Chervil

In this indulgent salad, wild mushrooms are sautéed until tender and crisp, then tossed in a warm sherry vinaigrette with bitter greens and herbs. There are so many different herbs in this salad that each forkful tastes different, depending on which herb you bite into. Chervil contributes a mild anise nuance, while chives add a peppery, oniony note. Tarragon has a pungent licorice bite, and parsley a bright grassiness. Ribbons of pecorino and a sprinkling of toasted hazelnuts are the final layer of luxury in this delicious warm salad. All Italian sheep’s milk cheeses are called pecorino. They are usually named after their place of origin, as in Pecorino Romano or Pecorino Toscano. However, my favorite pecorino, Pecorino di Grotta, for this salad is from the Emilia-Romagna region. The story goes that the local housewives would hide a wheel or two of this aged cheese in the basement (grotta), storing it for later, when they would sneak out of the house and sell it for pocket money. Let’s hope that times have changed for the ladies in Emilia-Romagna!

Every year we buy a large jar of herbes salées in Kamouraska. It’s a typical Bas Du Fleuve product that lets you enjoy the taste of garden fresh herbs when the temperature is –4°F (–20°C) and your backyard is under a blanket of snow. It is essentially a big spoonful of herbs with carrots and onions that stay fresh because of the brine. You can use this traditional northern condiment with anything: potatoes, soups, seafood, lamb, gravies, terrines, and meat pies.

Nicolas Jongleux is a Montreal legend. Born and raised in Marsannay, in Burgundy, he grew up working in some of France’s most influential kitchens, including, at age twenty-six, under Alain Chapel at the Michelin-three-star La Mère Charles in Mionnay. He came to Montreal under the guise of partnering in Le Cintra, where he worked for three years. From there he ran the seminal Les Caprices de Nicolas. David says: “He had more talent than anyone I’ve ever seen. I once watched him make sixty identical croissants by hand, no recipe, no scale, and he hadn’t made croissants for more than five years. When he finished, there was not a drop of extra pastry, and each pastry was perfect.” He was also the kind of person who had such discipline all of his life, that he when he left France, he lived the experiences most of us had in our teens, in his thirties. He opened his last restaurant, Café Jongleux, in 1999, and committed suicide in the restaurant later that year. This recipe was a Nicolas classic.

Herb butter is softened butter that has been flavored with herbs. It makes a great sauce for meat, fish, or vegetables, providing lots of flavor for next to no effort. I like it to be really green, full of lots and lots of herbs, with just enough butter to bind them together. Poached fish served with an herb butter made with the classic fines herbes of French cuisine (parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil) is sublime. Either salted or unsalted butter will do for an herb butter. Just remember to season accordingly when you start adding salt. Lemon juice brings out the flavor of the herbs. The cayenne adds a little zing. Almost any fresh herb can be used. The more tender-leafed herbs, such as parsley, basil, chives, or chervil, should be very fresh and chopped at the last minute. More pungent herbs such as sage or rosemary are tastier when they are chopped and gently heated on the stove in a little melted butter. (Allow to cool to room temperature before adding to the softened butter.) Or, with or without herbs, make a butter flavored with one or two salt-packed anchovies (rinsed, filleted, and chopped), lemon zest, and black pepper, or, for an unusual twist and color, with some chopped nasturtium flowers or hot spicy peppers. Serve the butter as is, soft and spreadable; or put it in a piece of plastic wrap or waxed paper, roll it into a log, chill until hard, and cut it into coin-shaped pieces to put on top of hot food. Any extra herb butter can be frozen and used later.

All winter i dream of the time when there are so many fresh herbs that it seems imperative to use them at almost every meal. One of my favorite ways to take advantage of this abundance is to mix large quantities of herbs with pasta and a simple base of olive oil and garlic. In winter, a dish like this would not only seem exotic but would also cost a small fortune. In summer, however, it is an inexpensive no-brainer.

This is my favorite way of making a side of carrots to go with a meal. Part of its appeal is its ease and quickness; the other is how easy it is to vary. You can add almost any flavoring you like to these carrots during their final minutes in the pan, like a healthy grating of lemon or orange zest or a tablespoon of grated ginger or a clove of minced garlic, to flavor them to your taste.

Although aquaculture has made fresh salmon a year-round product, wild salmon does have a season, from spring through fall. At those times it’s vastly preferable to the farm-raised fish, because the best salmon—king, sockeye, and coho—has so much flavor of its own that it needs nothing but a sprinkling of salt. But a simple formula of salmon, oil or butter, and a single herb, combined with a near-foolproof oven-roasting technique, gives you many more options and makes even farm-raised salmon taste special. Be sure to preheat the pan in the oven—this allows the fish to brown before it overcooks. (If you start the same fillet in a cold pan, it will simply turn a dull pink and will not brown until it is as dry as chalk.)

