Elevate Your Dish with Fresh Spring Herbs
My guests always want to know how they can get their food to taste as good as what they eat in restaurants. Aside from copious use of butter and astonishing amounts of citrus on just about everything, the best way to elevate any dish is with the use of herbs. Depending on the time of year or the particular dish it is more appropriate to use fresh vs. dried herbs, but generally fresh is my preferred route because they lend incredible brightness, texture, and color that you just can’t get from dried.
This thyme of year (see what I did there?) is a peak for many fresh herbs which lend a warm, bright, vernal effect to dishes, especially if they are added near the end of cooking, rather than muted in the beginning. Basil, tarragon, verbena, rosemary, cilantro, thyme, mint, and lavender are all seasonal right now. Each can be ground into pestos, muddles into cocktails, flourished over pastas, and stuffed into roasting chickens and lam roasts.
And herbs aren’t just for garnish. They are gorgeous as salad greens! From drinks to apps, mains to dessert, fresh herbs will bring your food from delicious to celebratory!
About the Chef
Stephanie Goldfarb is a Chicago-based chef and national food television personality specializing in seasonal, globally-inspired cuisine. Recognized as the winner of Food Network’s America’s Best Cook competition, and a celebrity chef on Kitchen Inferno and NBC’s Food Fighters, Goldfarb delivers unique and relatable culinary experiences to discriminating and casual diners alike. As the owner of the successful Seven Species Supper Club & Catering, she enjoys the challenge of building brand new menus each month that inspire both repeat clients and newcomers, and seeks opportunities to utilize new ingredients, techniques, and approaches in accessible ways.