8349 MEN Guide to Cooking

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90 “In truth, the plant world is much like an iceberg—what we see above the ground is only a tiny portion of the immensity going on below our feet. Once we understand this fact of plant life, there is another aspect of companion planting we can harness.”

—DAWN COMBS, “9 MULTIPURPOSE GARDEN COMPANIONS,” PAGE 90

ON THE COVER Wholesome & Hearty Soups 44 Italian Culinary Herbs 16 Herb Butter, Salt, & Vinegar 14 Missing Kitchen Herbs 61 Dry Your Fresh Herbs 88 Sodas, Jams, Fines Herbes 36, 50, 19

Try This

GINGER SYRUP 7 Trade in your maple syrup for this flavorful, health-packed alternative.

FRESH TOMATO SAUCE 9 Liberate yourself from the stove this summer with a scrumptious, no-cook recipe.

ROSEMARY & SAGE PICKLES 11 Make the best herb-infused pickles faster than you ever imagined with this quick canning method.

BASILLIME SORBET 13 This herbal sorbet captures all the fragrance of the herb garden in a spoonful.

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Pantry Basics

HERB BUTTER, SALT, & VINEGAR 14 Herbs are a healthful and delicious way to flavor foods. Whip up these pantry staples for a great addition to any kitchen.

GUIDE TO ITALIAN HERBS 16 Learn uses and recipes for traditional Italian culinary herbs, and incorporate a wider range of flavors into your Italianinspired home cooking.

GUIDE TO FINES HERBES 19 Discover fresh ways to use this classic herb combination, including recipes and gardening tips.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE 22 Try these 10 lesser-known spices to add new flavors and medicinal properties to your food.

Cover Image: Adobe Stock/kuvona

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36 HOW TO BE A SEED EATER 30 It’s simple to mix all kinds of tasty, power-packed seeds into the foods you’re already eating.

Herbal Recipes

DRINK YOUR TEA & EAT IT, TOO 32 These cakes—some made with tea in the batter—are perfect served at teatime or as an afterdinner dessert.

MAKE HERBAL SODA AT HOME 36 Refresh yourself during the heat of the summer with easy-to-prepare botanical soft drinks.

PUT PIZZAZZ IN YOUR PIZZA 38 These homemade pies are the perfect canvas for featuring your favorite herbs.

WHOLESOME & HEARTY 44 Nothing takes the chill out of a dark evening like a steaming bowl of herb-infused stew and a fresh loaf of bread.

HERBINFUSED JAMS IN A JIFFY 50 You’ll be amazed how easy it is to make these delectable jams—in just minutes.

8 RECIPES FOR STRONG BONES 56 These herb-rich dishes can help you eat more calcium and other nutrients vital to bone health.

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61 5 DELICIOUS HERBS MISSING FROM YOUR KITCHEN 61 Add interest to your diet and new tricks to your cooking techniques with these oft-neglected culinary treasures.

Herb Spotlight

OUTSTANDING OREGANO 64 This Mediterranean shrub is among the world’s most effective healing plants.

Learn about its miraculous capabilities and how to incorporate its unmistakable flavor into your kitchen.

GLORIOUS GARLIC 70 Long considered one of the world’s healthiest foods, garlic has given us many reasons to love it. Here’s the most up-to-date scientific research on this fascinating plant.

NOBLE BAY 82 For an herb rich in ancient lore, sweet bay is certainly a plant with myriad modern uses. Learn more about its history as well as how to grow, cook, and heal with it.

Garden 101

A GUIDE TO DRYING HERBS & SPICES 88 Growing and drying herbs and spices is among the easiest forms of food preservation.

9 MULTIPURPOSE GARDEN COMPANIONS 90 Discover nine useful plants that can help support healthy garden crops while also providing food and health in the home.

TENACIOUS THYME 76 Intrepid and never timid, this aromatic plant is a good friend in the garden and the kitchen.

