In the culinary year, it makes sense to use spices more in autumn and winter, with root vegetables, and herbs in spring and summer, when they are at their fragrant best. And at this time of year match them with the fabulous vegetables available, marrows, courgettes, beans and peas – the smallest, sweetest you can find, ripe tomatoes, fresh onions, flavoursome Gozo potatoes.
At this time of year, my cooking in Xagħra hardly extends beyond the contents of Marvik’s vegetable van in the square. Supplemented by his own ġbejniet and herbs from ‘my’ garden at Ta’ Frenc, I make variations on the theme of baked vegetables for dinner.
Sometimes I stuff tomatoes, marrows and onions with a mixture of rice or breadcrumbs, herbs and cheese or I simply oil an oven-proof dish, layer scrubbed and thinly sliced Gozo potatoes and season them with a little Gozo sea salt.
I add a little more extra virgin olive oil, a layer of courgettes and a layer of sliced tomatoes, adding a few capers and chopped parsley and marjoram between the layers.
A couple of cheeselets are crumbled over the top, more oil if I think it needs it, then a grating of pepper cheese over the top.
This bakes at 180° C until the top is beginning to brown and bubble, about 50 minutes or so. Leftovers are very good cold for breakfast.
I use extra parsley to make a gremolata mayonnaise to serve with some leftover red snapper which I had baked the day before with mint, marjoram, lovage and orange juice. The cold fish makes a perfect first course with a few rocket leaves.
Herbs have always been as important in English cookery as they are in the Mediterranean kitchen.
Gervase Markham, writing in 1615 in The English Housewife, said the first step to skill in cookery was “to have knowledge of all sorts of herbs belonging into the kitchen; whether they be for the pot, for sallets, for sauces, for servings or for any other seasoning for adornment.”
Many of the herbs we use now were introduced to England for cultivation long before 1615.
The Romans introduced a rich variety of pot herbs and salad herbs, including borage, fennel, chervil, coriander, mint, thyme, hyssop and many more.
Originally tended in herb gardens on large Roman estates, the seeds dispersed and fennel and coriander are occasionally found growing wild in the warmer parts of the British isles. Some herbal preparations such as tarragon vinegar and pesto might seem modern developments.
But Dorothy Hartley in Food in England reports that in Ireland of the 1900s, during the potato famine, she came across a preparation, which she referred to in 1954 as “pesto”, using basil, marjoram, parsley, onion or garlic, salt, pepper and “a bit of old dry cheese”, pounded together, mixed to a paste with boiling water, enriched with bacon fat or dripping, and poured over a hot cereal base and raw greens.
Florence White in Good English Food, written in 1952, comments that tarragon vinegar was “commonly used in England for flavouring dishes over a hundred years ago”. In using herbs in our cooking, we are simply following a strong culinary instinct.
As to which herb best suits which vegetable, that is very much a matter of personal taste, although there are some classic combinations such as tomatoes and basil, mint and new potatoes, summer savoury and broad beans.
But I also like to serve a tomato salad with mint or hyssop and I am not at all keen on new potatoes with mint; I much prefer my potatoes with lovage, chives or parsley. And a simple lettuce salad with your favourite herbs and a good vinaigrette is a perfect accompaniment to grills and barbecues.
Cook’s note on crème fraiche
Regular readers will know that I like to use crème fraiche in the kitchen. It is not always easy to find and, as a lightly cultured cream, it is not the same as sour cream. Crème fraiche, or a very close relation, is extremely easy to make at home. You can do it in a saucepan on the stove, or in the microwave. I make mine in a 200ml jar which originally contained sour cream.
I mix 175ml cream with 25ml plain yoghurt in the jar, and microwave it, with the lid off, for one minute on full power. I mix the cream again, partially cover it with the lid, and once the cream has cooled, cover it and refrigerate it. As the cream cools, it will thicken. You can also make the cream in a saucepan on the stove.
Scald the cream, that is, heat it until tiny bubbles appear round the edge of the pan. Remove from the heat, mix in the yoghurt, cool then refrigerate in a sealed container.