cooking with herbs

Yikes! I've just been asked to teach a cooking with herbs class as part of an all-day gardening symposium. I have til sunday to tell them yes or no. I don't even know where to start to figure out what I'd do. Any suggestions? I would like it to be a demo class of some kind.

Herb of the year is horseradish. Cook with that. How long is your demo/class?

I think it's about and hour and 15 minutes.

I didn't know horseradish was an herb! Interesting. I think herb of the year last year was tarragon. Not my favorite but certainly easy enough to showcase. Horseradish is more of a challenge. I've heard it's invasive to grow

Gwendalou. I hope you told them yes! I would be happy to give you some ideas. I have been speaking on hers for 11 years . Most talks some kind of demo, even cooking in electric griddle!
DrtyMrtha

Last year, the herb of the year was dill. This year horseradish. Next year, roses. Go to the Herb Society of America's web site and peruse the article they have on horseradish - it should give you ideas.

The March issue of Herb Companion has a write up on Horseradish too, complete with recipes. http://www.herbcompanion.com/search.aspx?search=horseradish

I did not know it was an herb but have always liked it. For medicinal purposes, it is a mild diruetic which can be good. On the down side, it is recommended to use with caution on thyroid issues. Tasty ~ yum!

Well, I told them no. I decided it was too much stress and work for me right now. I had a bad fall that resulted in angioplasty in December and am trying to 'just say no' to the neverending requests for volunteering. I am going to keep all the ideas everyone suggested and maybe I will do it sometime in the future. Thanks everyone!

Hope you heal quickly Gwendalou!

Well, now I'm back to doing it! One reason I said no was because I couldn't get a room with running water. Now they've decided I can have a room with water. So we're on again.

I've been talking about growing, preserving and using herbs for years. Last fall I did my first actual cooking demo at a local camp's women's retreat weekend. I used an entertaining theme and did a tomato basil drink, salsa, and herbal cream cheese on cucumbers. They loved it and want me to do it again in spring at the next retreat. I'm looking for ideas for things that will be easy to demonstrate that they might find interesting too. In the fall I enlisted a couple of helpers from the audience this spring I think I'd like to try an even more 'hands-on' approach, if that's possible. The group is small, only about 30 women. At any rate I make enough for everyone to sample if they want.

One idea I'm thinking over is an herbal salad & vinaigrette. Maybe I could have them make their own lunch, or part of it. My class is held in the dining hall of the camp. I have an herb garden I keep for them nearby. More than anything, I really want to get people using what they grow. The group I'm dealing with are healthcare professionals, social workers and teachers mostly, from Detroit. The most gardening they do is usually in pots, but they're really interested in herbs. I think I need to really tie in the healthy aspect of herbs were ever I can.

When is your event? Maybe we could toss some ideas back and forth. I don't think I'm going to worry about the herb of the year for this one.

I also did the salsa at another talk to a garden club last fall and found it's really easy and something they might actually go home and try. But it's really a summer/fall thing when our gardens are full of tomatoes & peppers.

Jeane, my event is in late March. Not the best time for herbs in the pnw, but I'll be able to get a few. I'm going to start seeds on my own -- any day now ;) -- in hopes to have growing pots to take in for show and tell and use.

I would love to exchange recipes - very interested in your tomato basil drink, salsa, and herbal cream cheese!

We can chat on the phone, too, if you wish.

So far what I'm planning:

Greet everyone as they come thru the door with either a cold herbal drink or punch or a hot herbal tea if the weather is super cold which is usually is.

I'll talk about herbs and demonstrate things as I go through some demos and sampling. I haven't figured out what I'll say when but will do that closer to the time.

I'm going to cover breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, as well as drinks and desserts.

For breakfast, I'll scramble up some eggs on the spot and add dill.

For lunch, I'm doing chicken salad. I'll sample it plain with no herbs, and then two different versions of chicken salad with herbs. Haven't decided on exactly which herbs yet. In February I'll start experimenting with the recipes.

I'll cover drinks -- teas hot and cold, punches, and the new herbal cocktails that seem to be so trendy. I should be able to demo and sample at least one.

Haven't decided on what to do for dinner. It may be mostly talking and giving ideas. I may demonstrate an herbed salt crust that you wrap around tenderloin. I won't bake it or sample it tho. (Will take it home for my dinner!) I just saw the recipe in a cookbook (I think it was one of Alton Brown's good eats book) and it looked interesting. But I'll talk about using herbs with various meats.

