Contents
Having bought greens, it is important to keep them fresh and juicy. The most effective way is to put a bunch of greens in a glass of cold (even better with pieces of ice) water and cover it with a plastic bag with holes in it. In this form, this whole structure is placed in the refrigerator. The greens will retain their quality for 3-4 days. If you mainly use chopped greens, you can rinse, dry, chop and freeze them in small portions – it is convenient to use ice cube trays. Olive oil can be added to each if desired.
Sage
In our country, sage is more often perceived as a gargle for a sore throat, but completely in vain. Sage has a pleasant delicate aroma and slightly bitter taste. Fresh, its dense leaves are put in salads with poultry and hard cheeses, dried ones are added to soups and vegetable stews from potatoes with eggplant. In Italy, veal is stewed in red wine with sage. In America, sage is put into minced meat for a Christmas turkey. Fresh sage is also combined with fish, but you need to put 2-3 leaves, no more, otherwise it will kill the taste of the fish.
Sage
Thyme
He’s thyme. This herb has been used by mankind for many centuries: suffice it to say that among the Egyptians it was part of the composition with which the mummy was embalmed. A little thyme (so as not to taste bitter) is brewed along with tea, getting a wonderful invigorating and even medicinal drink that can be drunk cold. Thyme goes well with cottage cheese, potatoes and beans. The combination of thyme with garlic, olive oil and red wine in different proportions makes excellent sauces for meat and offal.
To fully develop the aroma of thyme, you need to put it at the beginning of cooking, you can use it with rosemary.
Thyme
Lemongrass
He’s lemongrass. Lemongrass is often mistakenly referred to as lemongrass. Sliced lemongrass has a fresh citrus herb flavor. This herb, found throughout Southeast Asia, defines the flavor of many Thai and Vietnamese dishes. From a fresh stem (use only 8-10 cm of the lower part), you need to remove the upper dried layer – the stems are arranged in the same way as leeks. Lemongrass is flattened with a strong blow, then cut or ground in a mortar and placed in soups, curries, poultry, seafood and fish dishes. It goes well with cilantro and coconut milk. Sometimes its stem is “grinded” and this kind of brush is used to grease meat or poultry with the juice formed during baking.
Lemongrass
Kaffir lime
Kaffir lime leaves – like the kaffir lime itself – a round fruit the size of a golf ball with a thick skin – is widely used in Thai cuisine. In order for the dense glossy leaves to give their aroma to the dish, you need to break the leaves in half, pulling out the central vein. Crushed lime leaves are placed in curry pastes and generally added to soups
and dishes with sauce – a few minutes before the end of cooking. Whole leaves are not eaten – they are, of course, edible, just very tough and spicy.
Kaffir lime
Cilantro
The tangy and spicy herb is one of the main components in the cuisine of the peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cilantro is eaten just like that, wrapped in bread or pita bread, stuffed with cakes. Add to soups, meat and vegetable dishes. They stuff baked fish with it, rub it together with fruits, berries and vegetables into sauces. Coriander seeds are the world’s most abundant spice. Cilantro goes well with tarragon and dill. It can be grown in the middle lane, but it will not give seeds.
Cilantro seeds are called coriander all over the world – and it is one of the most common spices in the world. The leaves and seeds have nothing in common in taste.
Cilantro
Dill
Our ancestors valued dill not for its taste, but for its appearance and aroma. They were either awarded to the valiant, or decorated at home, or made from it a tincture against mosquitoes. It began to be used as a herb only in the XNUMXth century. Ripe dill is only good for being put in pickles. Fresh dill, finely chopped for
extraction of aroma, it is good not only with fresh vegetables and young potatoes. It perfectly complements seafood, especially crabs. Well, crayfish, it goes without saying. It is interesting to infuse vodka on whole branches of dill.
Dill
Rosemary
Rosemary grows well not only in Italy, but also on the Black Sea coast, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus … and in your home on a sunny windowsill. Rosemary has very fibrous, hard stems and narrow leaves with a rather strong camphor aroma. One of the indispensable ingredients of many Italian dishes, rosemary goes well with chicken and turkey, it can be added in small quantities to scrambled eggs along with tomatoes and garlic. Best of all vegetables.
suitable for eggplants and beans, including green beans. Dried rosemary leaves can be ground between your fingers and sprinkled on green salad with added fruit.
Rosemary
Tarhun
He’s tarragon, the closest relative of wormwood. It grows wild in Europe and Asia, in particular, in Siberia, and in the East. Only now it is much more popular for some reason in Transcaucasia. A very common combination there: young cheeses or yogurt and tarragon. In Armenia, tarragon is served with baked trout. Its stems quickly become too tough to be eaten raw, but they are used in pickles: cucumbers, mushrooms or squash with tarragon are a real delicacy.
Tarhun
Parsley
Originally from the Mediterranean. This is probably the most common herb in our kitchens. There are few dishes in the world that parsley can spoil. There is one “but”: to get the maximum flavor from these dense leaves, they need to be chopped very finely, literally “into dust.” Coarsely chopped parsley will not only give little flavor, but it will also be unpleasantly tough in the finished dish.
Parsley
Curly parsley
It tastes more bitter, and its leaves are much tougher than flat-leaved ones, but the aroma is much stronger, especially when cooked. You need to add chopped curly parsley for a minute and a half until cooked. It goes well with meat and especially fish; and the simplest fried mushrooms (for example, champignons or Polish porcini), flavored with finely chopped parsley, stewed in butter, turn into an exquisite dish.
Curly parsley
Mint
We most often use peppermint, curly or long-leaved mint. Pepper is the coolest. In England, mint jelly sauce for lamb is made from it, in America it is added to desserts. Long-leaved in Georgia and Armenia is used in the preparation of cheeses, put in marinades for barbecue, soups. It goes well with rose water and is suitable for fruit desserts. Curly has a more delicate smell than the previous two, and does not “cool”, it is good in marinades and pickles.
Mint
Purple basil
He is Reikhan or Reagan – a Caucasian relative of green basil, its leaves are bright purple. It has a harsher taste and the stems are too tough to be eaten raw. Reikhan goes well with pickled cheeses, fried lamb and fatty dishes like Uzbek pilaf, promoting proper digestion. This herb works well in combination with garlic and cilantro. To prevent chopped Reyhan from being too black in the finished dish, add it at the very last moment.
Purple basil
Green basil
In Russia, this herb was called “darlings” for its pleasant smell, which cannot be confused with anything, and from the Greek “basilikos” is translated as “regal.” Basil can be put in salads (it goes very well with tomatoes), seasoned with meat (especially lamb), added to a bouquet for pickles (it gives an absolutely amazing taste to cucumbers). From the basil
make the famous seasoning – Ligurian pesto. To keep the basil emerald green when milled, dip it in boiling water for a few seconds and then in ice water.
Green basil