sister herb
Official TTI Chef
Thyme
Thyme is one of the best known and most widely-used culinary herbs. It is quite easy to grow and is commonly found as a decorative as well as a functional plant in many home gardens.
You will find thyme a welcome flavor in salads, soups, chowders, sauces, breads, vegetable and meat dishes, and even jellies and desserts.
Thyme is an essential ingredient in bouquet garni.
A member of the mint family, thyme is a perennial evergreen shrub, whose sometimes woody stems are covered with small, gray-green to green leaves. Its small, two-lipped flowers range in color from pale pink to purple and bear quadruplet nutlet fruits. The entire plant is aromatic.
There are over one hundred varieties of thyme, with the most common being Garden Thyme and Lemon Thyme. The many types are so close in appearance, it is often difficult to differentiate them.
Lemon thyme has a slightly more-pronounced lemony fragrance, particularly good with fish. All varieties of thyme are highly attractive to bees.
Honey from bees that feed on thyme flower nectar is a gourmet delight.
Yet interestingly enough, insects are repelled by thyme. Make a cup of thyme tea, put it in a plant mister, and spray around doorways and windows in summer to repel insects.
In some Levantine countries, and Assyrian, the condiment za'atar (Arabic for thyme) contains thyme as a vital ingredient.
Thyme is sold both fresh and dried. The fresh form is more flavourful, but also less convenient; storage life is rarely more than a week. While summer-seasonal, fresh greenhouse thyme is often available year round.
Fresh thyme is commonly sold in bunches of sprigs. A sprig is a single stem snipped from the plant. It is composed of a woody stem with paired leaf or flower clusters ("leaves") spaced 1⁄2 to 1" apart. A recipe may measure thyme by the bunch (or fraction thereof), or by the sprig, or by the tablespoon or teaspoon. Dried thyme is widely used in Armenia (called Urc) in teas.
Depending on how it is used in a dish, the whole sprig may be used (e.g. in a bouquet garni), or the leaves removed and the stems discarded. Usually when a recipe specifies "bunch" or "sprig", it means the whole form; when it specifies spoons it means the leaves. It is perfectly acceptable to substitute dried for whole thyme.
Leaves may be removed from stems either by scraping with the back of a knife, or by pulling through the fingers or tines of a fork.
Thyme retains its flavour on drying better than many other herbs. Substitution is often more complicated than that because recipes can specify sprigs, and sprigs can vary in yield of leaves.
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Polenta Quick Bread with Lemon and Thyme
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F / 160 C. Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Dust with flour, and tap out excess; set aside. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add lemon zest; mix 1 minute. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in lemon juice and thyme. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt, and mix until just combined. Stir in chopped pine nuts.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with pine nuts. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Garnish with thyme.
Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/357764...ets&gallery=275123&slide=357764¢er=276953
Thyme is one of the best known and most widely-used culinary herbs. It is quite easy to grow and is commonly found as a decorative as well as a functional plant in many home gardens.
You will find thyme a welcome flavor in salads, soups, chowders, sauces, breads, vegetable and meat dishes, and even jellies and desserts.
Thyme is an essential ingredient in bouquet garni.
A member of the mint family, thyme is a perennial evergreen shrub, whose sometimes woody stems are covered with small, gray-green to green leaves. Its small, two-lipped flowers range in color from pale pink to purple and bear quadruplet nutlet fruits. The entire plant is aromatic.
There are over one hundred varieties of thyme, with the most common being Garden Thyme and Lemon Thyme. The many types are so close in appearance, it is often difficult to differentiate them.
Lemon thyme has a slightly more-pronounced lemony fragrance, particularly good with fish. All varieties of thyme are highly attractive to bees.
Honey from bees that feed on thyme flower nectar is a gourmet delight.
Yet interestingly enough, insects are repelled by thyme. Make a cup of thyme tea, put it in a plant mister, and spray around doorways and windows in summer to repel insects.
In some Levantine countries, and Assyrian, the condiment za'atar (Arabic for thyme) contains thyme as a vital ingredient.
Thyme is sold both fresh and dried. The fresh form is more flavourful, but also less convenient; storage life is rarely more than a week. While summer-seasonal, fresh greenhouse thyme is often available year round.
Fresh thyme is commonly sold in bunches of sprigs. A sprig is a single stem snipped from the plant. It is composed of a woody stem with paired leaf or flower clusters ("leaves") spaced 1⁄2 to 1" apart. A recipe may measure thyme by the bunch (or fraction thereof), or by the sprig, or by the tablespoon or teaspoon. Dried thyme is widely used in Armenia (called Urc) in teas.
Depending on how it is used in a dish, the whole sprig may be used (e.g. in a bouquet garni), or the leaves removed and the stems discarded. Usually when a recipe specifies "bunch" or "sprig", it means the whole form; when it specifies spoons it means the leaves. It is perfectly acceptable to substitute dried for whole thyme.
Leaves may be removed from stems either by scraping with the back of a knife, or by pulling through the fingers or tines of a fork.
Thyme retains its flavour on drying better than many other herbs. Substitution is often more complicated than that because recipes can specify sprigs, and sprigs can vary in yield of leaves.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Polenta Quick Bread with Lemon and Thyme
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh thyme leaves, plus sprigs for garnish
- 1 cup fine yellow cornmeal (preferably stone-ground)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted, half coarsely chopped and half whole
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F / 160 C. Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Dust with flour, and tap out excess; set aside. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add lemon zest; mix 1 minute. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in lemon juice and thyme. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt, and mix until just combined. Stir in chopped pine nuts.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with pine nuts. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Garnish with thyme.
Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/357764...ets&gallery=275123&slide=357764¢er=276953