I bought this book decades ago, when I was young and my biggest garden dream was to have a herb garden of edible and medicinal plants. The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices by Sarah Garland talks about identifying herbs, growing them, which bits are for what and stuff. I remember reading through the plant identification and propagating bits when I first got the book, but I haven’t returned to it since. It also has a great selection of recipes which I decided to try along with all my other cookbooks, as this book is only just slightly less than half recipes.
The recipes are all straight forward, well written and very tasty. The meal was a huge success and there are several we want to repeat. So if you want a book that teaches you a bit about herbs and spices, as well as give you some tasty recipes to try, you can’t really go past this one. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Steamed spinach and ginger
Ingredients:
- 750g spinach
- 1 tablespoon grated root ginger
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 finely chopped shallot or mild onion
- 2 crushed garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon sherry
- salt
Method:
- Warm the oil and gently simmer the shallot, garlic cloves and ginger until soft. Raise the heat, add the spinach and cook fast for 1 minute, stirring all the time. Add the sherry and a pinch of salt, cover the pan and steam for a few minutes until tender.
Notes on this recipe:
- Yum!
Spiced hard-boiled eggs
Ingredients:
- 8 shelled, hard-boiled eggs
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- seeds from 4 cardamom pods
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- a pinch of turmeric
- 150ml plain yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander or parsley leaves
- salt and pepper
Method:
- Warm the oil in a heavy frying pan. Add the cumin, cardamom, paprika and turmeric and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the yoghurt, lemon juice and herbs. Correct the seasoning. Pour over the hard-boiled eggs and cool.
Notes on this recipe:
- Yum!
Chicken in chili sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 jointed chicken, about 2 kgs
- 1 seeded, sliced red chilli
- 3 flattened garlic cloves
- 250g cubed smoked streaky bacon
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 25g seasoned flour
- 2 seeded, sliced red peppers (capsicum)
- 1 sliced onion
- 4 roughly chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 glass red wine or water
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon powdered saffron (or turmeric)
- salt and pepper
Method:
- Fry the garlic and bacon for a few minutes in the oil in a flameproof casserole. Roll the chicken joins in the flour and add, turning until golden. Remove the chicken to a warm plate. Add the chilli, red peppers and onion and cook gently until soft.
- Return the chicken to the pot with the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes) or until tender. Check the seasoning. Serve with rice and a green salad.
Notes on this recipe:
- It looks like it doesn’t have enough liquid, it probably does. Just check about halfway through cooking time that there is sufficient liquid (there should be plenty released by the tomatoes and capsicum).
- This is also quite tasty, but not very spicy.
Saffron rice with nuts
Ingredients:
- 225g basmati or long-grain rice
- 1/4 teaspoon powdered saffron (or turmeric)
- 25g blanched, roughly chopped almonds
- 25g chopped pistachios or hazelnuts
- 25g pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons oil
- salt
- 25g currants
- a pinch of ground cinnamon
Method:
- Gently fry the rice in 1 tablespoon of the oil, stirring for 5 minutes. Mix in the saffron (or turmeric), a pinch of salt and cold water to cover the rice. Simmer, covered tightly, until tender.
- Meanwhile, fry the nuts in the remaining oil until lightly coloured, stirring all the time. Mix in the currants and cinnamon. Pile the yellow rice in a warm shallow dish and top with the nut mixture.
- To make a more substantial dish, cook the rice in chicken stock and add chopped white chicken meat to the nut mixture.
Notes on this recipe:
- The rice will take between 15 – 20 minutes to cook, start checking the rice from 15 minutes of cooking time onwards so it doesn’t burn.
- This is really tasty, mixing the nuts through your serve before you eat it, is amazing.
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