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Try This QUICK PICKLES

MAKE THE BEST herb-infused pickles faster than you ever imagined. Unlike traditional canning methods, this easyto-prepare recipe takes just 10 to 20 minutes. This flavorful combination imbues a subtle taste to these unique pickles.

ROSEMARY & SAGE PICKLES MAKES 2 CUPS

1 small red or white onion, thinly sliced, or 1¼ cups chives, chopped 2 cups cucumber, sliced 2 to 4 sprigs rosemary 4 to 8 sage leaves 1/3 cup cider vinegar 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1 cup cold water 1 . Slice onions; slice cucumber into

HOWARD LEE PUCKETT

¼-inch rounds. Tightly pack onions, cucumber and herbs in a 16-ounce clean glass jar until about ¾ full.

2 . Combine vinegar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and gently stir until salt dissolves. Remove from heat.

3 . Add cold water to this mixture and let cool. Pour cooled liquid in jar to cover cucumbers and herbs. Add more cold water if necessary. Leave room at the top. Refrigerate for about an hour until chilled.

—Recipe courtesy freelance journalist Letitia L. Star.

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Make Herbal Soda at Home

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Refresh yourself during the heat of the summer with easy-to-prepare botanical soft drinks.

BY K ATHRYN KINGS BURY WITH SOFT DRINKS AS MUCH A PART of the junk-food pantheon as burgers and fries, it’s hard to imagine that physicians once promoted the drinks as cures for all sorts of ailments. In the late 1800s, druggists frequently served up root beer for overall wellbeing, ginger ale for nausea, and Coca-Cola for headaches and hangovers.

Of course, the sodas of yesteryear were entirely different creatures from the ones we find on our supermarket shelves today. They were made from natural ingredients—the roots, leaves, flowers and barks of plants credited with health benefits.

But pharmacists would not leave well enough alone. Many had received training as chemists, and they couldn’t resist the urge to experiment with different chemical combinations to produce artificial colorings and flavorings. By the early 1900s, synthesized flavorings were taking over the soda world.

Rekindle Tradition Fortunately, the art of making pop from plants was not completely lost. For centuries, homemakers had been stirring up batches of “small beers”—lowalcohol, bubbly drinks—right alongside homebrewed beer. Small beers such as root beer and ginger ale allowed children and workers to enjoy the refreshing foaminess of beer without the drunkenness. During Prohibition, when the only way to acquire beer was to make it yourself, the art of small beers also went through a revival and, in some corners of the country, it stuck.

What You'll Need You can rekindle this tradition in your own kitchen. Here is a list of the equipment you will need to get started: ■ Large soup or spaghetti pot ■ Funnel ■ Plastic soda bottles with screw-on caps and/or bail-top beer bottles, sterilized ■ Sugar ■ Herbs ■ Yeast KATHRYN KINGSBURY is a freelance writer who enjoys turning her kitchen into a culinary chemistry lab.

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36 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO COOKING WITH HERBS

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Fizzy bubbles and full-bodied flavor rush the senses when you drink a tall glass of homemade soda. For even more herbinfused soda recipes, visit mother earthliving.com/homemade-soda-recipes.

Our online article includes recipes for Orange Honey Ginger Ale, Curiosity Cola, Anise Licorice Root Beer, Ginseng Soda, Honeydew Mint Seltzer, Rooty Tooty Root Beer and Ginger Ginger Ale.

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RECIPES

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ROOT BEER Root beer extracts, usually in an amount suitable for five gallons of beverage, are available from herb and spice purveyors. These yield a drink very close in flavor to commercial root beers. Ours is less sweet than most.

1/4 ounce hops 1/2 ounce dried burdock root 1/2 ounce dried yellow dock root 1/2 ounce dried sarsaparilla root 1/2 ounce dried sassafras root 1/2 ounce dried spikenard root 5 quarts water 11/2 cups sugar 1⁄8 teaspoon granulated yeast

1. Simmer herbs in water for 30 min­utes. Add sugar, stir to dissolve and strain into a crock. Cool to lukewarm, add yeast

+ Caution

and stir well. Cover crock and leave to ferment for about an hour.

