Tarragon is one of my favorite herbs. Even though I've never been able to find French Tarragon locally, the Mexican tarragon works fine for me and has the prettiest flowers and comes back every spring.
Beside it in the pictures is a kitchen essential that no one could call pretty but I've treasured it for five decades. It's a wide-mouth funnel that I used every summer for canning.
I haven't done any canning in ages but I still use that old funnel to fill jars easily, like with the Ranch dressing I made in the picture above. And I save glass jars all the time now since we threw away all our plastic food storage containers.
All of those Tupperware parties I went to as a young married and didn't realize how bad it was to store food in them!
If you don't have one of these handy funnels, here's a link to a pretty one. I thought about buying one but it seemed like being unfaithful to my old friend. When I use it I remember all the jars of chili sauce I put up each August, and corn relish and pepper relish and pickled okra and every kind of jelly and jam imaginable.
Do you still can and preserve garden goodies? I miss those days. I wonder if RH would agree to give me a few days to put up chili sauce one more time?
[Woman's Home Companion ad, July 1943]
Besides fresh tarragon, I use a lot of tarragon vinegar too. And my favorite brand is Sparrow Lane.
Their Tarragon Champagne Vinegar is amazing, as is their Pear and their Gravenstein Apple Cider and everything else they make. Here's a link to their vinegars!
I've been on a seafood and fish kick this summer and fresh tarragon and tarragon vinegar seems to go so well with it.
I've cooked rainbow trout anytime I could find fresh North Carolina ones at the store. Here's a pic of it with tarragon butter sauce...just google any recipe for the sauce, some of them call for shallots too but for delicate trout that would be overpowering.
With salmon I tend to use fresh dill...
Don't you just love that you never have to replant dill? Ours sprout up all over the garden each spring.
And of course, pasta shrimp dishes just seem to call for basil and parsley, don't they?
I do wish I could figure out one other kitchen essential. Why is it that some bloggers' kitchens look gorgeous even in the midst of cooking a big meal, with dirty pots and pans overflowing the sink and dirty bowls and dishes on the counters, while mine just looks a mess?
But then if I had a gorgeous huge vintage copper sink, maybe I would post more pictures of dirty pots in mine too. And it wouldn't hurt a bit if I was as beautiful as she is while cooking. Please, please don't think I'm putting her down because she is my number one online inspiration and I adore her! I really must share her YouTube channel with you because...well, just because it's my favorite and we should always share our favorites, don't you think?
By the way, is there any more tedious task than peeling and deveining shrimp? These Gulf shrimp were worth it but I was so thankful I wasn't cooking for a crowd.
What is your most tedious cooking chore? Besides washing the pots and pans, that is?
And what is your favorite herb? I have a dear friend who cannot abide cilantro, which amazed me until I read that many people have a gene that makes cilantro taste like soap to them. Okay now, am I gullible to believe that or is it just another urban legend? Anyone know?
Tarragon is a favorite herb of mine, wonderful with fish and chicken. Now you've got me wanting some fresh tarragon, Mexican is what I can usually find down here also.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, those vinegars look and sound amazing, making my mouth water. ;-)
Have a great Friday and weekend ~ Love you ~ FlowerLady
I'm a vinegar lover too, Lorraine. Can't resist a new one.
DeleteYou have a great weekend, too! Love to you!
We have a vinegar and olive oil store right here in town! I'll have to see if they have tarragon vinegar. I made chive vinegar this spring and shame on me, I haven't even used it yet!
DeleteI would love to go to that store, Melanie! I used to make chive vinegar too but it's been years.
DeleteI have a wide mouth funnel, too that was my dear mother in law's! It is so useful.
ReplyDeleteCilantro....tastes JUST like soap to me. Can't stand it. I use parsley in its place.
Living in Wisconsin, I plant dill every year. I have never ever had it come back the next year! My chives come back, but not dill or basil or parsley, etc.
I have never had tarragon vinegar, and don't know if I have ever seen it!! But I am not a seafood lover at all.
Fun post & have a good weekend!
My dill doesn't come back here in IL either, but it does for my neighbor-friend down the street! Go figure, right?
