For the fresh scent of a Mediterranean garden, there’s nothing quite like the fragrance of rosemary. It really must be one of the most versatile plants – it’s pretty, perfumed, bee-friendly …..and you can even eat it! Here are our five top ways of using it in your home.
1. For decoration
Rosemary may not be everyone’s first thought as a cut flower, but it works very well. If you keep it in a cool place, it looks good for anything up to a couple of weeks and and after the flowers are gone its strong dark foliage is a great counterpoint to wild flowers. Fill a mug, small jug or bowl with sprigs and bring the summer inside.
2. For cooking
We all know and love rosemary for cooking with, and although it’s more usually found in savoury dishes it also works well for baking and puddings.
If you’re using your own fresh rosemary for baking, make it’s organic and hasn’t been treated with pesticides. You can use the flowers and leaves fresh, or dry the leaves and store them for the future. The taste can be quite strong, though, so experiment until you know how much of a rosemary taste you prefer.
We particularly like it in baking, mixed with a few crushed lavender seeds – leave the dried fruit out of your favourite scone recipe and add a couple of teaspoons of fresh lavender seeds, lavender flowers and rosemary flowers, lightly crushed in a pestle and mortar.
The flowers and leaves are also pretty added to apple jelly before it sets.
3. As a gift
Make your own flavoured oil to give away – it’s very simple, and adds a fresh flavour to salad dressings.
Simply find a pretty glass bottle with a well-fitting, food safe stopper. Give the bottle and stopper a thorough wash with hot soapy water, and soak off any old labels.
Dry a sprig or two of rosemary by hanging it up in a warm place for three or four days.
Put the sprig in the bottle, and add a few chopped leaves and some crushed garlic, if you like. Fill the bottle up with good quality salad oil such as groundnut or olive. Leave to infuse for a few days, then tie a ribbon round the bottle and label it.
4. In the kitchen
For keen cooks, make your own Mediterranean butter pads to add instant flavour to anything from fish to crusty bread.
Soften some butter, and mash it up on a saucer. Add some crushed garlic, a twist of sea salt and some finely chopped rosemary, and mix it all together evenly.
You can also add other chopped fresh herbs such as thyme, tarragon and chives, if you like.
Spoon the butter into the compartments of an ice cube tray, and freeze it. To use, drop a still-frozen cube onto sea bass a few minutes before the end of cooking, stir into sauces or defrost and use to make garlic bread.
Note: you’ll probably want to keep a dedicated ice cube tray for this as the garlic can taint the tray and make ice cubes for drinks taste a bit odd!
5. In the bath
Rosemary has to be one of the most freshest, cleanest scents there is, and when the scent is from rosemary you’ve grown, picked and dried yourself then the satisfaction at least doubles!
Pick rosemary flowers, and spread them out on a tray in a single layer until dry. When dry, roll them lightly between your hands to crush them. Fill a pretty glass jar with a layer of coarse sea salt, then a pinch of rosemary flowers.
Add a couple of drops of rosemary essential oil. Repeat the layers until the jar is full, then seal and tie with a ribbon.
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