Herbs

Dimple's Mom

I got roped into teaching an herb class this Saturday. The emphasis is on cooking with fresh, home grown herbs. Not necessarily bbq related. Any suggestions on what you'd want to see from such a class? The class is indoors. I will have a portable gas burner to do demos on. As well as access to a fridge/freezer and a sink.

LDD

If I were attending a class I would be interested in knowing which herbs compliment/contrast each other... if there is such a thing? How to use them, when to use them in the cooking phase. maybe some of the health/healing qualities of herbs...

fishlessman

everyone would be happy with mint juleps i have a whole mint garden just to make those and some other drinks :laugh:

Dimple's Mom

I do plan to do some sort of alcoholic drink. One issue I have is finding herbs at this time of year. I can get the basics in the grocery store but nothing exotic or even halfway out of the ordinary.

fishlessman

best source here would be an asian market, purple thai basil, usually some others im not too familar with as nothing is marked, might not be in your area. any year round nursery / garden centers there, sometimes its just as cheap to buy a whole plant as it is to buy the tiny packet in the supermarket

stike

gin is made with herbs. maybe martinis :laugh:

i couldn't come up with much of anything for you to make in a pan (your gas burner). all i could think of was tomato/basil salad....

i have done rabbit with apple and thyme. maybe a lamb and rosemary/garlic dish.

herbed risotto or cous cous?

Dimple's Mom

Our shopping resources here on the island are extremely limited. No asian markets or anything like that and only one nursery that's open year round. (Lots of fab nurseries that are open summer only make up for that.)

I have managed to snag some rose geranium leaves which I'm going to use in a cake that I make ahead and then take to sample.

fishlessman

basil is probably the easiest to find. someone did something wrapped in basil a while back, dont remember what it was. do a goolge search "wrapped in basil" things like this pop up, pretty easy to do in a toaster oven

http://www.ventoozler.com/27/dates-stuffed-with-goat-cheese-wrapped-with-basil-and-proscuitto/

Dimple's Mom

There are a ton of cocktails made with herbs now. The web is loaded with recipes. So I'm looking through those and will decide tomorrow before I go to do my shopping.

I'm going to do scrambled eggs with dill on the burner and also some rosemary walnuts. I also have things I'm making at home and taking to sample as I talk about various herbs - lavender/lemon verbena cookies, rose geranium cake, 3 kinds of chicken salad (one plain and two with different herbs for comparison), thyme pecans. I'll make up the drink ahead and I'll probably make some sort of nonalcoholic cold tea or punch or something. I'm going to make lavender ice cream during class. I want to make an herbed sorbet too but I might make that up ahead of time since it takes a few more minutes than the lavender ice cream.

I'm kind of going thru the day, starting with breakfast (eggs), moving to lunch (chicken salads), and then dinner. I feel like I have everything covered ex something that would be considered a dinner item. I may just have to go with the drink and dessert items as the dinner though.

Dimple's Mom

I've made those dates a couple times for parties. They're excellent! And they are a great idea for this class. Unfortunately I don't have a toaster oven. I'll have to ask around and see if I can come up with one. I won't know til I go to set up on Friday if I even have an outlet nearby, but I probably do. I'm going to be in the high school teachers lounge.

Really great idea because I can have the ingredients ready to go and then get volunteers to do the stuffing and wrapping. People like to participate! Plus it's easy to serve and doesn't need plates, forks, etc. Great idea!

The recipe mentions he had trouble stuffing the cheese in. I let the cheese soften (and added some sort of chopped herbs to it as well) and then put it in a plastic baggie, cut the tip off, and it was easy peasy to squirt into the pitted dates.

We have a store that has recently starting selling basil in an interesting way. It comes in a plastic covering and is basically a large plug of a growing plant. There is a little clump of dirt with roots at the base. It's $3.50 so not a whole lot more expensive than the much smaller herb packs. I haven't bought any yet but have had my eye on them for a couple months now ever since I saw them and planned to get them for the class, both to use and as part of the display.

fishlessman

thats how i get the basil, big plug of it wrapped in plastic like long stem roses. wash it well, lots of dirt stuck to the leaves, must come wrapped straight from the farm. very inexpensive compared to how i usually find it in the little containers in the organic section

Dimple's Mom

I posted on facebook to see if I can borrow a toaster oven. If I locate one, I can do bruschetta topped with some sort of herbie thing too. It would open up a lot more possibilities!

Dimple's Mom

It sounds just like what our store has started selling. Do you have other herbs packaged the same way?
I thought it was really a fun package when I saw it.

Thanks for the washing tip. I would not have thought to prewash it. I wonder if I can just tip it over and wash the leaves off and still leave it attached to the clump.

I also have wondered if you can plant it and have it continue to grow or at least last longer than snipped basil.

I'm off to the local nursery later today to see what they might have in. I don't think they have much. I phoned them 2 days ago and it didn't sound like they had much. I'll probably scoot over to the other side to a nursery there, but it's $15 in ferry fees plus 2 hours out of my day, so would like to avoid that it at all possible.