hillvalley
Jun 29 2008, 08:59 PM
I've been playing around with fruit and herb combinations this weekend. It started with a chifonade of lemon verba added to a bowl of blueberries. Tasted great but visually a bit bland. Now it has moved to fino basil and strawberries. I sliced the strawberries, choped up the basil, and added a little lavander salt. Another winner. Next time I am thinking about adding white pepper, maybe a light acid like a little raspberry or balsamic vinegar. I could see serving this as a salad.
On to the pineapple sage I picked up at
Dupont Market this morning. Thoughts on what fruit I should use?
dcaCRL
Jun 30 2008, 12:06 PM
QUOTE(hillvalley @ Jun 29 2008, 09:59 PM)

I've been playing around with fruit and herb combinations this weekend. It started with a chifonade of lemon verba added to a bowl of blueberries. Tasted great but visually a bit bland. Now it has moved to fino basil and strawberries. I sliced the strawberries, choped up the basil, and added a little lavander salt. Another winner. Next time I am thinking about adding white pepper, maybe a light acid like a little raspberry or balsamic vinegar. I could see serving this as a salad.
On to the pineapple sage I picked up at
Dupont Market this morning. Thoughts on what fruit I should use?
I love basil and strawberries, also will add balsamic and black pepper sometimes. I recall once having blackberries and sage together, haven't tried pineapple sage though so I don't know how different it would be. Please post what you come up with!
monavano
Jun 30 2008, 12:12 PM
I have pineapple sage from DeBaggio's and am thinking about combining it with either blueberries or blackberries (both frozen after the market) in a sauce over pork for tonight. I have pork loin defrosted in the fridge....I'll let you know how it turns out.
Sthitch
Jun 30 2008, 12:21 PM
QUOTE(monavano @ Jun 30 2008, 01:12 PM)

I have pineapple sage from DeBaggio's and am thinking about combining it with either blueberries or blackberries (both frozen after the market) in a sauce over pork for tonight. I have pork loin defrosted in the fridge....I'll let you know how it turns out.
This is the second year I have grown pineapple sage from DeBaggio's and my favorite way to use it last year was to add it to cornbread stuffing that I put into a pork loin. The sage kept a bit of its fruitiness and matched beautifully with the pork. Last fall I added some to apples that I served with pork chops that also worked quite well.
zoramargolis
Jun 30 2008, 12:55 PM
Have you tried pineapple sage with fresh pineapple?
Anna Phor
Jun 30 2008, 06:13 PM
I've done strawberries in a basil simple syrup with a wee swirl of balsamic added at the end. Very good. There's also a thai dish I love--a green papaya salad, but that treats the papaya as a vegetable more than as a fruit. It generally incorporates chilies, garlic, cilantro, thai basil and probably a bunch of other secret ingredients I don't know about. I've made an erzatz version with fresh coconut meat, but that was under some pressing culinary circumstances.
I also do an apricot sauce for pork that has mustard seed & cumin in it (although I guess those are spices, not herbs).
dinwiddie
Jul 1 2008, 09:40 AM
While up in Philadelphia this weekend I had both a wonderful Lime Cilantro gelato and an Orange Cardamon gelato at Capogiro.
monavano
Jul 1 2008, 01:09 PM
QUOTE(zoramargolis @ Jun 30 2008, 01:55 PM)

Have you tried pineapple sage with fresh pineapple?
I think this might be the better way to use pineapple sage. I used it in a sauce with caramelized onions, a strawberry jam (Kiss of Kerala by Crackpot Gourmet) that is not on the super sweet side, and chicken stock-reduced. It is a bit too subtle to stand up in this savory preparation.
The sauce was delicious over pork, nonetheless.
MacArthur Mike
Jul 2 2008, 06:25 PM
I just had a strawberry-tarragon sorbetto at Dolcezza. It was a fantastic combo. Instead of making a sorbet, I bet some fresh strawberries and some tarragon would be great.
hillvalley
Jul 5 2008, 05:56 PM
I ended up using the
pineapple sage with blueberries and whipped cream. It was a nice combination but the pineapple sage needed to be chopped up fairly finely in order to taste it. If I was making this for others I would infuse the cream with the pineapple sage and then whip it, instead of using organic fancy stuff from the can and chopping the herb.
zoramargolis
Jul 6 2008, 12:32 PM
QUOTE(hillvalley @ Jul 5 2008, 06:56 PM)

