Date: 11:29 pm Fri Apr 12, 1996 Number : 54 of 100 From: Galen Starwalker Base : [PODS] Herbal Tips & Tricks To : All Refer #: None Subj: Culinary Herbs 11 Replies: None Stat: Sent Origin : 12 Apr 96 00:52:00 2.11.3 Using / preserving tarragon ----- From: mrooney@mrooney.pn.com (Michael Rooney) Tarragon pesto with pecans is a pretty good way to save it. ----- Vinegar recipe, anyone? That IS the classic way to preserve tarragon. You can also dry it or freeze it or freeze it in oil. ----- From: Lawrence.H.Smith@williams.edu (Lawrence H Smith): Vinegar recipe, if you like. Clean/sterilize a canning jar. Stuff with Tarragon. heat white vinegar (or wine vinegar) to/near boiling. Pour into jar, seal, put in dark place. Strain off into another jar at a date depending on your tarragon taste tolerance - 2-6 weeks, or leave it until used. Adjust amount stuffed & time to taste. A canning jar is used primarily to reduce the likelihood of the jar cracking when boiling vinegar is poured into it. Tarragon dries well - ideally, hang the branches in a dark warm place (such as an attic, or in a paper bag), and then collect the leaves into a jar for storage when dry. It freezes alone with a lack of fuss that suggests that freezing in oil is probably not worth the bother. You can also make up a flavored oil in a similar fashion to the vinegar recipe, though boiling the oil would not be a good idea...(warming it a bit might help). ----- Here's another tarragon recipe. I found it in *the Herb Book* by Boxer & Blck Baked Eggs with Tarragon 3 sprigs tarragon 2/3 cup light cream sea salt & fresh black pepper 4 large eggs Strip one teas of the best tarragon leaves from the sprgs and chop them. Put the rest in a small pan with the cream and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover the pan, and leave for 20 minutes. Strain the cream and add salt and pepper to taste. Break each egg into a buttered indiviual baking dish and stand them in a roasting pan with enough hot water into to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Cook in a moderate oven 325 deg F until the whites are almost set. Pour a little cream over each one, just enought to cover the sruface, then return to the oven for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle with the chopped tarragon and serve immediately. This book--a nice coffee table book which offers tips on growing herbs and history of herbal lore--also includes a recipe for scrambled eggs with tarragon. Two tablespoons for eight eggs. You then serve the eggs on pumpernickel toast. There's also a recipe for tarragon soup using a roux from chicken stock, cream, egg yolk, salt and pepper and fresh tarragon--about four cups of stock and six sprigs of tarragon. That one's easy enough to figure out on your own, and strict vegetarians would make adjustments for the egg and cream. ===== 2.11.4 Which tarragon do you have? ----- From: HeK There are 2 kinds of true tarragon: Artemisia dracunculus var.sativa (French tarragon) and Artemisia dracunculus var.inodora (Russian tarragon). The French tarragon cannot be grown from seed, it's taste is finer but it isn't frosthardy. The Russian tarragon can be grown from seed, it's taste isn't so good but it will survive outdoors in Finland. Then there are the Mexican mint marigold and things like that, which are used like tarragon. Anyone know the latin names? ========== 2.12 Nasturtiums ----- Latin name: Tropaeolum majus. 2.12.1 Growing Nasturtiums ----- Not fussy for "growing at all", but do respond well to rich, loose, well-drained soil & compost, plus regular watering, for growing nice large plants. Differences with the same variety on different spots have been dramatic (plants & leaves 2-3 times larger on good spots). Hummingbirds like the flowers. ----- From: baker.325@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (gwen baker) If they get aphids - usually after midsummer in zone 5 - simply spray with a dilute soap. Any kind will work. Then rinse the leaves well before use. From: Lawrence.H.Smith@williams.edu (Lawrence H Smith) to above: Never had much trouble from insects - have had some aphids, had some aphid damage, but it never amounted to anything worth bothering to control. Most bugs don't find nasturtiums _that_ appealing. ====== 2.12.2 Harvesting nasturtiums ----- From: Lawrence.H.Smith@williams.edu (Lawrence H Smith): I've had good results just picking leaves & flowers as needed for salad - once established, they produce right up until frost. You probably shouldn't harvest more than about 1/3 of the leaves from plants you intend to keep harvesting from. ===== 2.12.3 Using / preserving nasturtiums ----- Nasturtium leaf is wonderful in salad. Slightly bitter but refreshing. I don't think it preserves very well and should only be used fresh. ----- From: Lawrence.H.Smith@williams.edu (Lawrence H Smith): Any sort of cress-ish or lettuce-ish use - they are a bit hot like cress. The flowers are edible as well, and make a nice garnish. Large leaves from plants in rich plots can be used for lettuce-like purposes in sandwiches (or hamburgers) - the smaller ones tend to slip out annoyingly. Flowers do well both in salads, and floating on cold soups. need for other greens. Great for just eating in the garden. Have not tried preserving - I suppose you could blend up some nasturtium mush and freeze it for use in soup, but it's basically a fresh thing. ----- >...toss in a few nasturtium pods for false capers. So are these before the bloom -- the buds? Or after the bloom -- seed pods? Do you preserve them? ----- From: snielsen@orednet.org (Susan L. Nielsen) Pickled Nasturtium Pods or Seeds After the blossoms fall, pick off the half-ripened Nasturtium seed pods. Continue as your crop develops to drop them into a boiled and strained mixture of: 1 quart white wine vinegar 2 teaspoons Pickling Salt 1 thinly sliced onion 1/2 teaspoon each allspice, mace and celery seed 3 peppercorns Keep refrigerated and use as a variation for capers. Taken from 'The Joy of Cooking', Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., New York, 1975. ===== 2.12.4 What kinds of nasturtium are there? ----- From: Lawrence.H.Smith@williams.edu (Lawrence H Smith): There's your basic nasturtium with green leaves & red & yellow & orange flowers, the same but with varigated leaves, and a variety with all red flowers and a "more compact" growth habit (cherry flowered, I think it's called). I think there is also a climbing variety, but I don't have any of those. ========== --- DB 1.58/003790 * Origin: The Rain Forest * Denver,CO * (93:9083/4)