Over our holidays we have planted some herbs in a few big pots. I want a proper herb garden eventually, but because we rent it has to be in pots for now. We started with “seedlings” rather than from seeds to give us a bit of a head start.

We have some rosemary that is a little more mature than the others, and it’s actually good enough to start using straight away. We have also planted some thyme, basil, celery and capsicum.

Rosemary is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves. The fresh and dried leaves are used frequently in traditional Mediterranean cuisine. They have a bitter, astringent taste, which complements oily foods, such as lamb and oily fish.

Thyme is often used to flavour meats, soups and stews. It has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with lamb, tomatoes and eggs.

Basil should be used fresh; in cooked recipes it is generally added at the last moment, as cooking quickly destroys the flavour. The dried herb also loses most of its flavour, and what little flavour remains tastes very different, like hay. Mediterranean and Indochinese cuisines frequently use basil, the former frequently combining it with tomato. Basil is one of the main ingredients in pesto.

We used some of our rosemary to make this delicious roast lamb on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas to all!

cooking, food, herbs, lamb, paul cherry

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