2. Funnel into sterilized bot­tles (old beer or soft drink bottles will do), and cap tightly. Metal caps, caps applied with a crimping tool or wire-­ hinged caps are best. If you cork your bot­tles, tie or wire the corks down firmly and store bottles on their side to encourage sealing. Use only sturdy, returnabletype beer bottles or champagne bottles, as those with twist-­top caps are not strong enough.

Makes about 1 gallon.

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) root (used in our root beer recipe at left), has been banned by the FDA as a flavoring in root beer because its oil contains about 80 percent safrole, a carcinogen (if used regularly, in large quantities, over a long period) and liver toxin. If you're concerned or plan to drink it regularly, a safrole-free extract is available.

Pregnant women should avoid sarsaparilla (Smilax spp.).

SPRUCE BEER Author Sarah Orne Jewett once wrote about a 19th-century New England herbalist whose spruce beer is the stuff of which memories are made. Our version is less complex and more tonic, but very refreshing.

2 quarts fresh spruce tips, packed 1 gallon water 1/2 cup sugar 1⁄8 teaspoon yeast

1. Simmer spruce tips in water

3. Add yeast, let stand 1 hour,

for 1 hour.

2. Strain out spruce, then stir in sugar and let cool to lukewarm.

then bottle as for root beer (recipe above). Makes 1 gallon.

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GINGER BEER The Swedes make a soft “beer” that’s flavored only with lemons; the addition of pungent fresh ginger root makes a refreshing, thirst-quenching beverage. We’ve seen rec­ipes that also add a sprig or two of rosemary.

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1 ounce fresh ginger root, chopped coarsely 1 lemon, thinly sliced 1 gallon water 2 cups sugar 1⁄8 teaspoon yeast

1. Place ginger root and lemon slices in a large kettle and bruise them with a potato masher.

2. Add water, bring to a boil, and simmer gently for 30 min­utes.

Remove from heat, add sugar, and stir until dissolved.

3. Cool to luke­warm. Stir in yeast, and let stand for about an hour.

Bottle as described for root beer (recipe above) and store in a cool place. Makes about 1 gallon.

Try This Old cookbooks are a rich source of soft drink recipes. An 1887 edition of the White House Cook Book, a compila­tion of recipes used by first ladies from Martha Washington through Julia Grant, includes recipes for hop beer, ginger beer, spruce beer and sassafras mead.

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CHICKEN & SPINACH PIZZA WITH FRESH BASIL & THYME With hints of licorice, mint and clove, fresh basil brings pizzazz to this otherwise everyday pizza.

One 15-ounce prepared pizza dough 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces 8 ounces sliced mushrooms 6 ounces baby spinach ¾ to 1 cup prepared pizza sauce 1½ cups mozzarella cheese ½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese ½ cup finely chopped red onion ¼ cup fresh basil, cut into strips 1½ tablespoons fresh thyme

and mushrooms to a bowl, leaving juices in the pan. Add spinach and sauté until spinach is wilted. Return chicken and mushrooms to skillet with spinach and mix; set aside.

3. To make pizza, spread sauce over crust just up to the edges. Sprinkle both cheeses evenly over the sauce. Arrange chicken/ mushroom/spinach mixture evenly over crust. Top with red onion, fresh basil and thyme. Bake 13 to 18 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden. Makes one 15- to 16inch pizza.

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Roll out pizza dough to fit a large non-stick baking pan or pizza screen; set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for several minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken

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5 Delicious Herbs Missing From Your Kitchen

Add interest to your diet and new tricks to your cooking techniques with these oft-neglected culinary treasures.

