Introduction The Herb Garden Soups and Salads Main Dishes Breads and Spreads Small Indulgences Metric Conversions and Equivalents Index Introduction When I was a child, my mother kept a shelf in the kitchen cabinet devoted to dried herbs. The old Schilling red-and-white cans. I knew a few names, but had no idea how to use them or what their distinguishing characteristics might be. I was far more interested in the chocolate chips she kept hidden behind them than in the herbs themselves. My high school English teacher, Laurie Staude, was the first to draw my attention to fresh herbs. I admired her. She carried on at some length one day about an “omelet sprinkled with fresh-picked rosemary.” I did not know what an omelet was, but I could use my imagination. So I headed off to a Renaissance Pleasure Faire in the hills of Marin County that had a gypsy wagon selling small herbs in pots. I bought a rosemary plant and carefully carried it home, set it in my bedroom window, and tended it with loving care. Then I chopped the first of its leaves and sprinkled them over a poached egg, believing that perhaps this was an omelet. My second encounter was also with rosemary. A college friend and I were traveling from California to the Grand Canyon during spring break and I was doing the roadside cooking. We stopped at a gas station somewhere near Kingman, Arizona, and I noticed some scruffy plants around the periphery of the gas station. They smelled like rosemary, so I took some cuttings and used them on that night’s chicken dinner. Delish! A couple of years later, when I had a garden with some space behind my college house, I actually planted an herb and vegetable garden all of my own. (I will not forget the very first dish I made from my garden treasures: a soup of cabbage, tomatoes, and rosemary.) By that time, I had become interested in both the medicinal and the culinary uses of herbs, so I had great fun cooking and mixing herbal decoctions for colds and flu. Jump forward a few years and I was living in Southern California, leading tours, teaching herb cooking classes, and catering herb lunches at the largest herb nursery in the United States. Very little in this world could compare to a saunter through the mother garden on a warm day. Aromas of rosemary, oregano, sage, and more exotic herbs would rise up to meet me as I brushed against them. What a beautiful place it was! My lunches were redolent with juicy, herb-filled recipes and were ultimately laid out picnic style on the large rolling lawn that sloped down to the pond. Many of the recipes I developed then are still in my repertoire today; in fact, you might even find some of them in this book. Truth be known, the garden itself was the inspiration for my cooking. Rather than choosing main ingredients around which to build a dish, I chose my herb or herbs from what looked good on any given day, then built my dish around them. As one of my culinary heroes, Angelo Pellegrini, wrote in his book The Food Lover’s Garden, The garden becomes, as it has for me, a veritable arsenal of culinary suggestions. As you survey what you have grown, and come to know their individual and collective virtues, they suggest what use you may make of them on any given day to produce a good dinner. I know whereof I speak, for I have learned to listen to mine. And they have never disappointed me. As I look back over the years, I can see the ways in which herbs have woven themselves in and out of my life. Even today, I continue to enjoy them in the garden, the kitchen, and even in flower arrangements throughout the house. A WORD ABOUT HERBS First, a distinction: The term herb is used for the green parts (leaves) of aromatic plants, whereas the term spice refers to woody plant parts and seeds, such as cinnamon (bark) or coriander seed. No one knows for sure why herbs developed such strong smells and flavors, but scientists have surmised that the sometimes bitter, aromatic oils that develop in little pods on the surface of the leaves are a natural insect repellent. In addition, these little oil glands also store moisture in the form of oil in the leaves, useful in the dry Mediterranean climate where many herbs originated and where water would quickly evaporate. It is these oils (also called volatile oils or aromatic oils) that give the plant its characteristic flavor and aroma. As it turns out, the better the growing conditions (good soil, plenty of nutrients, and adequate water), the more fully these little glands develop. Because the oils are so volatile (they evaporate quickly and easily), most herbs, unlike spices, don’t stand up well to prolonged cooking periods, and should best be added at the end of the cooking time. How and why did people first begin to use herbs in their cooking? I can only guess that these flavorful green things made even the plainest ingredients taste more appealing. Many years ago, I was working on a biography and staying in a small trailer near the creek that runs through Davis, California. The only cooking implements left behind by the former occupant were an old vintage 1970s Crock-Pot and a very unstable old frying pan. In the spirit of adventure, I went to the local co- op and purchased every kind of bean it had, then cooked my way through them, taking just one kind of bean, cooking it, adding some good salt and then walking outside the kitchen to see what herbs were in the garden. I would usually flavor each soup with only one herb just to get a feeling for the purity of flavors in both the beans and the herb. It may sound dull to some, but it was a wonderful experiment and led me to a career writing about the many things that can be done with a slow cooker—and now with herbs. Both are so practical and so useful for just about anything and everything. I invite