PecanSpringsJournal

>>saffron in your garden

Yes, you can grow saffron--the most prized of spices--in your garden. In fact, if you spot a few purple crocuses blooming now among the last of the fall flowers, they may be Crocus sativa, or saffron.

But restrain your enthusiasm, please. Each blossom yields only three stigma (known as saffron threads). It takes 13,000-14,000 threads to make an ounce (worth about $70), and the process of picking, sorting, and storing the spice is long and laborious. Growing your own saffron is definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme.

But it's fun, and as easy as growing other flowers from bulbs. To get saffron flowers in October, plant the corms, or bulbs, between June and September. (Buy from a nursery you trust, and be sure you get the true Crocus, not Colchicum, sometimes sold as "Autumn crocus." These have six stigma, not three.) Start with a few and divide and replant after they have bloomed. The corms thrive in a hot, dry summer, and do best in a well-drained, friable soil that isn't too rich. If the ground freezes in your area, you might want to dig your corms, overwinter in a dry, cool place, and replant the following summer. 

Twenty-five bulbs can produce about half a tablespoon of saffron threads the first year, more thereafter. You can cook with the fresh saffron threads immediately, or you can dry and store them. Dry on paper towels in a warm place for several days, then place in an airtight container. You'll find some helpful how-to-use tips here.

Don't want to grow it? You can buy saffron in the spice section of your grocery. (Here is a good photo of what you're looking for.) And here is my favorite never-any-leftover paella recipe:

China Bayles' Spanish Paella

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 bacon slices, chopped

6 chicken thighs
1/2 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 7-ounce jar roasted diced pimentos with juice
1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads
8 oz. bottled clam juice
3/4 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
1/4 pound cleaned squid, bodies cut into 1/2-inch rings
18 large uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined

6 clams, scrubbed
6 mussels, debearded and scrubbed
3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed
Lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 450°F. Heat olive oil in heavy large pot. Add chopped bacon and cook about 6 minutes. Drain bacon on paper towels. Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add chicken to bacon drippings in pot and cook over medium heat until brown, about 7 minutes per side. Take out the chicken and set aside. Add onions, celery, and garlic to pot and saute until it begins to brown, 8-10 minutes. Stir in rice, pimentos, and saffron. Add clam juice and chicken stock to pot and bring mixture to simmer. Remove from heat.

Pour rice mixture into baking dish. Arrange chicken, shrimp, squid, clams and mussels (in their shells) on top. Sprinkle with chopped bacon and peas. Cover and bake about 45 minutes, until rice is tender, chicken is cooked through, and clams and mussels have opened. (Discard any that don't open.)  Serve with lemon wedges to 6 ravenous diners.

"For those at death's doore and almost past breathing saffron bringeth breath again."--John Gerard, Herbal, 1597

For more saffron history and lore, read the October 16th entry in The Book of Days.

>>herbal sushi?

Herbal sushi? You bet! Actually, sushi has always been about herbs--we just don't think of it that way.

Sushi is that wonderful Japanese treat: a roll of seaweed-wrapped rice with a savory filling. Traditionally, sushi is filled with raw fish (tuna is a favorite), but since coming to America, the fillings have undergone a transformation. Now, you'll find just about anything in the center: turkey, avacado, cream cheese, ham, and on and on, deliciously.

Did you know that the traditional sushi wrapper, nori, is an herb? It's a particular kind of algae, Porphyra, that has long been valued in the Orient for its nutritional and therapeutic qualities. So the next time you make sushi, think of it as an herbal rice roll--which may give you some ideas for including herbs in your own unique kind of sushi. Or if you don't fancy a traditional sushi (or if your soul-mate refuses to eat algae), try a different wrapper: lettuce leaves, tortillas, or one of the colored soy wrappers available in supermarkets.

The sushi I made last weekend, pictured above, features whole basil leaves wrapped around cucumber, grated carrot, and fresh raw tuna, encased in a rice and nori roll. I made another roll with shrimp, and another with crab. Served with wasabi (Japanese horseradish, grated and made into a paste) and pickled ginger, the sushi was a tasty hit. And perhaps you know that wasabi (like our own American horseradish) has been used to treat sinus infections, sore throat, and lung problems, and that ginger helps to settle the stomach. All in all, an herbal delight, and good for you, too.