The omelet remains the standby dinner for many accomplished French cooks, and it remains on the menu of many restaurants. Delicious and gorgeous, it’s a bit trickier than a frittata (page 558), but considerably faster, and nonstick pans have made it a lot more reliable. Fresh herbs are a must here; I would say butter is a must also, but I’d rather you made the omelet with olive oil than not at all. Once you learn how to do this, it will become a staple for you, and variations will be second nature. I offer a few to get you started.

Chervil is the most fragile of common herbs, hard to find in the supermarket but beloved by chefs and gardeners; when you see it, grab it. (You can achieve something of the same effect by combining parsley and basil.) Because this sauce contains flour, it is leaner and easier to make than Béarnaise (recipe follows), but it still has great flavor. Serve it over poached or grilled fish.

Quenelles, like gefilte fish (page 36), are fish balls, but they are elegant fish balls, containing cream, herbs, and butter. As a result, they’re more expensive and more caloric than gefilte fish, but faster and easier to make. Also like gefilte fish, they traditionally were made from freshwater fish (especially pike), but you can use any delicate white-fleshed fish you like. This is a big, fancy first course, best followed with something light and simple, unless you’re planning an elegant dinner. Chervil is the best possible herb to use here, but it is almost always difficult to find; dill is the standard second choice.

Gravlax is surprisingly easy to make at home, and you can vary the herbs or add spices to suit your taste. Once you become comfortable with the process, you’ll want to have this around for easy lunches and snacks.

Easy to prepare, baby artichokes require only half the work needed for the larger globe variety. Because they’re so small, they haven’t formed the fuzzy inner choke that requires so much trimming, and they are fully cooked in 20 minutes or less. The herb chervil is in the same family as fennel and has a mild licorice taste. It is slightly sweet and adds a cooling herbal zing to summer dishes.

A Turkish delicacy. A humble fish for a regal occasion. The skin of the fish is stuffed with its own flesh mixed with a rich filling. It is rolled in beaten egg, then in flour and breadcrumbs, and deep-fried in olive or nut oil. It is quite a bit of work but is delicious eaten hot or cold, as an entrée or as a main dish.

The filling is a traditional one for the famous Greek pie. A milder-tasting alternative was adopted in Britain by my contemporaries from Egypt. Both make a lovely teatime savory as well as a snack meal accompanied by salad.

A great sauce to serve with tongue , this is essentially a mayonnaise, but the egg yolks are cooked instead of raw. I like to make a lot and then keep it in the refrigerator to eat with cold ham too. It's also good as a salad dressing.

Horseradish has a very special sharp, peppery taste that is highly versatile. It can be used in sauces and dressings, or just shredded and sprinkled on a cold piece of meat served on a slice of bread with mustard. Horseradish grows very well in our climate. If you can't find chervil for the sauce, use parsley.

Much more interesting than plain mashed potatoes, this purée gets an earthy boost from celery root and chervil and an amazing smoothness and richness from a generous amount of cream.

This salad shows how bitterness, punctuated with a zingy vinaigrette, can be supremely refreshing.

Goat cheese makes a lovely base for fresh herbs, carrying their flavor and punctuating their brightness with its gentle tang; in this spread, it tastes particularly mild because of the little bit of whipped cream folded in. Take the cheese out to soften before heading for the farmers market, and by the time you get back, it will be ready to mix with whatever herbs you've found there.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Ethical Gourmet. To read more about the book, click here. Roaming the range foraging for grasses makes pasture-raised beef leaner and more intense in flavor. Grass-fed beef, with its lower fat content, cooks differently from conventional beef, so cook it slower, at lower temperatures. Its concentrated flavors make it an exceptional meat to serve in small, sliced portions as a spicy accompaniment to a grain and vegetable main course such as Pumpkin Basmati Rice Pilaf, Toasted Hard Red Wheat Pilaf with Caramelized Shallots, Figs, and Brazil Nuts, or Spice Whole Oats.

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Maguy Le Coze and Eric Ripert's book the Le Bernardin Cookbook. To read more about Ripert, click here. Eric: This was one of Gilbert's specialties and was always one of the most popular items on the menu. I think it closed more than one deal, and definitely led to some second dates. If you want, you can make it with langoustine or spiny lobster.