Long-slow cooking yields sweet, rich and mellow flavours from meat and vegetables, but while delicious, these slow-cooked dishes can often feel flat and lack sharp, bright flavours that enliven rather than weary the palate.
Using one of these three herb and garlic condiments from around the world add instant bright deliciousness to your soup or stew and also work well as marinades for meat and vegetables. Add them once cooking has ended, while the dish is still hot and you are ready to serve.
Pistou
Ingredients
5 cloves of garlic
bunch of basil leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup finely grated Parmesan (optional)
Method
- With a mortal and pestle or in a food processor combine the above ingredients and pound or process until a creamy sauce forms.
- Keep in a jar or container in the fridge for a up to a week.
Persillade
When I was a apprentice pastry chef I frequently used persillade to garnish pastry dishes like savoury tarts. We also used to top a half baguette spread with goats cheese and persillade before popping it into the toaster. It was a popular lunch dish.
Ingredients
1 bunch of parsley – the cheaper curly kind works well for this
5 cloves of garlic
5 tablespoons of olive oil
pinch of salt
Method
- peel and roughly chop the garlic
- remove the lower stalks of the parsley and finely chop it together with the garlic until you have a reasonably even and fine mixture.
- Scrape into a jar and add olive oil. Add a little salt to taste.
Alternatively you can make this is a food processor. Keep in a sealed jar or container in the fridge for up to a week.
Gremolata
Ingredients
1 bunch parsley (continental or curly both work fine)
5 cloves of garlic
zest of one lemon
- Roughly chop garlic and then finely chop together with parsley leaves.
- Scrape lemon zest from the lemon using grater and combine with the above ingredients.
- Store in a jar or container in the fridge for up to a week.
