THE USE OF HERBS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 119, 13 February 1941, Page 4

THE USE OF HERBS

Making Wartime Meals More Interesting Now, when we are all strenuously budgeting, milking plans whereby rabbit must in future somehow be made to taste like chicken, and stewing steak like choicest rump, is the time to turn your attention to the herb bed, a staunch ally for these plans. 'i’lie average housewife, whose use of herbs stops short at mint and parsley, or an occasional sprig of sage iu the Christmas bird, has no idea of the delights she is missing simply through cold-shouldering thyme ami marjoram, chives and sweet basil, chervil and tarragon. There is no need for flat dwellers and dispirited battlers with suburban eats to stop reading at this point, because herbs will flourish in window-boxes and pots with the minimum of care. First you can grow mint for sauce and peas, as decoration for cool drinks In summer, as the base on which to place sliced pineapple to add colour (those of us who only meet with the bedraggled stuff the greengrocer rolls up with our peas are apt to forget its decorative quality!). Gel. a frjend to give you just a tiny root and. so long as you water it often, you will have • lenty in no time. Then there is parsley. Alost of us buy a bunch once a week and half of it goes stale and unpleasant because a bunch is really much more than we need. AVhy not, then, plant a three-, penny packet and have enough all summer fresh for picking as required. Third on our list should come the chive, a sadly neglected member of the onion family. Its far more popular relative, the spring onion, is not nearly so delicate and pleasant, and the chive is much more economical to grow because you eat the green spikes while the little bulb immediately sets to and sends up new shoots in a few days. Chopped line in salad, the chive adds a pleasant, and elusive onion flavour; so often the spring or white onion kills every other flavour in Ihe salad. Try a couple of chive “stalks” chopped and sprinkled on scrambled eggs or an omelette.

Thyme grows well in a pot, or makes a pretty little garden border, and is one of the three herbs in the “bouquet garni” or “faggot of herbs” one so often comes across in recipes. (This bouquet, by the way, consists of two or three stalks of parsley, a sprig of fresh thyme, and a bayleaf, and will work wonders when added to the dullest stew.) There are dozens of uses for a sprig of fresh thyme.

Sage needs to lie used sparingly or it will “drown” all the other herbs, but there is no harm in planting a 3d. packet for Hie days when we have duck or goose 1 Chervil and tarragon go, as it were, band in hand. With parsley and chives they make the mixture of fresh herbs which the French call “lines herbes” and sprinkle over . salad after it has been dressed. For a small outlay you can have a complete herb garden or window-box, and when once you have used fresh herbs in your kitchen you will never again lie satisfied with a packet of dried ones.

A final word of warning: use your herbs as directed in your recipe, or disastrous results may ensue!