Monday, May 31, 2010

Weekend Herb Blogging #235 Recap


It's been a pleasure to host Weekend Herb Blogging and as always, it is a true celebration of the seasons. Whether we're growing it in our yards or sourcing them from local markets, you'll find an eclectic mix of well known and new ingredients for you to explore.

As always I've sorted the entries by their featured ingredient.


Avocado

Guacamole
Joanne from Eats well with Others

Joanne offers us the best guacamole ever so we better get in quick before it disappears. Joining avocados are tomatoes, lime juice, red onion, cumin, chilli powder and coriander.


Cherry

Cherry Feast
Betsy from It Started in Bulgaria

Betsy's post on cherries has me longing for it to be cherry season. From just one bag of cherries, Betsy gives us three delicious treats - Cinnamon Cherry Jam, Cherry Jam Bars and Lemon Cherry Muffins.


Lemon

Lemon Pudding


The Meyer Lemon tree is almost at breaking point with this latest crop of lemons so I've tried to ease the strain with this light and tangy Lemon Pudding.


Marjoram

Courgette Omelette with Marjoram
Graziana from Erbe in Cucina (Cooking with Herbs)

Marjoram is one of the herbs that isn't used often enough and like Graziana, you seem to have to grow it yourself to ensure a supply. In this dish, Graziana uses it in a omelette with zucchini (courgette) slices, garlic and parmesan.


Matrimony Vine Leaf

Fresh Matrimony Vine Leaves Soup - Kou Kee Chye Soup
Tigerfish from Teczcape - An Escape to Food

Matrimony Vine leaves are from the Goji Berry or Wolfberry and has you can see, you'll need to be careful of the thorns when picking the leaves. They are high in iron and just like spinach they cook in a flash. In this recipe, Tigerfish blanches them in chicken stock for about 30 seconds and then serves them with noodles, goji berries and mushrooms.



Mint

Mint Limeade
Stacey from Fessenden Farmstead

It's a warm welcome to Stacey for her first WHB where her bountiful supply of Mint is put to a most refreshing use. As an alternative idea to mint tea, Stacy seeps mint leaves in a warm sugar syrup and then combines the strained liquid with lime juice. I may soon be trying this with my own supply of lemons!


Onion Sprouts

Conserved Talli (onion sprouts)
Brii from Briiblog in English


Besides living in a most beautiful part of Italy, Brii also finds some very interesting ingredients such as the subject of this post, Talli. This is a rare ingredient that not many in Italy even know about - flavour wise it's a mix of garlic and onion. For this recipe, Brii preserves the talli in a mix of vinegars and olive oil.


Peas

Roasted Salmon with Mashed Peas
Cinzia from Cindystar

Cinzia's dish is sure to make any celebration extra special. The Salmon fillet has been stuffed with a mix of vegetables (carrot, zucchini, capers, celery and spinach leaves) then baked in the oven. As a contrast to that lovely pink flesh, it's served on a deliciously creamy pea puree.


Pasta with Mint Butter and Peas
Soma from Ecurry

It's a celebration of spring with Soma's pasta dish. Fresh garden peas are quickly warmed in a mint and lemon butter before being tossed through cooked pasta. I can just imagine those beautiful aromas of lemon and mint coming off the pasta.


Plums


Plum Kuchen

Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe

You might say Johanna has gone "plum crazy" with her latest post but if you're a plum lover like me, then you may well find plum nirvana in the form of this Plum Kuchen. A yeasted cake batter, spiced with cinnamon is topped with slices of fresh plums - it's then given extra crunch by a crumble like topping of fresh walnuts.


Quelites

Quelities con Frijoles
Chris from Melecotte

Chris has found a new ingredient called Quelities which as she has discovered, is also called Lambs Quarter and can be used as you would kale and spinach. As it works well with spice, Chris cooks the quelities in a tasty mix of pinto beans, chilli, onion and bacon.


Red Pepper

Creamy Polenta with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis
Janet from The Taste Space

Janet removes any notions of polenta being bland with this flavoursome dish.  She makes a Roasted Red Pepper coulis by blending roasted red pepper and garlic and then adds it to cooked polenta. The polenta is then poured out onto a baking dish, topped with asiago cheese and baked until firm.


Rhubarb

Roasted Rhubarb Limeade
Oz from Kitchen Butterfly

Oz has an come up with a new way of using rhubarb by turning it into the base of a drink. Rhubarb pieces are sliced and tossed in sugar and then roasted until soft. To this a spiced syrup base of vanilla, juniper berries and lime juice is added before the whole thing is blended. The mixture is then sieved to remove the pulp and you're left with a blushingly pink syrup to enjoy.


Strawberry

Spicy Strawberry Jam
Winnie from Healthy Green Kitchen

Winnie adds a fascinating spicy element to strawberry jam in the form of dried aji panca chile. I can easily imagine for those coming into summer, this is the type of recipe that you could have a lot of fun experimenting with.


White Zucchini

Stuffed White Zucchini in Yoghurt Sauce
Anh from A Food Lover's Journey


White Zucchini are given a middle eastern feel in Anh's dish. The zucchini are filled in a fragrant mix of beef, rice, cinnamon and allspice and then par boiled in chicken stock. They are then covered in a thick yoghurt sauce (made by simmering down yoghurt and cornflour) and simmered until cooked through.

I hope you've enjoyed these offerings as much as I have - if I've left anyone out or there are any errors, please just drop me a line.


Next week, the lovely Simona from Briciole will be our host.

Entries should be submitted by the following times:

  • 3pm Sunday - Utah Time
  • 10pm Sunday - London Time
  • 11pm Sunday - Rome Time
  • 7am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time

Send your posts to simosite AT mac DOT com
with WHB#236 in the subject line and the following details:
  • Your Name
  • Your Blog Name/URL
  • Your Post URL
  • Your Location
  • a photo sized:400px wide

11 comments

  1. Gorgeous recap!
    A real celebration in every dish ... quite difficult to choose the best!
    Thank you, Haalo, for carrying on one of the most enjoyable food event in the blog-sphere!

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  2. Thanks for the roundup! I always enjoy WHB :D

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  3. Thank you so much the round up! I learned of two new things which I have never heard of before.

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  4. Thanks for hosting! The round-up looks awesome!

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  5. what a great round up of inspiring recipes - some new foods for comfort and some old faovurites revitalised - makes me want to head into the kitchen

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  6. Thank you Haalo...great round up!

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  7. Love this recap. Trying to figure out when I can cook some of these....yummmmm! Thanks for putting this together.

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  8. great round-up, I have bookmarked almost every recipe!

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  9. Thanks for the round-up have bookmarked this list. There are a couple of things I've never heard of before on that list.

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  10. Darn! I missed it. I've been falling down on the job lately - but the round-up is lovely ;-))

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  11. Thanks Cinzia - it's the people that make the event!

    Thanks Tigerfish!

    Thanks Soma - it's great when we find new things to try

    Thanks Joanne!

    Thanks Johanna!

    Thanks Winnie!

    Thanks Chris!

    Thanks Graziana - so many great dishes to try!

    Thanks Linda!

    Thanks Katiez - it's on every week so I'm sure we'll be seeing you join in soon!

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