Given that we have an almost completely untouched crop of sage (above) in our burgeoning garden, this afternoon I asked on Twitter for people's recommendations of what to do with it.
I had so many excellent and delicious-sounding suggestions that James said I should put them all into a blog post, so here they are, with appropriate credits.
1. Put it in a butternut squash risotto. (@danieljowen)
2. Melt some stilton into cream, add sage, butter some pasta and add sauce. Lots of black pepper. Rich so serve as a starter. (@davidsteven)
3. Pan fry until crispy and have with risotto - it's a Hugh recipe. (@ecovallee)
4. If you're not veggie, saltimbocca. (@SoniaRothwell)
5. Sprinkle torn up leaves over vegetables and roast. Yum. (@SueLlewellyn)
6. Tricky but affinity with pork and veal. Crispy deep-fried leaves. Twigs on BBQ for fragrant smoking... (@TessAlps)
7. Add to pork dishes, maybe some meatballs. It's a good stuffing ingredient as well. (@FoodiesSW)
8. I find the standard sage and onion stuffing with chicken most pleasant. It can also be eaten cold, should summer bust out. (@hannahswiv)
9. ...also substitute for basil in a pesto-like pasta sauce. Lovage excellent for that too. (@TessAlps)
10. If you've got heaps of it, Native Americans dry it and use for 'smudging' - burn it, blow out flames and use the smoke to clear sacred space. (@SueLlewellyn)
11. Coat them in batter and fry. Very Italian very delicious. Serve with a Prosecco or Pinot Grigio while listening to Puccini. (@EnterpriseIain)
12. Sage fritters, in a cornmeal batter. (@CulturalSnow)
13. Sage is also a good medicinal herb to keep in your garden - good for sore throats and dry coughs, dontchya know. (@RunSqueezyRun)
14. Mix in with Welsh rarebit. (@kevfrost)
15. Put it in a pork pie! Yum. (@piersroberts)
16. When eaten enough,pick some stalks and put it in vase with some pinks? (@JudyAstley)
Whew. That lot should keep us going until the sage plant is no more - hurrah!
5 comments:
Oh that's so lovely!
My big sage plant in Cornwall was originally a titchy plant given by my friend Soot. Soot died, sadly (too young, breast cancer) but the plant thrives and flowers bright blue and prolifically and is wonderful. To me, it's always Soot's sage and I love it to bits. xx
Sage advice.
Otherwise, when barbecuing or grilling rouget, lay a sage leaf along each flank and hold them in place by wrapping a rasher of lean streaky bacon round the fish. This helps to hold the rouget together, as it's a fish that disintegrates easily. (Did I come up with this? Did I hem-hem.)
Also, buy and cook a packet of supermarket gnocchi, then fry it in melted butter and chopped sage.
Leave it in the garden to flourish and enjoy the foliage and the smell, particularly after rain.
I've got a sage 'tree' in my garden but also a very large purple flowering sage plant given to me by my Mum when we first moved to Leeds 16 plus years ago. Every year it's covered in beautiful flowers (and bees) and it reminds me of my Mum (not that she was, as a rule, covered in bees I hasten to add). This year I'm going to try actually using it to cook with too - I've got some butternut squash in specially. Thank you for all those ideas.
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