For easy instructions on how to make sushi, visit this great site, which also offers plenty of ideas for various fillings. For herbal sushi with a difference, try this dessert sushi, which features ginger. And of course, there's always chocolate (which is an herb, naturally).

Shall we file this under "Playing with your food can be fun"?

Don't forget--the Book of Days is now available. Lots of herb lore, crafting, recipes, and growing tips!

>>in praise of Julia

Hi--Cass Wilde here.

Remember me? I'm China's and Ruby's partner in a new venture called The Thymely Gourmet, a personal chef business. We met when Ruby was starring in the play in Dead Man's Bones. Not long after that, I pitched them my idea for a personal chef business. We tried it out, and by the time Susan wrote Bleeding Hearts, the business was up and running--and that's when I solved the mystery of the missing Bleeding Hearts quilt. Actually, finding the quilt was sort of an accident, but I still get a plus in the "solved" column, don't I?

In case we haven't met yet, here's what China says about me in Hearts: "Cass, our new partner, is a beautiful, bountiful blonde, light of spirit and much lighter on her feet than you might expect from someone her size—'my sweet, sassy, sexy size twenty-two,' she says modestly. 'All curves, and nothing to lose.' Cass is not shy."

Yep, that's me. Sweet, sassy, sexy and not shy. Definitely not shy.

Anyway, China and Ruby invited me to do a guest post in their new blog. So I'm here to tell you that this week is the birthday of my hero, Julia Child, who was born on August 15, 1912. China included this entry (or something like it) in her upcoming Book of Days.

Fannie Farmer may have made us aware of our “American cuisine” and led us to practice the science of cookery, but Julia Child seduced us from our casseroles and gave us France—and became an American icon in the process. Her profound and far-reaching influence on American cookery earned her the title of “Mother of the American Food Renaissance,” while her sparkling joie de vivre turned cooking into an exciting adventure and focussed our attention on the pleasures of the table and the delight of cooking.

As food writer and chef Sara Moulton says, it was Julia (St. Julia, Our Lady of the Ladle) who urged us all to march into our supermarkets and “demand leeks and shallots.” And it was Julia who brought the phrase “herbes de Provence” into the vocabulary of American cooks.

Herbes de Provence is the name given to a group of herbs that are favorites in southern France: bay, rosemary, thyme, summer savory, cloves, lavender, tarragon, chervil, sage, marjoram, basil, fennel seed, and orange zest. They are available in a dried mix, or you can create your own fresh blend (as Julia always recommended) to complement the dish you’re making.

For the fresh blend, simply mix together 1 tablespoon each of finely chopped fresh oregano, savory, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and lavender. Or you can use your harvest of dried herbs for gifts, with the basic recipe below. Package the herbs in colorful calico bags tucked into small terra cotta pots and tied with a raffia bow.

Herbes de Provence

3 parts dried rosemary, crushed fine
3 parts dried marjoram
3 parts dried thyme
2 parts dried summer savory
2 parts dried lavender flowers, crushed
2 parts dried orange peel, crushed to a powder
2 parts dried bay leaves, crushed fine
1 part dried mint
1 part fennel seed
1/2 part ground cloves
1/2 part coriander

Blend thoroughly. Store in an airtight container.

Celebrate St. Julia's day with a special Julia Child birthday dinner of chicken (or turkey) salad, chilled leek and potato soup, and fresh lemon sorbet. Toast with your favorite wine and a hearty "Bon appetit!"

Read about Our Lady of the Ladle: Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch.
Read Julia's last published work: Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking, by Julia Child.
For a full list of St. Julia's sacred texts, go here.

Reading note. "It's a shame to be caught up in something that doesn't absolutely make you tremble with joy!"--Julia Child

[This is an expanded and linked version of the August 16 entry in China Bayles Book of Days.]