THYME – Recipes From My Thyme Garden To You, an ancient herb embraced by French cooking, yet medicinal enough for a wellness popsicle!
There Is One Great Way To Experience Fresh Herbs – Grow Them!
Growing up in a home that didn’t do much in the way of gardening, it wasn’t on my radar of things to do when I became an adult.
Surprisingly though, when I bought my first house, while also finding myself as a single mom of four, the passion for growing things impelled me!
A small patch of land, teens and preteens, a hair salon business in the home and you’d think I wouldn’t have time for one more thing.
Surprisingly, it became something fun we all did together, and oh, the rewards were great then, and an absolute necessity now.
THYME – The Ancient Herb
While thyme may not be an herb many of us grew up with, it sure has ancient roots that will take us back to the tombs of Egypt!
Oh how the ancient Egyptians love the essential oils of strong herbs, such as thyme, rosemary and sage.
These herbs are thought to have medicinal properties.
But what does that have to do with cooking?
Home Cooking Is An Amazing Way to Experiment With A New And Delicious Herb
Having come from a Mediterranean influenced heritage, many of the delicious recipes I grew up eating and cooking, were heavily flavored with fresh herbs.
Consequently, I was exposed to many herbs that were not mainstream in American cooking, back in the 60’s.
In recent years, we are able to find most any familiar herb, and many not so familiar, in our grocery stores.
Having had the opportunity to be featured in a Multi Cultural Cooking Television Show on PBS, I found myself intrigued at the various different herbs the other cooks brought to our national television show.
Thyme For Some Great Natural Medicine!
Having spent a few years in Brazil, I developed a passion for plant medicine.
Throughout the interior of Brazil you will find American pharmaceutical laboratories hidden away, studying the medicinal properties in the plants.
Once a DNA imprint, identifying what each plant can do for our health, it is copied, patented and sold as a drug.
While generally thankful for this practice, I find myself wanting to do a little of this in my own kitchen, whether in a simple tea, gummy, steam extracted or just added to foods.
Thyme is hugely known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti fungal and antiseptic properties.
Squeeze those fresh leaves between your fingers and feel a sticky, strongly scented aroma; that is some very healthy stuff right there!
Allow Me To Broaden Your Usage Of Thyme In Ways That Will Excite You To Perhaps Grow Your Own Thyme, If Only As A Window Potted Plant!
Various Types Of Thyme
The first herbs I planted, long ago, was probably a Mint plant, simply because I love using fresh mint leaves in many of the foods I prepare.
As I become more prolific in growing herbs, I tried my hand at growing Thyme and found there were several varieties:
- French Thyme – most closely related to Common thyme and most widely used for culinary purposes.
- Lemon Thyme – with its lemony, citrus scent is often used, as you can guess, with poultry, seafood and lemon desserts.
- Silver Queen Thyme – a type of lemon thyme, good in teas and cooking and has a silver two-toned appearance.
Not knowing much about many of the varieties, I stuck close to the two I was most familiar with, French Thyme and Lemon Thyme.
These two flavors, I can attest to being fabulous in a variety of my favorite recipes.
And yes, for some reason I often rely on thyme to season my potatoes or mushrooms!
How To Harvest And Dry Thyme For Year Round Recipes
Thyme seems to take its good ole time in growing, when it’s planted.
And then you suddenly have more thyme than you know what to do with.
What to do with it?
Dry it!
The easiest way to do this, starts by cutting lots of thyme, before it begins to go to seed (little flowers on top).
Wash them, pat dry and spread the thyme stalks on a cookie sheet and dry it out in the lowest temperature of your oven.
I’ve set my oven to 175, place the herb in for about 15-minutes, turn off the oven and allow them to remain in the oven for several hours.
Once dried, simply crumble the dried leaves into a pile of dark green tiny leaves, and store in a glass jar with a lid.
Oh, and by all means, bundle the remaining stalks from the hard woody stems of the thyme, and save them for the grill or winter fires.
They too have scent and flavor.
Fresh Thyme Recipes You Are Sure To Love
Now that we have chatted much about the garden, let’s go into the kitchen and start wowing you with fabulous recipes that have thyme in them.
Recipes that will include everything from savory recipes to immune building popsicles!
I’ll wait while you go and gather a handful of thyme from your garden or perhaps your nearby farmers market.
- Herb Butter From My Thyme Garden – Classic Homemade Compound Herb Butter is a luscious mix of butter and fresh or dried herbs, rolled into a log shape, and ready to enhance your recipes.
- There’s Always Time For A Thyme Quiche – When the summer garden is bursting with Thyme, there never seems to be enough time to enjoy a leisurely quiche, so let’s make a mini Thyme quiche we can easily transport to our patio for brunch.
- Autumn’s Corn Harvest And Thyme Fritters – Harvest thyme corn fritters are a beautiful showcase of Autumn’s corn, whisked into a savory fritter batter of thyme and smoked paprika, lightly sautéed to a crispy perfection.
- Bread Crust Potato And Thyme Tart – Classic Bread Crust Potato Herb Tart, with shallots, thyme and grated hard cheese is the ultimate in comfort food; bread, potatoes and cheese!
- Classic French Fondant Potatoes With Thyme – Fancy French Fondant Potatoes are a buttery, herb crusted, elegant French technique of roasting a potato. Once cooked, they are creamy on the inside with a crunchy golden edge on the outside.
- Unexpected Thyme And Strawberry Jam – Homemade Thyme Strawberry Jam is an herbal and strawberry fruit jam, just sweet enough to make it versatile for a variety of sweet or savory uses.
- Boost Your Immune Popsicles With Chili And Thyme – Comfort A Cold Wellness Popsicles are all about the citrus, ginger, chili peppers, honey, thyme and maybe a little booze to comfort throat and cough Naturally.
Thyme Is A Distinct Herb That Practically Grows By Itself So Do Consider A Pot Or Plot Of Dirt, For Thyme Is One Of Many Fresh Ingredients Found In Recipes From My Garden!
Drying Fresh Thyme For Recipes
Equipment
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper
- 16 oz Glass jar with lid
- 12 inches Twine
Ingredients
- 8 cups Fresh Thyme
- 6 cups Water
Instructions
- Gathering the thyme with the longest stems possible, without pulling up the roots, offers plenty of flavor for both cooking, and to infuse flavor while grilling by using the stalks in the fire, once the leaves have been stripped.
- Immerse the thyme in water and rinse the water several times. There is often sand and dirt in the thyme.
- Lay the washed thyme out on towels to absorb the water.
- Preheat the oven to 175Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a large cookie sheet, or two is needed.
- Spread the thyme onto the prepared cookie sheets. Place in the oven for 10-minutes, turn off the oven and leave the thyme in the oven for several hours.
- Remove the thyme from the oven and allow it to sit out overnight.
- The thyme should now be dried and crisp enough to strip all the leaves from the stalks.Crush the dried leaves by hand.
- Store in a glass jar with a lid.
- Gather the stalks stripped of leaves, and tie twine around them to be used in the grill to impart flavor while cooking or in the fireplace for aromatherapy.
Video
Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.