DeleteIsn't that strange, dill coming up in some climates and not others, and even down the street from Melanie. Chris, I think there must be as many people who hate cilantro as love it. Have a good weekend too!
Deletenow see... I thought the pictures in this post were/ARE simply beautiful!
ReplyDeleteand I'm not just saying that. I mean it. there is a mellowness in the light. not describing it well. but do you see it? a warm glow. it makes me think of the light in the kitchen of 'The Bridges of Madison County' when he danced with her. Your kitchen is and always will be beautiful Dewena. because it's about LOVE. and good tastes. and great smells. and wonderful memories of HOME and youth and mothers and daughters and FAMILY and all the good things a kitchen is supposed to be about.
and I've never tasted that much soap. but I have that gene. I keep trying to like cilantro and I just CAN'T!!! LOL! BLECH! xoxo
I remember that kitchen, Tammy! I did love the book but thought Meryl Streep was miscast in the movie, much as I admire her work. I thought Isabella Rosselini would have been perfect in the part. And I guess I felt a little sorry for the husband, right?
DeleteThank you for your compliment! And I'll stop trying to convince you to eat cilantro now that I know you can't help hating it!
I'm making pasta tonight and you made me hungry for prawns. We can buy them off the boats in Steveston. That cilantro gene is real. I have two friends who are foodies but who can not tolerate cilantro. Our kitchen is just a galley but I love my talavera Mexican tiles and terra cotta floor. Everything is stainless steel and grey these days. It reminds me of a surgery not a kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of your kitchen! It sounds as if it has unique character, just like you do!
DeleteI think your kitchen and cooking "mess" look beautiful because it's real life! Believe me, when I cook, my scratched, dull stainless steel sink, old formica counters and oak cabinets don't lend to a beautiful ambiance either. ;-) We have to remember that these famous people are being paid to have their kitchens look perfect and for even themselves to look perfect while doing so. Not real life!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I love about summer is all the fresh herbs in the garden. It is one of my simple pleasures in life to run outside at the last minute and snip herbs for our food. Even better when I do it barefoot. ;-) I miss that so much in the winter. Tonight I am roasting carrots and I'm going to put fresh rosemary and parsley on them.
Thank you for the link to the wide mouth funnel. I'm going to order it! I never even knew there was such a thing. (I obviously don't can.) I have an old, yucky plastic funnel with a narrow spout.
Your homemade ranch dressing looks good. Could you share the recipe on your blog in the near future? Like you, I make our salad dressings and I also use glass jars. I've never found a good homemade ranch dressing - I bet yours is fantastic!
I love cilantro, but yes, I've heard that some people can't stand it because to them, it tastes like soap. That is definitely a thing, not a myth. Here's an interesting article about it. I guess it's genetic:
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people
Melanie, I love carrots, always looking for new recipes, especially if they lean toward the savory instead of sweet. Carrots are so sweet already that I prefer them herby instead. I will read your link! And oh Melanie, I am so embarrassed to admit this to you but my "homemade" ranch dressing is simply the dry buttermilk Ranch Dressing I add the Hellmans and local family farm buttermilk to. I know, it has all those ingredients on the label we don't want but like you, every homemade recipe I've tried just doesn't have that oomph. And I make my own vinaigrette most of the time and save the ranch for craving times.
DeleteI think the photos in your post look beautiful!! My kitchen is a wreck when I'm cooking so I never photograph it while all that is going on...LOL I remember helping my grandmother and great aunt can tomatoes, okra and cucumbers after pulling them out of the garden. It was hot and always a mess but it was fun. Now canning seems to have gone to the wayside. I think the instant pots are supposed to be good for canning, but I don't have one to give it a try. Anytime I've canned some things, I do it the old-fashioned way...boiling the jars and lids, etc. I love your wide-mouth funnel. That is absolutely perfect and warrants less spills! I love fresh basil...just smells and tastes wonderful AND it's easy to grow. :-) Love and hugs sweet friend!
