Thursday, May 17, 2012

Food: Scarborough Fair Oil

Are you goin' to Scarborough Fair,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme?
Remember me to one who lives there;
She once was a true love o' mine.

So goes the song.  And I have these 4 herbs growing in my garden.  And I love infused oils.  Inspiration hit me like a thunderclap on this fine spring day!

So I took a little bit of each herb:

and chopped them fine and mixed them together until they looked like finely chopped grass clippings, but smelled a heck of a lot better.

Put them in a prep bowl, poured about a quarter cup of extra-virgin olive oil over the top, covered up the bowl and shook gently.


Man oh man.

My question is: besides dunking sourdough bread in it (obvious choice), whatever shall I do with the stuff?  The possibilities are endless, and I am thinking:
  • coating chicken with it before roasting
  • using as a substitute for my plain olive oil when I oven-roast potatoes
  • turning it into a marinade with some white wine and garlic
  • using it as a butter substitute when mashing potatoes
  • tossing with pasta and Parmesan cheese
  • experimenting with Scarborough Fair pesto (see above)
  • drizzling steak, pork chops, and any other grilled meat with it.  Besides hot dogs. ew.
  • Could it possibly be used as a tiny garnish for risotto?
What do you all think?  I'm all ears.