you to begin the adventure of getting to know the herbs in your garden (or out in nature) and to view any recipes as points of departure rather than as destinations in themselves. For this reason, I have chosen to present my recipes around a series of templates, or basic recipes that can become as different as night and day, depending upon how you choose to vary and arrange your ingredients. And I encourage you to play around with them and develop your own style and your own repertoire of recipes that work for you, your family, and your friends. As with my book 50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker, I have taken an “easy on the planet, the pocketbook, and the palate” approach because I believe many people today are looking for dishes that are easy to make, soul satisfying, and yet have a “conscience.” I see no need for exotic ingredients, when in many cases, you can eat very well from your own backyard, supplemented by a few items from the farmers’ market and supermarket. There is no question that such a diet is relatively inexpensive (easy on the pocketbook), more healthful (does anyone still contest that a meat- based diet is not particularly healthful?), and a heck of a lot easier on the planet. In addition, growing some of our food, or even just the condiments, and spending some time with our feet planted in the soil every day, somehow begins to restore us to a closer connection with the land from which most of us have become so alienated. A WORD ABOUT TABLEWARE Digging around in the garden isn’t the only way to maintain a closer connection with the earth. I’ve found a means of taking that feeling one step further. To wit, I delight in using plates, bowls, and cups made from the earth itself. I love the feel of handmade pottery in my hands, the resonance of a fork against the plate, or ice clinking in a stone or earthenware cup. There’s a sense of soul in these handmade products: the soul of the earth, the soul of the potter, and the transformational magic of earth and fire—a heartbeat, if you will, that you will never find in a mass-produced, machine-made piece of work. A WORD ABOUT THE RECIPES I have enjoyed cooking with herbs out of my garden for many years, and the older I get, the more I appreciate simplicity in cooking, and in life in general. I no longer feel the need to rush around collecting exotic ingredients to feed myself, my family, and my friends. The challenge I have set myself today is to create something beautiful and enjoyable out of ingredients I have on hand or in the garden. I have no intention of giving up my Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a good Sonoma Dry Jack completely, but for the most part, I am happy with simple dishes. When I was a little girl, I had a fashion-plate auntie. She was beautiful. She had charisma. She had great fashion sense. And she never stopped touting the merits of the classic “little black dress.” No matter what kind of budget you had, the little black dress should be the best you could possibly afford. Then, with a little ingenuity, you could dress it up or dress it down. Make a hundred outfits out of one simple black dress. And she did. Auntie was no good in the kitchen. Her expertise was limited to the social register and the country club. But her “little black dress” theory works just as well in the kitchen as it did at the club or theater. We should all have a few good template recipes—our culinary “little black dresses.” There should be one each for our favorite dishes, and it should work every time. It should be simple enough to be whipped up fairly quickly. And it should not involve a lot of ingredients or exotic items. Above all, it should be flexible, so that with the addition of a little of this or some of that, it can go downtown or uptown, just like auntie’s little black dress. In this case, variety can be supplied by an array of herbs and simple ingredients. You will find a series of templates, or basic recipes, for each section in the book, with variations on a theme. In most cases, the first recipe in the section does not even include herbs in the ingredients. It is a blank slate, ripe for experiment. Use what you have. See what you like. By no means should you restrict yourself to the basic recipes or the variations. Be inspired by them to go out and create your own favorite recipes that you’ll go back to again and again. TIPS FOR COOKING WITH HERBS • Wash herbs off in the garden, let them dry, then cut them. • To dry larger quantities of herbs quickly, place them in a pillowcase and whirl it around. (You might want to go outside first, by the way.) • Use a very clean, sharp knife for cutting herbs. You want to cut them cleanly, not mash or bruise them. Bruised herbs will oxidize and discolor quickly. If you are chopping them in a food processor, make sure the blade is good and sharp and that both the herbs and the processor are dry. • To remove small-leafed herbs such as thyme or woody leaves such as rosemary, run your index finger and thumb down the stems. • To chiffonade (cut into thin strips) herbs such as basil or mint, stack the leaves and roll them into a cigar shape, then, using a very sharp knife or a pair of sharp kitchen scissors, cut thin slices crosswise. A fresh herb chiffonade is a great finish for a dish. • To snip small amounts of chives, gather the clean chives into a bundle, then snip them with very sharp scissors. It’s a bit easier than using a knife. • Consider allowing each herb to assert its own personality by choosing cooking and chopping techniques accordingly. Coarsely chopped herbs are good for more rustic dishes, and they yield their flavors more slowly to the finished dish. Finely chopped herbs are great for smoother dishes and will blend in with other ingredients very