ReplyDeleteI miss the good feeling I had in the fall after I'd canned and preserved lots of things, Benita, but just am not up to it now, nor do I have the space to store all the jars here. I love basil too, have a buttermilk basil bread I want to make this week. And you might not make many pictures in the process of cooking but you are a genius at styling the finished dishes and making them look pretty!
DeleteMy tarragon is newly planted this year. I hope it flowers like yours! And, dill doesn't come back in my garden either. Hmmm? Cilantro doesn't taste like soap to me, but it is not a big favorite either. Just a little bit goes a long way. Your plattered food always looks magazine-worthy to me! You've shared so many good ideas here, I really need to dress up my fish with some fresh herbs. My least favorite kitchen chore is cleaning as I go when I'm cooking a big meal. I don't have a very big kitchen, so it's a must. But, thankfully, my hubby is always game for pitching in with the washing, so I'm lucky in that respect.
ReplyDeleteCleaning as you go, Karen, that reminds me of my dear Aunt Teenie who when we asked for her fried chicken when visiting one time said, "Well, first let me fill my sink with hot soapy water. I have to clean as I go." That was such good advice and I really need to work on that. Btw, she made the best fried chicken and potato salad!
DeleteIt's YOUR kitchen, starring squeezed lemons, peeled and deveined shrimp and half full bottles of wine, on a counter scattered with handy utensils and equipment that actually get used that is appealing to me, Dewena, because I know that's what real meal prep looks like and your creations are always so pretty, too, because they are made with the most precious ingredient: love!
ReplyDeleteI'm much more familiar with dill, than with tarragon, since it's available all through the year, here, on the island, but I do recall being a little obsessed with the latter, about twenty years ago, when I bought a vinegar infused with it and loved the aroma, as well as the taste.
Like you, I love fresh fish and seafood, although we tend to stick to saltwater fish, since that's what we have access to, but I marinate it similarly, and almost always use either dill, oregano, parsley, rosemary or thyme, or a combination of these, all with olive oil and lemon - it's so delicious!
When I'm in a rush, I tend to get impatient with separating the delicate, thin leaves of dill from the woody stem, before chopping - same goes for fresh mint and parsley! But, I so much prefer it to dried that I take a deep breath and continue, imagining the scrumptious results!
Your metal funnel looks fabulous! Ever since you sent me that list of dangerous plastic, I've tossed almost all that I had, but never thought to check the set of plastic funnels that I have had for over 30 years! Must see to that first thing tomorrow morning!
I've been making fig jam now for two years, in early September, and although I LOVE the results (our own organic figs, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla), the process is very time consuming and demands great attention re: the sterilization and filling stages. We've gobbled up all of last year's and gifted several jars to friends and family, so we'll probably be cooking up a new batch soon!
Keep on cooking and sharing your always inspiring delicacies that you dream up, Dewena; they're always such a special treat!
Happy Sunday,
Poppy xoxo
Poppy, you are so blessed to have saltwater fish at your fingertips! It really is possible to eat a healthy Mediterranean diet when you live on the Mediterranean! But then are you considered living on the Mediterranean, when you live on the Aegean Sea? Still, all that good seafood! RH would love your fig jam. I've never taken to it but then your homemade would probably convert me.
ReplyDeleteI agree, preparing fresh herbs can be a little tedious, as worthwhile as they are in the end. I see cooks on television chopping big clumps of them and wonder if I should do that with more of them, not just the delicate ones. I do save the stems in a bag in the freezer to add when making chicken broth.
But I love dried herbs too and the most deliciously fragrant dried herbs I've ever used is the package of Mediterranean herbs you sent me. I save them for a few minutes before the dish has finished cooking so that I'll still smell that wonderful fragrance. Happy MONDAY to you! I'm always a day late and a dollar short, it seems.
Oops, I see I didn't enter this under your comment, Poppy, but I lost my first comment to that tech ogre that sometimes visits me.
DeleteI have heard this about cilantro. It is a bit like the asparagus thing- some people who eat it claim their pee smells like it! But not everyone. So maybe it is a gene, and that it is true for cilantro, too. BTW, Tom is one of those asparagus eaters.
ReplyDeleteHa! And we promise not to tell Tom what you shared with us, Nan!
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