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Aromatic Herbs: The very essence of a herb, and in particular parsley, chervil and mint, is lost when it is deprived of its water content. The cook can always have fresh herbs at hand for they can be grown in a window box or even in a few pots on a sunny kitchen sill. Some herbs, such as thyme, rosemary and bay, tolerate prolonged cooking but others, including chervil [ID], dill [2A] and fennel [2B], are best added to the dish at the last minute so that their aromatic qualities are not lost.
IERBS AND SPICES, broadly defined, are prod-cts of plant origin used primarily for the season-ig of food to give it flavor and aroma. His-irically, the term "spice" applied only to certain ruits, roots, or barks grown in the tropics, such s pepper, cinnamon, or ginger. Today, for con-enience, the spice industry groups together as pices not only those from the hot countries but mie 50 other aromatics—herbs, aromatic seeds, ehydrated seasoning vegetables, blends, and ilts.
Herbs such as parsley, bay leaf, or tarragon in be more precisely defined as fragrant leaves rown in the temperate zone. Anise, mustard, id sesame are examples of flavorful seeds, some E which grow in the tropics and some in tem-srate regions. In another group are the lustily ivored vegetables—onion, garlic, chives, celery, " sweet peppers—which are used for seasoning i well as for their food value.
Just as Belgium is bilingual, so it is bi-cooking, French and Flemish. There are specialties galore drawing their inspiration from each side of the racial line.
Among French-Belgian delights, of which one could name a dozen, I'll content myself with four or five. Anguilles au vert means slabs of eel swimming in a dressing composed of a round dozen of aromatic herbs, or maybe a baker's dozen. Fricadelles bruxelloises are thin braised steaklets garnished with braised endives. |
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