I'll end with herbs and dessert. Sampling lavender cookies I've made up ahead and also ice cream and/or sorbet which we'll make right there. My ice cream maker makes ice cream in 20 mins, so I'll actually start the class with getting it going and then will sample the ice cream when it's done. I'm thinking about lavender vanilla ice cream and/or a citrus thyme sorbet. Have to play around with them first. Oh, I may also do a roasted peach/nectarine (if I can get any in March!) dessert that I add some herbs to.

I'll be passing out a handout that lists which herbs go with which foods, maybe some real basic info on herbs and growing them, and then include recipes.

One thing I have to work out is that I'm not using and talking about the same herb for everything. It would be easy to do the whole class with lavender!

I have an hour and 15 mins but I want to leave the last 15 mins for questions, altho I can be sampling the dessert items while I take questions. I'll have an assistant to be doing the actual passing out of samples, getting me things I need as I go, etc.

And I will cover things like growing, harvesting, storing, prepping throughout the class. I will also throw in a tiny bit about decorating with herbs and using them in arrangements, as I am a floral designer and want to use the class to promote my business a little!

I like your idea of going through the day's meals. But it sounds like a lot of ground to cover in an hour and 15 minutes. I would love to exchange recipes. The tomato, basil drink (with chicken stock) is one from HSA. I have to go to work today. I'll send you a D-mail this week.
Jeane

Hi Gwen ...
Just found this and am wondering how your event went?
~Susan

The event doesn't take place til the third Saturday in March. So I'm still accepting suggestions!

Well, have you decided on a main dish? I love shrimp Scampi and it takes Italian Parsley. You could use the shrimp with the tails on for easy serving. It doesn't require many ingredients, and you could use the above suggestion and make it in a electric skillet. It's a very easy to grow herb, too, and good on everything!

My main dish is going to be chicken salad served three ways - one plain and two with different herbs for comparison. I think scampi would be too expensive. But it's a great idea and I'll keep it in mind.

Oh, that sounds good!☺

Gwendalou, if you are still doing chicken salad, you could try tarragon or mexican mint marigold leaves with some finely sliced celery and halved grapes with a bit of mayo to hold it together. Starbucks makes a sandwich something like this and I love it! Good luck with your presentation!

Where does one get mexican mint marigold leaves? Sounds exotic!

I think I bought my plant from a lady who sells herbs at a local farmer's market. Haven't ever seen it sold as leaves anywhere. Would you like a plant? I could try to chop out a small chunk and see if I can get it growing in a small pot for you. Wouldn't be ready for your talk but you could grow for yourself, if you're interested. I'd just ask you to repay the postage. Let me know by dmail! Janet

Thank you for the offer but I'll pass. I think I'd have an impossible time trying to keep it alive in our climate! I have a hard enough time with the plants that are zoned for this area. lol

Well, I'm recovering from the class I taught yesterday. My legs and feet are killing me from so many days of standing. I plan to take it easy today, watch tv and go to the movies later tonight.

I made a lot of stuff to sample ahead of time, but I also had a few things to make in the class. I attempted to make:

Rosemary Lemonade
Dilly Eggs
Three Way Chicken Salad
Rosemary Rolls
Cilantro Pesto
Rosemary Walnuts
Thyme Pecans
Stuffed Dates with Basil
Thyme Sorbet
Orange Rosemary Pound Cake
Herbes de Provence Orange Butter Cookies
Tisane Shortbread with Lemon Verbena & Lavender
Rose Geranium Cupcakes
Lavender Sage & Lemon Ice Cream

So here's how it went down. When people walked in, they were handed a napkin and a glass of rosemary lemonade. On their seats were a business card of the woman who gave me the rose geranium leaves, a cute little 'menu card' I made up of all the above foods, and three handouts - one with the recipes; one with a list of common herbs, how to grow them, what foods they went well with, etc.; and a generic handout on herbs, using them, storing them, etc.

I had an hour and 15 minutes. At that rate, we had to eat something about once every 5 minutes! (I knew ahead of time there was no way it would all happen.)

Some of the food didn't turn out, or in my opinion wasn't perfect. I did not end up doing an alcoholic drink as I had planned because I realized at the last second I wasn't allowed to serve booze in a public high school setting. I didn't want to risk the fine and jail time. Well, I was more concerned about the fine than the jail time, but anyway, scratched the booze drink.

I had my ice cream machine there and I had the bases already made, so I started the class with pouring the lavender ice cream base into the machine and talking about the herbs in that and the recipe.

