Herbs-less known power players

Following the story ‘White Hat: Green Thumb!’ In this article BISTRO is bringing to the reader’s attention some of the lesser-known herb varieties. They can be flavour power players when used appropriately.

White or Blue Borage

The whole plant is edible, and the leaves and flowers taste similar to fresh cucumber. Just lightly chop it and add to salads.

Cardoon
The fronds of this fern-like Italian plant have attractive silvery foliage. It’s in the artichoke family, and the leaves are bundled together to protect them from the sun and keep them tender. You devein the plant’s ribs, much like pulling strings from a stalk of celery. “Then you smash and pulverize the ribs enough to break down the fibers,” Gerace explained. “You eggwash them, dip them in breadcrumbs and seasoning with Parmesan cheese, and pan-fry them with olive oil and garlic. They taste similar to fried artichoke hearts.”

Chervil

It looks like parsley, but the flavor is sweeter. Often referred to as the “gourmet’s parsley,” chervil tastes mildly of licorice combined with pepper imparting certain freshness to a dish. Chervil being member of the parsley family, displays curly, dark green leaves with it’s elusive anise flavor. Chervil (also known as cicily and sweet cicily) is one of the main ingredients in fine herbs (a mixture of herbs consisting of chervil, tarragon, chive, and parsley) . Chervil has an ability to enharnce the flavors a the fine herb. Suitable for use in salads, soups, casseroles, roast vegetables, chicken, white fish and egg dishes. Unlike parsley this herb loses it’s taste once boiled, so best used in the last moment to preserve flavor.

Espazote

Popular in Latin-American cooking, especially bean dishes. “You’ll recognize it when you smell it,” Gerace said. “It’s usually in black beans or pintos, or chopped and used fresh in tacos, fajitas and burritos.”

Kaffir Lime

O’kay it’s technically not an herb, but instead of using the fruit you use the leaves. Pronounced kaff-EE, this is the flavor in a majority of popular Thai dishes. “This type of lime has lots of extra scent, extra essence,” Gerace said.

Mexican Mint Marigold

An almost equal replacement for licorice-flavored French Tarragon, but Mexican Mint Marigold tolerates heat much better. “I see cooking shows on T.V. where they’re saying they’re using French Tarragon, but if you look closely you’ll see the leaves are much too big to be tarragon,” Gerace said. “It’s actually Mexican Mint Marigold.”

Nasturtium

Leaves and flowers of the nasturtium plant have a peppery, radish/horseradish bite. Add them to salads for an intriguing burst of flavor.
Serve on salads and other green vegetables to add flavour and colour. Pickled Nasturtium seeds are a good source of Vitamin C and taste a bit like capers. Soak green nasturtium seeds in salted water for two days. Drain and soak them in fresh water for another day. Drain once. Place the soaked seeds in a jar and fill with boiled vinegar. After a few days they are ready to eat. Delicious as a condiment to fish.

Salad Burnet

This is another cucumbery taste that’s also an attractive landscape item due to its sylvan foliage. Add it to soups, salads and fish dishes for an interesting flavor layer.

Sweet Lavender

This is not the Spanish Lavender commonly used to scent soaps and perfumes. Whole sprigs of French Sweet Lavender are used to flavor brown sauces, gravies and savory meats such as lamb, pork, beef and wild game. “Or put a spring in your lemonade,” Gerace suggests, “and it adds a whole other scent.”

Vietnamese Coriander

As the days becomes longer cilantro will turn to seed – a process called bolting – and become coriander. Leaves of the shade-loving Vietnamese Coriander are an exceptional replacement for cilantro. The herb has a smell very similar to common coriander, but with a clear lemon citrus note. It is closely related to water pepper, but with far less pungency.

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