Making the most of herbs

My herb garden is growing like mad right now and threatening to close up the garden footpath and prevent people reaching the front door. Fortunately, Steve has been out with a hedge cutter and trimmed it right back, leaving a nice clear route for the postman and a big pile of gorgeous herbs.

Now, the thing about herbs is, you only need to use a little at a time and using too much can be counterproductive. Fortunately, they are very easy to preserve if you have a sudden glut. Two weeks hanging in a warm space such as your airing cupboard or dangling in your greenhouse is all that is needed to dry them. Then scrunch them in your hands and decant them into a plastic bag or glass jar for storage.

Alternatively, chop your freshly cut herbs finely, sprinkling into ice-cube trays and fill with water before freezing then just drop a herby ice-cube into your food whilst cooking. I also like to make a few herby end products to freeze too. Sage is perfect for turning into stuffing. Use a food processor to turn a slice of bread into crumbs then to chop an onion and finely to chop the sage then mix the lot together in a bowl. A little seasoning and few drops of water are needed and then the lot can be squished together in your hands to form stuffing. This can either be moulded into stuffing balls or just suitable sized portions then put on a tray for freezing. Perfect for stuffing the crop of a chicken or other bird. 

I had a bit of rolled lamb shoulder to roast the other day so I made a different variation of stuffing to suit the flavour of lamb. Made in the same way as the standard sage and onion, this one was made with rosemary, thyme and marjoram (or oregano), onion and a clove of garlic, along with the bread and water. I took the lamb out of it elasticated netting, unrolled it, put in the stuffing and rolled it up again before returning the netting.  And this week we bought a piece of pork from M&S which had a layer of herby butter smeared between the cracking and the meat. The butter had within it chopped up thyme, parsley, garlic and a small amount of lemon zest. Very easy to duplicate at home and herb butter can be frozen in portions until required.

Another lovely way to flavour meat with herbs is by making a herb mustard. Again, a little bit of fiddling around with the ingredients can create mustards suitable for different meats. This weekend I made Cider and Sage Mustard with some fresh sage from my garden and Virtual Orchard cider. This mustard is divine if smeared on pork chops or a joint of pork before cooking. Later this month when the garlic is ready to harvest I shall make some Garlic and Ale mustard with Concrete Cow Brewery beer. This one is perfect for beef. For lamb Rosemary Mustard is perfect.

Finally, from of my herb garden this week I have harvested a bunch of lavender. This is currently in my greenhouse drying. In previous years I have used dried lavender at Christmas to make little lavender bags and lavender bath bombs to give as socking fillers. However, this year I have decided that I shall dabble in lavender flavoured food. I've always been of the opinion that lavender food tastes like soap but from reading around the subject, it would seem that food only tastes like soap if too much lavender is used. In subtle quantities the results are, apparently, sublime. So, look out, lavender flavours will soon be added to the Jammy Cow range.