Apartment Therapy: Ingredients

Ingredient Spotlight: Indian Bay Leaf

These were labeled "bay leaves" at our local Indian market, but we knew they weren't exactly the same as the standard bay laurel leaves in our spice cupboard. The intensely sweet cinnamon aroma convin...

What's Your Favorite Fresh Herb?

I love fresh herbs, and it is really hard to choose one favorite, but I would have to say that my favorite fresh herb is sage. I love the soft, fuzzy texture. The earthy smell. The silvery-green co...

Quick Tip: How to Strip the Leaves from Herbs

Picking each individual leaf from a sprig of rosemary or thyme is one of the most boring and mind-numbing kitchen tasks we can think of. Happily, there is a little trick that makes it much easier!...

From the Herb Garden: Marjoram

Do you like marjoram? It seems to us like a sleeper herb - the one that gets picked up just to round out your herb collection but then WHAM! The next thing you know, you're using it in everything! At ...

Hot or Not? Herbs in Tubes from Gourmet Garden

There are some products, like tomato paste and wasabi, that we love to keep around in tube form. But herbs? ...

Seasonal Spotlight: Garlic

If you find a farmer who sells garlic, don't hesitate - grab as much as you can while the grabbing is good! Fresh local garlic is like culinary gold, and you can be sure that the farmer's stock will b...

What Can I Do With All My Basil?
Good Questions

Q: HELP! I planted basil from seeds this year, and wound up with about 60 basil plants that are in full swing right now. I can't keep up with all the beautiful basil leaves they're producing, and my f...

Humble Herbs: In Praise of Parsley

It's easy to write parsley off. Parsley is just the requisite garnish that decorates plates at fancy restaurants. In our own cooking, we tend to pass over parsley in favor of herbs with bolder, bigger...

From the Herb Garden: Chervil

Chervil is another herb that we'd really like to use more often, but can never think how. It looks like parsley and tastes like mild basil, but it's flavor has a tendency to evaporate into thin air in...

Oregano: Mediterranean and Mexican
What's the Difference?

When a friend brought us a jar of intensely fragrant oregano from travels to Portugal, we became curious about the different varieties of this herb. What's the distinction between Greek, Italian, Turk...

Summer Flavor Inspiration Board: Cucumber and Mint

All we want right now are foods and flavors that are cooling, refreshing, and soothing. No pair fits this description better than cucumber and mint! What ways can you think of using these two ingredie...

Two Ways To Freeze and Preserve Fresh Herbs

Our favorite garden blogger, Margaret Roach of A Way To Garden, is spearheading a fun summer event called Summer Fest 2009 — a celebration of summer gardening, cooking, and fresh food. One of ...

Summer Refreshment: Sweet Basil Lemonade

We spend a lot of time talking about fun summer cocktails. What about something non-alcoholic that feels just as special (and, ok, would taste pretty good with vodka)?...

Tip: Put Basil in Your Green Salads

We think of adding basil to a salad when we're making a caprese salad. But it's delicious chopped up with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and whatever else you've got—a little zing that elevates a bas...

How Can I Use More of My Fresh Mint?
Good Question

Q: I have a little mint plant that has responded tremendously to some organic plant food I gave it and I now have an abundance of mint! What can I do with it? I've mostly just been using it as a garni...

Try This: Tarragon-Infused Drinks

Like cilantro, tarragon seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it type of herb. We fall into the love it camp. The trick is to use it in moderation so that it doesn't overpower a dish. We recently bought a bun...

Quick Vacation Tip: Pack Spice Blends

Planning on doing any cooking on your vacation this summer? Instead of messing with a lot of individual spices, one easy solution is to pack just a few of your favorite spice blends instead!...

Tips: Three Ways To Preserve Fresh Herbs

We cook with loads of fresh herbs in summer, but sometimes we find that we've snipped or bought more than we can use right away. Rather than let them go to waste, here are three ways to save herbs for...

Seasonal Spotlight: Basil

For us, it wouldn't be summer without a bunch of fresh basil in the kitchen. We layer the fragrant leaves with sliced heirloom tomatoes, tear them into salads, or grind them into pesto. From sweet bas...

(Late) Springtime Soupe au Pistou
Guest Post from Sarah of Portland Kitchen

Soupe au pistou, the classic Provençal summer soup made with the freshest summer vegetables, shell beans, and pasta and finished with a dollop of basil pistou, will always carry a special place...

From the Spice Cupboard: Bay Leaf

Bay leaves have always seemed to us like the oddball seasoning in our spice cupboard. Unlike pretty much every other spice in there, we don't actually eat bay leaves, after all. So what are those drie...

Quick Tip: Add Basil Last

Fresh basil is definitely one of the signature tastes of summer, and you can be sure we'll be tasting a lot of it from now until the weather turns cold again! Want to get the most flavor and aroma fro...

Ingredient Spotlight with Recipe: Wild Arugula

My mystery box included a nice bag of wild arugula last week, much to my pleasure. For the past year or so, I've been enjoying this pungent, more peppery version of arugula in salads, on top of pizza...

How to Use Up a Little Pesto

Have you been making pesto this spring? If not with basil, maybe some kale or spinach? Or other fresh herbs? Pesto is a beautiful, early summer food—that is occasionally hard to use all in one sitti...

Seasonal Spotlight: Arugula Blossoms

Have you ever tasted a new ingredient and wondered how you ever lived without it? This is how I felt after my first encounter with arugula blossoms at the Echo Park farmer's market last week. At first...

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Posts tagged “Ingredients - Herbs”