Dilly Eggs were basically scrambled eggs with dill. I had someone in the class chop the dill on a cutting board and another person snipped some dill in a cup with my new 'herb scissors' while I scrambled eggs from our chickens on a portable butane burner. That was well received.

Three Way Chicken Salad - I had made up a huge bowl of a plain chicken salad and we divided it into three portions. One to sample plain and two to mix herbs into. The class chose the herbs, participants chopped up the herbs, and we mixed them in and sampled and compared the three different versions.

Rosemary Rolls - they were made ahead and baked but needed to be crisped. I couldn't figure out how to use the microwave convection oven in the class. We never got to the rolls and I brought them home and ate one for dinner. It was good but not excellent.

Cilantro Pesto - This was to be made in class and completely didn't have time for this, so didn't do it.

Rosemary Walnuts - made ahead and was planning to pass them around with the thyme pecans. They turned out very good.

Thyme Pecans - these were to be made at class in a pan over the burner and passed with the walnuts. I got distracted showing the class the base for the thyme sorbet, the pecans started burning, and the janitor came in and made us open windows because the alarm in the entire school was about to go off from all the smoke (It smelled a lot like my kitchen at home on many occasions). A bit of a disaster, but I put the spices on the burnt pecans anyway and we sampled the pecans and walnuts together. I just told people to try and pick out pecans that weren't burnt.

Stuffed Dates with Basil - these are also to be made during class and no time for that, so brought all the ingredients back home with me.

Thyme Sorbet - I had had a bit of a problem with the base when I made it at home, but I took it anyway and we put it in the machine and made it. It was a bit too sweet but you could definitely see the potential. We served both the ice cream and sorbet as the last 2 things.

Orange Rosemary Pound Cake - I felt this had been cooked too long, but people in the class didn't think so and said they liked it.

Herbes de Provence Orange Butter Cookies - These were amazing and also the prettiest cookies I've ever made. These will be in my repertoire from now on, esp as christmas cookies (you can make them weeks and weeks ahead supposedly) but also for any tea, luncheon, or other fancy spring/summer party I ever give. Or at least until I get tired of them or find something else that strikes my fancy.

Tisane Shortbread with Lemon Verbena & Lavender - good and also a good recipe to sub in other flavors.

Rose Geranium Cupcakes - the leaves did not add any flavor to the vanilla cupcakes, which were almost an angel food sort of thing. I think the leaves, while in great shape and gorgeous to look at, were not at their most flavorful peak, so it was actually a good thing to talk about, when to pick herbs for the best flavor. I thought these were overcooked as well. By now people must have been full because I had exactly enough for everyone and ended up bringing a lof of them home.

Lavender Sage & Lemon Ice Cream - really yummy but very filling (as is most homemade ice cream).

All in all - way way way too ambitious for an hour and 15 minutes. Some people seemed disappointed that it was more a cooking class and less about gardening and just herb talk. That is just my impressions from standing in front and watching faces. But many people came up afterward and said how much they liked it. I did have quite a number of experienced gardeners and cooks in the class, but after I realized that anyone who was a novice would have been overwhelmed. Both by the complexity and by the extremely rapid pace at which we went.

There were a few people that talked during the class and were annoying. I don't know what a person is supposed to do about that. I did ask at one point for a little less talking, but I wish there was something one could say that would politely get people to knock it off! I had to strain my voice so loud to talk over them, I had two major coughing attacks (both times while I was standing over food), so that was embarrassing.

So while the class didn't go perfectly, at the end of the day I realized I had learned quite a lot about teaching a class (and about herbs and cooking with them). I didn't get paid for the class but I did have all my ingredient expenses reimbursed. It was a ton of work. I probably put in about a hundred hours in total on it, but I learned enough that I felt it was worth it in the end.

Wow that was quite an undertaking. I bet you're glad it's over! I really like your idea of the three way chicken salad. I had the pleasure of watching Caroline Hansen of Minnesota give a cooking demonstration at the Michigan Herb Associates conference a couple of weeks ago. She had a couple of things that didn't go quite as expected either. One thing I did learn was that it's probably best to have most of what you're going to have sampled prepared ahead of time. Not to have too ambitious a menu and try to anticipate problem areas. My demonstration isn't until May 1st so I still have lots of time to think/worry about it and prepare. I also had the problem last fall of people talking during my demo. I try to engage them in an exchange of ideas but it's still a problem as it's distracting and those that want to hear can't. If I can find one I need to come up with some kind of microphone. Thank you so much for your detailed report. You've made it a learning experience for me too. I'm glad you feel it was all worth it. I know how much work it is.