Herbs and
spices
some of the smartest foods we know!
Herbs and
spices are what make ordinary dishes into
extraordinary dishes. Thankfully they
are all alkaline. Eat as much as you
want and add plenty when cooking. There
are many ways to use the stems and seeds of herbs that generally are picked for
their leafy parts. Throw them into a
freezer bag instead of your trash bag.
Punch up the alkalinity (and flavor) of any finished dish by sprinkling
with flat leaf parsley, cilantro or chili flakes, basil leaf, ground ginger,
cumin, crushed black pepper or cinnamon.
Herbs are
the leafy part of aromatics, like the leaves of parsley and sage, and can be
eaten cooked or raw although some, like sage and rosemary are not as appetizing
eaten uncooked because of the texture.
Since heat brings out the aroma of any ingredient, cooking them, even a
fast toss in a dry sauté pan increases the intensity of the flavor. Bruising has a similar effect. Smell a whole basil leaf then bruise it
either by rubbing it between two fingers, tearing it or cutting it then smell
again---much stronger aroma, right?
Cooked
herbs add the tantalizing aroma and therefore the perceived taste which you
will smell long before your eyes ever see the finished plate. There are two ways to cook herbs in a
dish. You can either start out with them
in the bottom of the pan, heated in oil to which you will add the other
ingredients and cook for a long time, or you can add them in at the end of the
cooking time to give an extra boost of flavor.
Some work best one way, some the other.
For
example, start out a fresh tomato sauce with a whole sprig of rosemary heated
in oil in the bottom of the pan. When
the aroma is strong, it is time to add the tomatoes. Rosemary needles and stalk need time to melt,
releasing the perfumed oils of the plant.
The needles will fall from the stalk which you can remove later. The longer it stays in the sauce, the
stronger the flavor in the sauce. Basil
on the other hand, should be cut or torn and tossed in at the end. Basil is delicate and its aroma weakens the
longer it is cooked.
Experience
and experimentation will give you the know-how with herbs. But, for now you can use the following rule
for best results---the more delicate the leaf, the shorter the cooking time,
the more dense the leaf the longer the cooking time. That means mint, basil, parsley, dill,
cilantro, and chives which have delicate leaves can be used raw or at the end
of the cooking process. Their stalks,
like parsley stems, which are woody rather than delicate, can be used in soups
and stews with a long cooking time.
Sage,
oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary and bay all have tougher leaves, and
therefore should be heated in oil at the beginning, or placed inside the
turkey, on top of the lamb, on the bottom of the roasting pan, or in the Dutch
oven with the sauce, for example, and cooked for a long time. Their stalks can be used as well along with
the leaves in the cooking time, but removed before serving. Bay leaves should also be removed as they do
not break down or soften during the cooking process even if boiled in a stock or sauce.
A
lot of chefs I know prefer using dried herbs to fresh If you
are using dried herbs, you will use less than the fresh so a little goes a long
way. Take parsley for instance, a teaspoon of dried parsley flakes is denser
and therefore stronger in flavor than a teaspoon of minced fresh parsley. Rubbed sage is more intense than fresh
chopped, and dried oregano more than fresh picked. As for cooking time, I think all dried herbs
should go in at the beginning. From the
point of view of flavor, dried is a satisfactory substitute, but eating anti aging gastronomy is
about eating smart. The only smart thing
to do is to use fresh herbs and a lot of them.
Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB
P.S. My
current book EAT SMART, AMERICA, AN ANTI-AGING DIET PRIMER $ 2.99 is available now for Kindle on
Amazon
and for
NOOK at Barnes & Noble
