Bouquet garni
Marcus Longfoot and Simon Paterson
We’ve seen French chefs make a bouquet garni like we’ve rarely seen in western kitchens. It is no meek affair of a few sprigs and leaves. We use one of these in many of our braised dishes. It is a great way to use often-discarded parts of celery, leek and parsley.
Time
10 minutes total
Storage notes
keeps in the vegetable part of the refridgerator for 3 days
Difficulty
easy
Yield
300 g (servings 6 –8)
Ingredients
Weight
Volume
Procedure
A
Leek greens
70 g
1 medium
Celery leaves and stems
70 g
2 stalks
Parsley stalks and leaves
70 g
2 sprigs
Thyme
10 g
10 sprigs
Bay leaf
2 g
2 leaves
1
Use the leek greens to wrap the other ingredients into a large cylinder.
2
Tie with four strands of kitchen twine, evenly spaced.
3
Trim ends and cut in half.
Finished recipe
a
b
i A scaled version of this recipe. Beautiful. (Photo by Marcus Longfoot)
Steps
1a Some of these are parts of the herbs which are often discarded.
1b Make a few small slits in the leek greens so that liquid can easily penetrate.
1c Thyme.
1d Parsley.
1e Celery and bay leaves.
1f Gather all the herbs into the leek greens.
1g We use a clean rubber band to hold the cylinder’s shape while we tie it up with twine. We also trim ours, which prevents stray leaves from entering the dish.
2a Tie the twine really, really, really tightly. The whole cylinder shrinks during cooking and the twine will become loose. We use a “sugeon’s knot” to keep the twine in place while we secure with a closing knot.
2b Using four pieces of twine allows you to cut the cylinder into two pieces and still maintain shape. It also makes it easier to remove from your pot when cooking is finished.
| Per serve | |
|---|---|
| Energy (kcal) | 21.5 |
| Energy (kJ) | 90 |
| Protein (g) | 1 |
| Fat (g) | 0.3 |
| Carbs (g) | 3.1 |
| Sugars (g) | 1 |
| Fiber (g) | 1.5 |
| Sodium (mg) | 24.9 |
| Cholesterol (mg) | 0 |