Herbs Ahead

 Everyone is busy taking the last of the tomatoes and turning them into sauce. They're looking at those newly picked apples and thinking butters. Yet what about herbs. They're one of the most important ingrdients and the easiest to keep for fall and winter cooking ahead.

Herb drying has been around since the beginning of time. Home chefs and healers dried them in the sun or in their homes. The last was one by tying them in bunches and hanging them from the rafters. This not only provided flavor for their stews and roasted meats but also scented the main rooms. You can do this too, but preferably in a cool dry room like a pantry basement  or attic.Make sure the area is well ventilated otherwise the leaves will be soggy, damp or even rotty.  Can you dry herbs in the oven? Absolutely! You can even dry seeds ike pumpkin too this was too. Place the leaves on a cookie sheet in a low oven  - less than 180 degrees Farenheit for two to four hours.The leaves will be crumbly when they're fully done. Keep in mind that you should pick your herbs early in the morning and take the leaves before the plant begins to flower. This is when their flavor is at its' strongest. You can prolong harvesting by snipping off any buds that appear.Also remove dried , sickly or wilted leaves at this time too.

What can you do with dried herbs? Everything!!! Dried rosemary is used in many Italian dishes.It graces foccaccio, adding color and flavor to this famed bread. A truly tasty side dish is rosemary potatoes. This s taking red potaotes and sheet pan roasting them with rosemary and sea salt after tossing them in olive oil. They're roasted for 350 degrees Farenheit for thirty to forty minutes. You can also use the herb in homemade sauces and part of a pizza sauce. Basil is another incredibly popular herb that most gardens have. This too is versatile. Dried basil is a definite must for homemade tomato sauces what about pesto? Yes it's usually and traditionally made with fresh leaves but you can use the dried ones. Keep the same ingredients ,lemons, olive oil and walnuts and blend everything in a food processor or blender. Again you use the pesto as a plain sauce or add a teaspoon of it to sauces and even dressings. Sage is another herb that's great to dry.It'll be used in stuffings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It imparts a slightly minty and pepepry taste that offsets the mildness of the bread. Also try it in minestrone soup too.

Keep those garden herbs going in delicious recipes for the entire year. They're a smap to dry and fun to use.  You'll have that fresh flavor well into fall.

Easy Bread For The Holidays

There's nothing as comforting or as steady as tradition. That includes matzoh for Passover and breads for Easter. We need them to complete seders and dinners. what better way to carry on tradition than to bake them ourselves. It'sa way to calm ourselves and connect with our pasts.

Melissa Clark knows this and offered a matzoh recipe in her A Good Appetite column in yesterday's New York Times. You can still buy matzoh in the stores, There are boxes of it but you can also make it at home if you don't want to go out or there are shortages in your area. Matzoh is an easy bake because it's just water and flour. Ms. Clark suggests also adding whole wheat flour for an earthier taste along with sprinkling the tops with flaky sea salt. You can also add cracked pepper or other spices.One important ingredient is olive oil  which give a richness in both flavor and body. You'll need about two cup of flour, kosher salt and only a quarter cup of whole wheat flour. A scant quarter cup of olive oil is also blended in along with a half of cup of water. The dough is rolled out to the thinnest possible thickness. You can aim for rounds but if they're too hard, then settle for oblongs. Transfer each to a cookie sheet and prick with a fork.  Sprinkle with the flaky sea salt.The matzohs only take seven to twelve minutes to bake, until they're golden and lightly browned in spots. Roll out  following batches as the first are baking.

An Easter dinner, no matter, how small , can also have a loaf of bread. Krysten Chambrot, a senior staff editor at the Food section wrote about these also in yesterday's issue. There are different recipes beginning with one for novices, and working all the way up to seasoned bread bakers. Beginners can try their hand at Mark Bittman's no knead bread. It's a simple recipe of bread flour and instant yeast . It's just takes a long while to proof  - about twelve hours or more. If you have trouble with yeast, then try the non yeast type. Food section regular  contributor, Florence Fabricant gives a beer bread one, that's sweet, thanks to the addition of sugar and beer. Make a loaf or two for the holiday and serve with sliced Easter ham. From there go for the enriched breads. These are the loaves that have egg and honey in them, which are the basis of many traditional Easter breads. A good holiday bread is an enriched savory focaccia recipe taken from the famed Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. Olive oil and minced rosemary flavor it.  It's cut into squares - perfect for a family Easter brunch and for the leftovers the next day. You will need a stand mixer and a dough hook to knead the dough.

Baking matzoh and bread is a soothing holiday tradition. Bake some in these stressful times for comfort and to relieve the uneasiness of these uncertain times.