Garden cooking
Leaf and seed
Manka Hanbury Tenison If you have ever cooked authentic Indian food and enjoy such dishes as koftas, aubergine bharta, chana masaledar or the delicate chicken with sliced lemon and fried onions You will know how vital a part the seeds and leaves of the coriander and cumin plants Play in this varied and exciting cuisine. To follow an Italian recipe for lamb you will be lost without the leaves of the rosemary or common marjoram plant known as oregano, and if you take your spaghetti sauces seri°LIMY you will know what it is to be without fresh basil and how pale a flavour is the taste of the dried alternative.
Rut have you ever thought of growing coriander, cumin, oregano and basil in your garden or on a window-sill, as well as the More mundane parsley, chives, sage and thyme? Did you know that a pot of French tarragon on your kitchen window-sill can be. cut and cut again providing enough of this pungent herb to flavour any number of Chicken in tarragon and lemon sauce dishes, vinegar for salad dressing and other subtle sauces?
Before the First World War we had some of. the finest herb gardens in the world in thUS country, many of them handed down from the formal herberies of the first Elizabethan era. Lovage kept the harsh summer sun off the greenhouse windows as well as Providing the base of an elegant hot or cold 8°11P, an ingredient for stews and casseroles dnd a garnish for almost anything. Fresh coriander leaves added their slightly punge,nt, Peppery overtones to sauces, marinades and salads, and the seeds were crushed or used whole. Borage could provide the colouring ingredient for home-made pasta, °r decorate a glass of Pimm's; lemon verbena was essential to a champagne cup 44 n was to a jelly of mixed summer fruits, !lid. Florentine fennel has long been a useful ingredient of many salads and fish dishes. Most herbs should be used with discretion 10 hat even a small patch, window box or on a patio can produce what is required Or the kitchen while at the same time at:acting the bees and perfuming the maybe Polluted air. Most look pretty too. Pot 7t4r.loram, for instance, is an extremely. attractive little plant with a dark winec°10ured flower as well as being an ideal
Partner for braised or pot-roasted beef. M savory sports a bright blue flower and
sould be used to flavour broad beans and, wit" discretion, egg and fish dishes. Savory's aother as an aphrodisiac, is that when thdded to wine it prevents drowsiness caused thrc'ugh over-indulgence, thereby creating e.ettPhoria of a state of drunken but lively sexiness.
Rosemary has more down-to-earth but also useful properties, for the rosemary bush, they say, will only flower if the mistress is the master, so to speak, of her house. (Mine, I must tell you, has never flowered.) This is one of the most attractive and useful plants and as a herb it is one of the earliest recorded to be used by man. In its pendular form it looks good hanging down from walled beds, and the bush variety grows equally well in tubs or in a border. I find the sweet-smelling, Mediterranean flavour goes as well with roast pork as it does with lamb. (Try rubbing the scored rind of a leg of pork with a mixture of garlic, juniper berries, rosemary leaves, sage, coarsely ground black pepper and coarse salt, ground in a pestle and mortar, leaving the leg in the refrigerator for three days and then roasting it—the flavour is superb and the skin deliciously crisp.) For the patient gardener most herbs can be obtained as seeds, but for those who prefer more instant results it is now possible to contact a garden centre which specialises in pot-grown varieties. The choice is almost infinite and the problem is more what to leave out than what to have. There are, for instance, clary, pineapple and meadow sages as well as the common variety; apple or pineapple mint is infinitely superior to the rampaging spearmint for iced drinks (though not at all suitable for a mint sauce), and the list of thymes for flavouring, edging and carpeting is positively confusing. If you have problems contact the Association of Herb Growers and Producers, Valeswood Herb Farm, Little Ness, Nr. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, who will give their advice. Although most herbs have a strong flavour and should be used with care and a gentle hand, there is a tendency, I find, to be almost too cautious about the use of others. When a recipe says one bay leaf, for example,
I would use at least three and I tend to double or even quadruple the quantity of parsley suggested for a good many dishes. If you grow a good crop this year do try one of the best country-style dishes in the world. A chicken pie is made by layering raw chicken, bacon, chopped onions and half a pound of roughly chopped parsley in a pie dish. Pour over enough stock to come halfway up the dish and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover with a pie crust, bake and, before you bring it to the table, lift the pastry lid and pour in a generous measure of double or clotted cream—fantastic.
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