Chef Mike Van de Elzen joins Lorna Subritzky to talk about winter herbs, and which one's are around this time of year.

LISTEN TO MIKE VAN DE ELZEN TALK WITH LORNA SUBRITZKY ABOVE 

Read about Mike's thoughts on winter herbs, and recipes to use them in below.

 

This week I would like to talk about Winter herbs

At this time of the year we start to get a wee bit stuck with our heavy and strong flavoured stews and slow braising of casseroles.

Winter herbs like thyme, rosemary, sage and bayleaves are indispensable for the winter cook and surprisingly grow well enough in our low sunshine winters.

If you’re short on space, or have just a balcony or courtyard, you can still grow them, as they will thrive in containers as well as garden beds.

So what can we do with them?

Classic, Bouquet Garni. A bundle of herbs tied together with string and mainly used to add some extra flavour to soups, stocks, casseroles and stews. Just remember to remove it before consumption!

Winter Pesto, take a hand full of parsley, 2 Tbsp thyme leaves, 1 tbsp rosemary leaves. Blend with 8 Tbsp grape seed oil and 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Season

Winter dressing, 4 tbsp rosemary leaves, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp balsamic vinager, 1/2 cup grove extra virgin olive  oil. Salt and pepper. I use a pestle and mortor and crush the rosemary into a paste then I add the rest of the ingredients finally adding the oil.

I'm very excited to be at the Auckland food show this year especially because I'm on my own "Good from Scratch" stand!

Not only will we be featuring great food from my GFS food partners, Green meadows beef, Grove avocado oil and the Great taste company. But I will also be on the stand daily doing  loads of demos taking you normal ... to better! 

We have a double pass to give away to a lucky winner, just log on to vandeelzen.com and sign up to my monthly newsletter and we will choose a winner. Not only that if you win I will personally sign my Fast cookbook for you when you visit my stand.