Rosemary - Description
Externally, a sprig of rosemary resembles a spruce branch with many small leaves that look like flat needles. While they are fresh, they are soft, when they dry, they become caustic, like real needles. The homeland of this plant is the Mediterranean. Although rosemary has long been cultivated, this evergreen shrub can still be found in its wild form in Morocco, Portugal, Turkey, Spain. It is grown commercially in Spain, Italy, France, and the USA. There are small plantations in Central Asia, Crimea, Azerbaijan. Some plant rosemary in their homes as an indoor plant for scenting air, for decorative purposes, and for adding to food.
Three species of this plant grow. But the most common is rosemary officinalis, he's ordinary. There are also its popular names - incense grass, a dress nevestno, sea dew. This two-meter bush, with beautiful fragrant flowers, is a valuable honey plant. Rosemary is used in perfumery, medicine, cooking. Twigs are harvested in the second and third year after planting. It is during this period that it contains the greatest amount of essential oils for the entire period of its growth.
Rosemary - Properties
Rosemary has antibacterial properties, has a beneficial effect on the body for colds. Its volatile substances disinfect the air, eliminate sticks of streptococcus, staphylococcus, yeast, and intestinal sticks. Dried flowers or sprigs of rosemary can be placed in a sachet bag and hung in the room. It will exude a pleasant aroma for several months.
If rosemary infusion is taken with wine, it will turn into a tonic, strengthen nerves, and expand blood vessels. It has the ability to relieve a sense of tension, increase the secretion of gastric juice, improve digestion. It is recommended to take with sexual weakness, low blood pressure, stomach cramps, nervous disorders. Contraindicated in pregnant women, people prone to convulsions, patients with epilepsy, hypertensive patients.
Rosemary - use in cooking
Rosemary has a fairly rich flavor, so it is added to food in very moderate quantities. Its taste is specific, slightly spicy, vaguely reminiscent of the taste of fresh mint and also slightly refreshing. And the aroma is similar to the smell of pine. Not everyone has the unusual taste of rosemary will like it. But those who made friends with him, usually never part, and often use this spice in cooking.
Add rosemary to meat dishes. It has a pleasant feature - it muffles the specific smell of game, and, on the contrary, gives homemade meat a touch of wild nature, enveloping the scent of pine needles and clean forest air. Rosemary is in complete harmony with zucchini, cabbage, potatoes. Its branches, leaves and flowers are added to fruit salads, marinades, sauces, gravies, dough, soups. Especially it is in place in the pea and chicken soup. So that he would not give the dish bitterness, it, like bay leaf, is removed at the end of cooking from the pan. And by the way, they are never added together, these are mutually exclusive spices.
Chopped rosemary leaves are most often added to main dishes and sauces, and twigs are added to soups to make it convenient to get it. In some dishes it is present as an additional element, it is added at will. In others, such as, for example, in Satsivi, it is an essential component.
Recipe Examples with Rosemary
Recipe 1: Rosy Potatoes with Rosemary
If you have never added rosemary to your food, we advise you to start exploring this spice with cooking potatoes baked in the oven. Moreover, the potato is not simple, with a very interesting preparatory cycle. Before baking, peeled tubers must be kept for a certain time in salt water, in which pieces of ice are added. This allows you to remove the starch from the potato, and it turns out absolutely not sticky, very crumbly, with a ruddy crispy crust. And rosemary gives a special aroma that whets the appetite. Ingredients: 10-12 potatoes, fat (vegetable oil) - 2 table. Lce., salt, 3 cloves of garlic, pepper, 1 table.lozh. rosemary.
Method of preparation
Peeled potato tubers pour water. Salt water and add regular ice. Hold the potatoes in ice captivity for five minutes. Then she will have a route “of ice and into the fire”, i.e. in boiling water, where she needs to cook for four to five minutes, no more.
At this time, melt any fat - chicken, pork, goose, or pour vegetable oil into the pan. Put chopped garlic and rosemary on the bottom and put potatoes on top. Sprinkle with pepper and bake until crusted (40 minutes at 20 ° C).
Recipe 2: Baked Chicken with Rosemary
If rosemary goes well with meat, giving it a refreshing, pleasant taste, why not bake a chicken with it. Not necessarily a whole carcass, you can leg, thigh, brisket or fillet. The garnish is potatoes, which is one of the best additions to meat. It is baked together with chicken, so the dish is cooked at the same time. Still need a lemon peel. It can be finely grated.
Ingredients: Chicken - 1.0 kg, 3 cloves of garlic, lemon peel - 1 cup. lie., vegetable oil - 80 ml, 7-8 potatoes, salt, 1 tsp. lie rosemary leaves (or 2 twigs).
Method of preparation
Remove the leaves-needles from the sprigs of rosemary, lightly chop (cut) and mix with lemon zest. Add finely chopped garlic to this fragrant mixture and pour in the oil.
Chop the chicken into pieces, add salt, spread with marinade and leave to soak for 40-50 minutes. At this time, peel the potatoes, cut them into quarters.
Lay the chicken in the form where it will be baked. It is necessary to lay skin up. Slather the potatoes with marinade, which insisted the chicken and put between the meat pieces. Sprinkle with pepper. Bake for about forty minutes (200C).
Recipe 3: Fish with rosemary sauce
The fish is steamed, so the dish can be considered dietary. The original recipe used cod, but you can take a hake, and pollock, and other sea fish. You can boil fish for a couple not only in a double boiler, but also in a colander, strengthening it on the rim of the pan, at the bottom of which water is boiling. Alternatively, you can boil the fish in water, or, in extreme cases, fry.
Ingredients: 0.5 kg of fish without heads, a spoon of olive or vegetable oil. Sauce - 80g butter, 1 lemon (you need juice), salt, pepper, rosemary sprig.
Method of preparation
Cut carcasses of fish into two or three parts. Coat the pieces with salt, pepper and vegetable oil. Boil for a couple of about 10-15 minutes. If cook in a colander, cover it with a lid.
Prepare the sauce. Melt butter (butter) in a water bath, remembering to stir. Add finely chopped rosemary leaves and a couple of tablespoons of juice squeezed from a lemon. Heat the sauce in a water bath, stirring constantly, for about four minutes.
Serve the fish, watering the sauce and sprinkling with herbs (any, for example, dill or parsley).
Rosemary - useful tips from experienced chefs
- To diversify the monotonous taste of rosemary, it is complemented by the sharpness of chili pepper, the sweetness of honey or the aroma of marjoram and thyme.
- To give the kebabs an unusual flavor, you can throw a few sprigs of dry or fresh rosemary on the embers of the grill or bonfire.