You've made a blueberry fool of yourself.
Anna Blume
Jul 8 2008, 11:25 AM
Dolcezza is coming out w a lemon-opal basil gelato very soon.
* * *
I've probably mentioned this elsewhere before, but fresh tarragon is great in French toast batter. Little fresh blueberries poached for a minute or two in maple syrup to go with?
monavano
Jul 8 2008, 12:18 PM
I really would like suggestions and input. This morning, I went to the Mount Vernon Farmers Market for the first time. I loved it and will write up a post in a bit. I purchased an herb that is new to me which was said to be Papalo,
but google research showed that it looks exactly like Pipicha. Both are similar to cilantro and can be substituted for flavor and in cooking.
Raw, it tastes like cilantro, parsley and a hint of citrus.
Any suggestions with fruit? In a savory dish to use like a cilantro garnish?
zoramargolis
Jul 8 2008, 01:55 PM
QUOTE(monavano @ Jul 8 2008, 01:18 PM)

I really would like suggestions and input. This morning, I went to the Mount Vernon Farmers Market for the first time. I loved it and will write up a post in a bit. I purchased an herb that is new to me which was said to be Papalo,
but google research showed that it looks exactly like Pipicah. Both are similar to cilantro and can be substituted for flavor and in cooking.
Raw, it tastes like cilantro, parsley and a hint of citrus.
Any suggestions with fruit? In a savory dish to use like a cilantro garnish?
Cilantro tastes good with mango or pineapple in a fruit salsa. Too bad the linked site didn't include a picture of culantro, which is more common than the two herbs that you mention. I also have a quibble with:
epazote = goosefoot = Jerusalem oak = lamb's quarters = Mexican tea = wormseed = stinkweed Epazote is not equal to lamb's quarters, which are mild tasting and have ilttle aroma. And I've always known goosefoot to be amaranth. Stinkweed, yeah, epazote has a very distinctive stink--I've always found it to be remini
scent of petroleum.
monavano
Jul 8 2008, 02:13 PM
QUOTE(zoramargolis @ Jul 8 2008, 02:55 PM)

Cilantro tastes good with mango or pineapple in a fruit salsa. Too bad the linked site didn't include a picture of culantro, which is more common than the two herbs that you mention. I also have a quibble with:
epazote = goosefoot = Jerusalem oak = lamb's quarters = Mexican tea = wormseed = stinkweed
Epazote is not equal to lamb's quarters, which are mild tasting and have ilttle aroma. And I've always known goosefoot to be amaranth. Stinkweed, yeah, epazote has a very distinctive stink--I've always found it to be reminiscent of petroleum.
They also had epizote, guajes and something that looked like very large oregano. I'll try the pipicah in a salsa. I'll have to chiffinade it thin, as it is a bit thicker than cilantro. I don't get the sense it would wilt as quickly.
hillvalley
Aug 13 2008, 09:10 PM
Well, I found one that doesn't work: tart blackberries, whipped cream and basil. The tart of the berries and the basil was pretty awful. There were a few berries that were sweet and they went brilliantly with the basil so it is the tart that was the problem.
hm212
Aug 13 2008, 09:43 PM
Not sure if this is off topic but tonight I picked up a package of sausage with blueberry and cinnamon (Bloom Supermarket - Rockville Pike) It just did not work.
I was thinking it would be nice sausage with a kick and some sweet cut in, but the blueberry's were not really sweet and everthing was just off.
Cook&Bottlewasher
Aug 14 2008, 06:43 AM
QUOTE(hillvalley @ Aug 13 2008, 10:10 PM)

Well, I found one that doesn't work: tart blackberries, whipped cream and basil. The tart of the berries and the basil was pretty awful. There were a few berries that were sweet and they went brilliantly with the basil so it is the tart that was the problem.
I like pineapple sage in pineapple upsidedowncake
strawberries with sweet woodruff (easy to grow around here)
lemon thyme with apple and lemon made into a fool
Biotech
Aug 14 2008, 12:52 PM
Yesterday morning - Virgin America flight from Dulles to LAX - grapefruit and orange slices sprinkled with oregano. Interesting combination that worked will since there was just a small amount of of oregano mixed in.
cleveland park
Aug 15 2008, 10:35 AM
Not an herb at all, but I´ve had some success with strawberry and pepper combinations with a bit of simple syrup
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