How to: A bouquet garni

Hello. It is Friday and I am taking a quick break from work which I am finding very calming today, despite my 2 glasses of red last night. We didn't make it to Wolves in the end but chatted for about 4 hours solidly. I hadn't eaten dinner (should I be telling you this) as I didn't have time to. I did make it though!

Anyhow, fair to say I feel a bit rough today and I decided to work from Lulu's as the walls were swallowing me up at home. It really is interesting to sit here and work and watch. I love eavesdropping on people's conversations. And as Lulu's is near one of the big publishing stables, there are often media people about and I try and listen out for them. It is interesting if you have emailed them and then you sit there figuring out who they are.

City Press were here today as were Die Antwoord's Waddy / Ninja and Yolandi Visser. Both sipping on lattes, very UNZEF!

Anyhow, it's your lucky day today as I am going to post 2 blog installments. This one is about a wonderful, fragrant herb combination called a bouquet garni which is used to infuse stews and soups and stocks. It really is a magic, clever little trick that is great for winter as we tend to eat more soups and stews. Your next installment will be a simple recipe for coq au vin which is a hearty, rustic french dish of chicken and red wine stew. But we will move onto that in the next post.

Bouquet garni directly translates into garnished bouquet. There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may include basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Sometimes vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or stem), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are also included.

Now it all sounds a bit complicated but it really isn't and the ritual of making one for a dish you're cooking makes you feel very 'chefy' and it is easy as pie and well worth the fiddle.

This is how you prepare your bouquet garni:
(NB: herbs must be fresh)

Step 1: For a classic bouquet garni, gather together a few fresh parsley stalks, thyme sprigs and bay leaves.

Step 2: Use unwaxed kitchen string to tie the bouquet garni, then add the bundle to the pot. This makes it easy to remove after cooking. (I personally have no issue issue using bog-standard string)

Step 3: To stop the herbs from coming apart in the liquid, you can tie them in a piece of muslin or ingeniously you can peel off the outer layer of a leek and tie the bouquet garni and further tie it inside the leek layer. And then place in the pot.

Coq au vin following shortly