BY W I L L I A M W OYS W E AV E R

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SURE, MOST OF US ARE FAMILIAR with bright basil pesto and the flavor of sage in our Thanksgiving stuffing, but hundreds of other herbs can lend distinctive flavors and health benefits to our meals. Considering the breadth of herbs in this world, it seems fair to say that most of us don’t make the best use of their amazing culinary possibilities. Most herbs are relatively easy to grow. It may be that you have some of these in your garden but don’t use them in the kitchen as often as you could, and others might be new to you. What follows are some of my favorite garden herbs and the tasty ways I like to make use of them in my kitchen.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis) Old herbals refer to calendula as marigold, a name now more often used for the New World ornamental from Mexico. But the two should not be confused, as the Mexican flower is bitter and has none of the culinary benefits of calendula. In botanical medicine, both calendula flowers and leaves were used. Vinegar, flavored with the flowers in the same proportion used for borage vinegar (on the next page), was thought to be an excellent remedy for fevers when daubed on the wrists and temples. The flower petals were scattered on soups and sauces to help prevent illness.

The Pennsylvania Dutch call calendula ringelros, or “wreath rose,” because the flowers were made into garlands to ornament graves—a custom transferred to marigolds for Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico. The idea behind this practice was that the calendula was thought to stop contagion and wandering spirits.

Today calendula flowers, with their slightly musky, honeylike taste, can be used to flavor broths and sauces: Add about 2 cups of flowers to every quart of liquid. In colonial America, calendula sauce was the standard gravy for mutton before it was eventually replaced in the Victorian era with mint. The flavor of the flowers is concentrated in the center, so it’s important when cooking with calendula to use the whole flower head. Varieties developed for taste are far more delicious than the frilly hybrids developed for their looks. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com) offers the variety ‘Resina’, specially developed www.MotherEarthNews.com

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EMILIA KUN/ISTOCK (BOTTOM LEFT), ANNA PUSTYNNIKOVA/ISTOCK (TOP), RADU DUMITRESCU/ISTOCK (BOTTOM RIGHT)

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glucose-only rats. This study effectively demonstrates that “raw garlic homogenate is effective in improving insulin sensitivity while attenuating metabolic syndrome and oxidative stress in glucose-fed rats,” researchers summarized.

7. PREBIOTIC: Mounting research points to the critical importance of maintaining a healthy mix of bacteria in our bodies—beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, are thought to do everything from aiding digestion to improving mood and mental health. Like any living thing, probiotics need food to thrive, and this is where prebiotics come in.

Prebiotics act as food for gut bacteria, and raw garlic is among the best options for feeding the little guys.

Other good prebiotics include raw onion, raw leeks, raw asparagus, whole-wheat flour and bananas.

8. LIVER DAMAGE: Animal studies suggest more research could be useful to investigate garlic’s ability to protect the liver. In one study, researchers tested whether a bioactive compound in fresh garlic paste could help protect against liver damage from acetaminophen, a popular pain reliever, and found that the garlic did indeed help protect this important organ from damage. In another study published in Nutrition Reviews, Australian researchers found that, because of its ability to reduce total serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, regular garlic consumption may protect against fat accumulation in the liver.

RECIPE

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GARLIC AND OLIVE TAPENADE Use high-quality olives such as nyons, niçoise or kalamata varieties. Green olives such as the meaty cerignola also make a wonderful tapenade. Top toast or crackers with this olive-garlic blend, or serve it as a dip with grilled or raw vegetables. I especially like it with tomatoes, raw fennel or roasted bell pepper, and on sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs.

2 to 3 cloves garlic Large pinch coarse salt Red pepper flakes (optional) 1 cup pitted black or green olives (not canned) 2 tablespoons capers, drained Handful flat-leaf Italian parsley, torn 2 teaspoons fresh marjoram 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced 1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard 1⁄4 cup olive oil

1. Combine garlic, salt, pepper flakes, olives and capers in bowl of a food processor and pulse until cut into small bits.

