RECIPE: The tarragon is up...its' spring! REC: Potato & Tarragon Gratin

RECIPE:
P

pat-in-to

Well-known member
Potato and Tarragon Gratin

Bon Appetit April 2003

This is one of our family favorites. When I see my tarragon bed coming back to life I know it's spring.

3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper (white if, like Julia, you're sensitive to color flecks)

5 tablespoons freshly chopped tarragon (recipe says you can use 2.5 teaspoons dried but I've never tried it...why would you?!)

1 1/2 cups shredded white cheddar… don't be tempted to use more. I tried it and it was too oily

1 cup cream

1 cup white wine

Preheat oven to 400. Butter or spray a 13x9 rectangular baking/presentation pan… or something similar.

Evenly divided and layer everything, except the liquids, in the order given, planning on three layers.

Mix the cream and wine and pour over the casserole. Add a little more of each if you need it to just barely cover.

Bake, uncovered, for at least an hour or maybe a little more depending on the size and shape of your pan.

 
Lucky you! My tarragon doesn't winter-over, but the chives are peeking through the dead leaves!...

I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Love those first few days I can go out and pick from my herb garden.

I have 2 kinds of chives (?), tarragon that never really got too big and never came back, basil (that DEFinately doesn't winter-over), parsley, scraggely oregano that I am trying to kill (unsuccessfully), variaged marjoram, sage, lemon balm, and mint - lots of mint.

Everything comes back every summer except for the basil and the French tarragon, although I would like to know how to prune back last year's dead leaves in the early spring without losing everything and getting nothing in the summer. Any hints?

 
Mine winters over too and is coming up but the savory is up. I don't have any great

ideas for using savory though, other than throwing it into a chicken dressing.

The chives are at their best right now. They sure get scraggly soon.

Any ideas on savory only dishes and generally, what to use it in successfully?

 
The now is off the herb garden...I've got sage, chives, garlic chives and oregano. Thyme is sad.

"Snow" is off the herb garden. Sigh!

 
REC: Tuna Marseillaise. (uses lots of savory.)

TUNA MARSEILLES STYLE

From Lulu’s Provencal Kitchen by Richard Olney. (Lulu is the matriarch of the Domain Tempier wine family. She uses savory in everything!)

4 tuna steaks 1½ inches thick
1 Tbs. olive oil
Several fresh savory sprigs (I've been using thyme, but I just planted some savory and look forward to using it.)
4 bay leaves, broken into large pieces

Sauce:

1½ lbs. tomatoes, peeled seeded, coarsely chopped. (Off season, I've used a combination of fresh and canned tomatoes.)
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
Salt and a pinch of ceyenne
Large pinch of fresh savory leaves, finely chopped, or dried powdered savory
2 tbs. capers
3 oz. Greek-style large black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped

3 salt anchovies, rinsed and filleted, or 6 filets
1 Tbs. olive oil

Salt and pepper

In a shallow dish, rub the tuna with olive oil and press the savory sprigs and bay leaves to the surfaces. Cover and leave in a cool place for 3 or 4 hours. If refrigerated, remove an hour before cooking.

Layer the tomatoes with salt in a colander and let them drain 1 hour.

Warm 2 Tbs. olive oil in a skillet and cook the onions and garlic over low heat., stirring, until soft but not colored. Turn up the heat, add the tomatoes and seasonings, and cook, stirring often, until sauce is thick with no loose liquid remaining. Lower the heat and stir in the capers and olives. (You can do the sauce a little ahead to this point)

In a small skillet over low heat, warm the remaining 1 tbs. olive oil and the anchovies until the filets fall apart when the pan is shaken. (Mash with a spoon if they don’t fall apart on their own.) Stir the anchovies and their oil into the sauce.

In a heavy frying pan heat the 1 Tbs. olive oil over high heat. Discard the herbs from the tuna steaks and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Fry for no more than 5 minutes on each side, so that the center is still rosy. Serve with sauce.

 
That's one of my favourite scrounge-around-the-kitchen-cupboards sauces. Now I make it

on purpose whenever my H will agree to eat pasta. But I have always used basil not savory.

Thank you for that Joe. ANd using it on tuna. Great idea.

Shoot. I just missed some tuna on sale. (expensive stuff)

 
Sigh, snow is still on the chives here, but they do take over my garden if I let them. Will try

tarragon this year. The pussy willows are blooming---usually our first sign of spring. Can't eat them though. Although, fresh young willow leaves are a spring treat to Native Alaskans.

 
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