Tasty Herbalist

Sage in the garden

(An old picture from the summer becuause there has been constant rain here for the last week)

There are many times I laugh at my ridiculousness. I realised on Monday that I am so fixated on plants that I can wild harvest that I have managed to ignore the garden herbs, those pigeon holed culinary herbs, which are miraculously still going strong in the garden.

The sage sits sheltered at the front of the house away from the winds and benefitting from the heat from the walls. It is looking only a little bedraggled and I understand, I feel the same way in the winter. I have both green and purple sage and interchange them quite happily; no point in getting hung up over it. I dried a lot of the leaves last summer thinking that winter would be as severe as last year. Not so, it's been so mild.

I don't use sage leaves on their own very often. They are so pungent and resinous and oh my goodness the taste lingers. Its a powerful herb, something which I think is overlooked. That's not to say we should be afraid to use it just that it's actions are strong. If my thoat is sore I will resort to a strong gargle of hot sage tea,it always works for me, but I don't drink it.

While training in the student clinic we would recommended cold sage tea to menopausal women with bad sweats knowing that its quite foul. It takes quite a lot of determination to make and drink 3 cups of cold sage tea every day. There are more palatable ways to help ease menopausal symptoms but it still requires equal determination . Most things do.

I'd rather eat my sage (it's a warming and stimulating digestive herb after all) and  It tastes so much nicer in a stew, sauce or winter salad dressing. It's wonderfully high in calcium, like all green leaved foods, and it's easy to forget that it is a nutritive dense food in it's own right rather than just a seasoning. Steeping the leaves in cider vinegar will make the calcium more accessible than in water alone. I should create a fact sheet on it because it really is wonderful.

(Sage has clearly been on the minds of others this week too and Lucy has posted a delicious way of eating sage: Sage and onion pie. )

 

not really the new year at all

(New Year's Eve deer)

While I know that technically it's the New year i never feel it is until spring. It's not right that a new year begins half way through a season.

If you've read last years winter newsletter you'll know I don't do new years resolutions until spring but I have  implemented changes to my daily routine which are already starting to become habit. Nothing dramatic, just organisation, but, oh my, what a difference it makes! How has it taken me so long to realise that being tidy and organised is actually a lazier approach to life than chaos and mess? Less time is now spent searching, tidying and feeling generally overwhelmed. With the baby it takes so long to do anything but as long as I don't set time constraints we can potter around stress free. Planning things well in advance seems to be key so I'm starting to think of various garden, home and herbal projects I want to start and/or finish this summer. I've already dug out the layout of my garden which was carefully measured out last year and then nothing planned and out has come my favourite herbal which has the most wonderful design for an edible/medicinal herb garden. I know I'll be inspired.

winter is here

(sadly not my house)

Winter is most definitely here. The warm spell which momentarily confused my roses into blooming is long gone.

There's not much happening on the gardens surface, it's all below where the seeds and bulbs lie waiting. That's OK though as I don't really have the time yet to dedicate to the much neglected garden. I'd like to sit with my notebook, seed catalogues and gardening books and write lists of plants that would probably never survive and draw grand plans of a cottage garden bursting with herbs. Instead the inquisitive hands of a crawling baby dictate that all my garden fantasies must play out only in my head. That is until baby is old enough to hold a trowel and reliably not eat the soil...maybe when she's eighteen then.

Orange slices

The dried orange slices are like exquisite gems glistening in the firelight. Part of me feels the oranges should have been put to better use, perhaps juiced and drank, because turning them into decorations is somewhat frivolous. I dismiss these thoughts quickly as the smell they made on drying was pure aromatherapy for my winter weary soul. They continue to perfume the air even now.

Hawthorn

The hawthorn branches are haphazardly stuffed into vases their berries starting to droop and shrivel without the life support of the tree. I should have gathered many berries to make a sweet and sour dipping sauce but I left them for the birds this year and truth be told I still have some in the freezer from last year. I always think they would add delicious sour note to so many recipes but the thought of sieving the seeds out dissuades me from trying. Next year When I pick them I'll cook them and sieve them en masse before freezing the purée in icecube trays. Experimentation will be easier this way.

My appalling circulation would benefit from some hawthorn especially at this time of year. A teaspoon of gently crushed berries infused in a mug of hot water along with a couple of slices of ginger would do the trick.

Winter 2010 newsletter!

Another addition to the left sidebar is the newsletter. Just up is the new Winter 2010 newsletter. 

The newsletter should be used in conjunction with additional seasonal posts. It's a work in progress though so let me know what you think and what you would like to see more of in a newsletter after all it is supposed to be for your use and benefit.

Oh, and if you spot any typo's again, please let me know. Thanks!

Spicy ginger

I need to break something to you but I’ll do it gently. Ready?

 

It's still winter.

Really. It won’t be spring until March.

 

Don’t let these fool you:

 
 

 

Winter still reigns supreme.

 

So with that bombshell here is a little something to get you through those last few weeks of winter.  It’s really not difficult and the best bit is that you get two products from one recipe. I know! Genius.

First up you’ll get the recipe with pictures and then after you’ll get a lovely downloadable pdf with not so many pictures. Nice! Then you can print it out and put it in a ring binder or, if you like, make it into a paper aeroplane. Much more fun.

Crystallised Ginger

300g fresh ginger

3 Cups water

2 ½ Cups  sugar

(I would also recommend a sugar thermometer as it simply makes it all easier)

Firstly get your ginger.

 

Now peel that ginger. I like to use a teaspoon to do this. Yes. You heard right. A teaspoon.

Like this:

 (Bad picture courtesy of self timer) 

Peeling with a teaspoon means that just the skin comes off resulting in reduced ginger wastage.

Now chop it or slice it. I like small ginger nibbles so I chopped.

Now I have no photos until the finished products so here is the rest of the recipe.

1) Cover your ginger with water and simmer, with the lid on, for 20 minutes. It will still feel quite firm at this stage.

2) Drain into a jug to reserving all the liquid. Top this liquid up to 2 ½ cups.

3)  Put the 2 ½ cups liquid and 2 ½ cups sugar in the pan and add back in the ginger pieces.

4) Bring this mix up to a rolling boil keep it there until your sugar thermometer reaches 106C or 225F. (This stage is likely to take longer than you think. I find that it quickly nearly reaches the temperature but takes a good ten minutes to actually hit 225F/106C. Watch it though.

Once it reaches the correct temperature take it off the heat.

Strain the ginger straight away while it is still hot (reserving the syrupy liquid) and toss the ginger pieces into more sugar until they are coated. 

Here are mine...

Deeelicious. 

Whats that? Oh.They're pink you say.

 I had hoped you wouldn't notice.

In my excitement to make crystallised ginger I forgot one thing. To check I had everything. I didn't have enough sugar to roll my ginger in so I had to use my experimental batch...

 

...the batch  which i had scented with rose petals...

...and coloured with natural food dye.

At least I can say I'm resourceful.

Oh yes, before I forget, I had mentioned it was two recipes in one. Well you obviously have the crystallised ginger but you also have a ginger syrup and I have more recipes for each of those coming up soon.

So here you go, as promised,a downloadable recipe card: Crystallised Ginger

 (I also want to add just two things. 1) Please be careful when working with any hot liquid but especially hot sugar and 2) Use a much bigger pan than you think you will use. When the sugary water comes to a rolling boil it will at least triple in size. A bigger pan will educe the risk of spills and burns.)