it instead.

This is a very simple recipe that only takes forty minutes from start to finish and the combination of the meat and herbs is something else.

Ingredients:

• 2 kg fillet of beef with fat or bacon fat
• Fresh rosemary
• Fresh thyme
• Fresh oregano
• Fresh parsley
• 3 cloves garlic, cut into thin slivers
• Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Turn the oven on and preheat to 220 Celsius. Once the string of the fillet has been untied stuff the rosemary, thyme, and oregano through and under the fat making sure it is pushed all the way around. The string can then be retied to seal the stuffing firmly in the package.

Using a sharp knife, pierce slits into the fat through to the flesh of the meat and place the slices of garlic in the cuts made. The salt and pepper can now be added to finish the dish for taste.

With the fat side up, put the meat parcel into a foil covered shallow roasting tray (I always use a foil to base trays to save on washing up!) It should just big enough to encompass the meat mass.

All it needs is an initial 10 minutes baking then turn the heat down to 175 Celsius and bake for a further 20 minutes for a rare finish or 30 minutes or longer for a medium finish. This dish shouldn’t be baked beyond this time otherwise it will turn tough.

Let the dish stand 15 minutes once out of the oven then slice. Discard the herbs and string and serve hot garnished with the fresh parsley. It can also be cooled to room temperature and then be put in the fridge for servings later on or the next day.

It should be enough to serve for up to 6 people.

Note:
Ideal in sandwiches by the way!