2. Add herbs, pepper, mustard and oil, then pulse until herbs are chopped and tapenade is just mixed. It should be combined well, but still have texture.

3. Tapenade can be served immediately, but tastes better if it stands at least 30 minutes. Serve at room temperature. Covered tightly, it will keep for a week to 10 days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving (you may need to stir in a little more olive oil). Makes about 11⁄2 cups.

—SUSAN BELSINGER

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CRUSH IT! Cooking depletes some of garlic’s healthenhancing benefits, but you can get around this with a simple trick: Chop, mince or crush garlic at room temperature, then allow it to stand for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking. This triggers an enzyme reaction that boosts the healthy compounds in garlic, according to researcher and professor David W. Krauss, as quoted in The New York Times.

LETITIA L. STAR is a natural health and home writer who has written more than 1,100 articles, including many features on health, healthy eating, gardening and homes.

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RECIPE

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CHOCOLATE PUDDING WITH BAY This chocolate-rich pudding is redolent with the aroma of bay that lingers on your palate. Fresh bay leaves give the pudding a wonderful fragrance you don’t get when you use dried bay leaves. Most pudding is served cold, but I prefer mine at cool room temperature so I can really taste the flavors.

of it in records of Chinese cuisine. In earlier periods when people appreciated stronger herbal flavors, bay was commonly ground fine and sprinkled over fresh vegetables, then cooked. It was also marinated in fruit compotes. Today’s cooks employ it with every variety of meat and most kinds of fish and shellfish.

Bay leaves are found in the stuffings of, or simply alongside, many roasted fowl dishes. Its sweet balsamic aroma wafts from freshly baked breads, puddings and custards. It’s essential to bouquets garnis (savory spice bundles) for soups and stews, sauces and ragouts. (To make your own bouquet garni, see next page.) Tom Stobart, author of Herbs, Spices and Flavorings, praises bay’s essential nature, writing that “No kitchen should exist without bay leaves, and they should be used as a matter of habit.” Based on personal experience, I believe that bay adds depth and warmth to most kinds of sweets and savories.

The major contribution of bay to foods is its fragrance; sweet but not cloying, pervasive but not overpowering. If you are fortunate enough to have walked through a forest with many bay trees, you will understand the incredibly refreshing power of bay’s scent. Its blend of balsam and honey, with hints of spices like nutmeg and clove, are predominant in the first inhale. These scents are followed by just a suggestion of orange and/or lemon, sometimes followed by faint, flowery tones described as vanilla or rose, and occasionally a hint of mint. The fragrance can be heady; these subtle combinations and other more ethereal echoes must be an ideal of master perfumers.

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If you live in a cold climate, grow bay in a pot outdoors.

Just be sure to move it indoors for the winter.

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2 cups half-and-half 3 large fresh bay leaves, or 2 dried bay leaves 3 tablespoons cornstarch 2⁄3 cup sugar 2 pinches salt 1⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa 1/2 cup milk 3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Whipped cream, optional

1. Heat half-and-half with bay leaves in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. When half-and-half starts to bubble around the edges of the pan, remove from heat and cover. Let stand for 30 minutes.

2. After bay has infused the cream for nearly 30 minutes, combine cornstarch, sugar, salt and cocoa in a bowl and whisk in milk. Pour mixture into the warm cream and place over moderate heat. Continue cooking and whisking as pudding thickens.

3. When pudding begins to bubble and come to a boil, stir and boil for 1 minute.

Remove pan from heat and whisk in chocolate pieces until melted. Add vanilla and stir well. Carefully remove bay leaves and pour pudding into 6 ramekins or custard cups.

4. Place custard cups on a plate or pan and allow them to come to room temperature. Refrigerate until chilled; at least 30 to 45 minutes. Serve at cool room temperature and garnish with whipped cream if desired. Serves 6.