Focus on Herbs : Rosemary

Hi Scrungee ... we have both the dark blue and light blue varieties and it is also wonderful in home-made Rosemary Bread. Hmmm, must make some soon.

 

I love rosemary with roast potatoes and garlic. Yummy!

 

Next time you do roasties, chuck some Rosemary leaves on them - delish!

or.........

Chop the top off a Camembert, drizzle a little olive oil over, add a small garlic clove sliced and two rosemary sprigs. Put the top back on, place back in the wooden box (remove the paper) and bake for 20/25 mins. Remove and fold into fresh warm pasta. Lovely (but pure heart attack on a plate)!!

 

Well seeing as we're talking about the culinary uses of Rosemary...

With fresh fish (whole but gutted), I like to stuff their bellies with rosemary before wrapping them in foil and baking them. I think the customary herb for such roles is dill or thyme, but rosemary works extremely well for this. The fragrance permeated the fish's flesh, and really livens it up. Its especially effective with boring bland fish, like snapper, but is equally good with nice fish like trout or mackerel.

Rosemary works very well with flavours like lemon, garlic and tomato. So its a great candidate for anything that uses those those flavours.

 

I have a good tip for baking trout - take three sheets of tabloid newspaper and wet through. Wrap the fish tightly in the paper and then cook at 180°c until the paper is darkish brown. When you un-wrap the skin sticks to the paper. Works every time on trout but not sure about other fish.

Sorry if you already knew this.........

 

That reminds me of Greek Potatoes. Cut the potatoes into segments, similar to an orange.Place in a Roasting tin.
Drizzle with Olive Oil and liberally sprinkle with crushed Rosemary leaves.

Cook in a hot oven until golden brown - Enjoy.

They goes especially well with Kleftico or Stifado.

 

Don't be sorry, thats what sharing on the forum is all about

I've done that with Mullet Will be using rosemary with it next time.

 

Greek potatoes? Is that the style of cooking them or a different type of spud?

Must cook Kleftico again - thanks for the reminder!

 

I didn't know that trick, thanks for that. However I do know a similar trick.

I always bake the fish in foil. I cut out a rectangle of foil just big enough to completely wrap the fish, allowing a small amount of overlap. I then drizzle the foil in olive oil. I place the fish on its side right at the edge of the foil, then roll it up. Then I fold the ends over.

Having baked it (about 25 minutes is plenty for a small or medium sized trout or mackerel), it obviously comes out the oven and rests for a few minutes until the foil is cool enough to handle, but not cold. I unfold one end of the foil and tip the whole parcel up so that the excess oil drains out. Then I unfold the other end, so that its just the fish in the roll. Then the magic happens when you serve. Carefully holding the edge of the foil, let it unravel under its own weight onto the plate. The fish will roll out, still whole, minus most of the skin which has stuck to the foil.

Oh, one important point about baking whole fish. Its important to leave the head and tale on. If you top and tale it first, all the moisture and flavour just escapes out of the ends while it cooks

 

It's the style of cooking. Local Supermarket Spuds do just fine - Ziggys would probably taste better though!

 

I'll give that a go!
My wedgy recipe - cut into segments then a quick two or three minute boil. Drain and then tip into a hot olive oil and Harissa paste (I get mine from a Moroccan deli in Oxford) mix and bake.


This happens a lot to me on forums - threads turn to food threads!

 

We like to use our long thickish stalks of rosemary as skewers for homemade chicken, lamb or beef kebabs on the bbq. Adds an awesome taste when bunched together with thyme, sage and whichever herbs you wish to use and used as a herb brush to add oils or marinades to bbq foods

 

I've done that with Bass & Mullet, works a treat

 

Take a good few sprigs, bruise with a rolling pin and then stuff it into a bottle of olive oil - good for pasta or salad dressing.
Take one camembert and remove the waxy paper. Slice the top off the camembert, place a chopped garlic clove and a few sprigs of rosemary on top, lightly drizzle with olive oil and place the top back on. Put the cheese back in the box that it comes in and place in the oven at 180°c 'ish for 15/20mins. Then scoop it out and fold into warm pasta. Pure heart attack on a plate , but really yummy!!

 

Oops. Just looked back at the thread & see i'm repeating myself