BUILDING FLAVOR, BODY AND TEXTURE: PART 12
Basil (bay-sul or baz-ul) has a warm, sweet flavor that is welcome in many soups, sauces, and entrees. It blends especially well with tomato. Like many other herbs it has a symbolism: in India it expresses reverence for the dead; in Italy it is a symbol of love.
Oregano (a-reg'-a-noh) belongs to the same herb family as basil, but it makes a very different contribution to a dish—a strong bittersweet taste and aroma you may have met in spaghetti sauce. Oregano comes in powder form as well as flakes.
Tarragon (tair'-a-gon) has a flavor that is somehow light and strong at the same time. It tastes something like licorice. Its flavor is most closely associated with tarragon vinegar and with béarnaise (bare-naze or bay-ar-nez) sauce.
Rosemary, like bay leaf, is used in dishes where a liquid is involved—soups, sauces, stews, and poached foods. The leaf of an evergreen shrub of the mint family, it has a pungent flavor and fragrance. Dried, it looks and feels like pine needles. Rosemary is a traditional symbol of fidelity and remembrance.
Powdered sage comes from the dried leaves and stems of the sage plant. It is used to flavor sausage and stuffings for poultry, fish, and pork. Sage complements pork beautifully. The velvet-leafed plant was traditionally valued highly as a guarantor of good health. "Why should a man die whilst sage grows in his garden?" goes a medieval saying.
Two spices have flavors that will be very familiar to you: dill as in pickle and mustard as in hot dog. Dried dill leaves, often called dill weed, are used in soups, fish dishes, stews, and butters. Dry mustard, a powdered spice made from the seed of the mustard plant, comes in two varieties: white and brown. The brown has the sharper and more pungent flavor. Both kinds are used to flavor sauces and entrees. Prepared mustards are also made from both kinds. The mustard flavor is especially popular with ham.
Paprika is another powdered spice that comes in two flavors, mild and hot. Both kinds are made from dried pods of the same pepper family as red pepper and cayenne, and they look something like the seasoning peppers, but they do not do the work of seasonings. Hungarian paprika is the hot spicy one; Spanish paprika has little flavor but its red color has lots of eye appeal. Paprikas are sensitive to heat and will turn brown if exposed to direct heat.
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