Bouquet Garni

My herb garden has run amok whilst I have been away. So I thought this was the ideal opportunity to make up some bouquet garni for autumn winter soups, stews and casseroles. The basic herbs for a bouquet are bay leaves, parsley and thyme but you can add others depending on your taste.

I particularly love rosemary and find it goes well with other meats not just lamb, I also like the purple and golden sage. The latter has a slightly woody citrus flavour.

This is a messy activity so I spread myself out on the kitchen terrace table, dip the cuttings in water, shake and pat dry. Take a sprig of each herb and use the stems of the parsley as well and wrap with bay leaves using cotton to bind together, I chop each one off at either end for neatness and then finely chop the leftovers to dry and pop into a jar for sprinkling in sauces.

You can use the bouquets fresh but for storage you need to air dry in the sun on a windowsill and pop them in a clean jar when they are no longer moist otherwise they will just go mouldy.