Hot herbs

In the February 2009 issue of Burke’s Backyard magazine, on sale now nationally, our Kitchen Garden section tells you  all about ‘Hot Herbs’ – those classic herbs from Mediterranean cookery which can handle the intense heat of the Aussie summer. Our hot herbs are:

• sage
• rosemary
• thyme
• oregano

Our Kitchen Garden story has tips on how to grow and care for these herbs (and they’re easy, no-fuss plants to grow if they’re grown in a sunny spot) plus some great recipes, including Tracy Rutherford’s Tuna, Rosemary and Lemon Skewers, plus her Butterflied Pork Steaks with Sage and Peaches.

And for Don’s 2UE listeners, we have a quick and simple dish featuring sage that takes only minutes to cook and uses chicken breast schnitzels.

Saltimbocca

(which means ‘jump in the mouth’)

The classic Saltimbocca uses thin slices of veal, but these can be hard to find, and expensive, so this recipe works just as well with thin schnitzel-style slices of chicken. Lots of supermarkets now sell thin chicken schnitzel pieces, but if you have a sharp knife you can usually cut four thin chicken schnitzel slices from just one chicken breast.

4 thinly sliced chicken schnitzels, or 4 thin veal schnitzels
4 slices prosciutto (parma ham, from delis and supermarkets)
8 sage leaves, plus 8 toothpicks
50g butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Lay out the schnitzels on a board, cover with Glad Wrap then flatten out gently using a meat tenderiser or a rolling pin. Then top each schnitzel with a slice of prosciutto. Then lay 2 sage leaves on each schnitzel (one on either half of the schnitzel), and pin the sage leaf in place, attaching to the ham and schnitzel using the toothpick.

2. Now heat a frypan for a minute or two over medium heat until the pan is well warmed, then add the olive oil and butter and let it warm through until the butter foams up. Now add the schnitzels and fry for 2-3 minutes on one side, turn over and fry 2 minutes more on the other side.

3. Remove the toothpicks, then serve with a mixed green salad plus potatoes done your favourite way (ie, your choice of salad, chips, steamed, baked etc).

Other tips with sage

Younger leaves are best: if picking leaves off your own sage bush, the younger leaves have a milder flavour than the older leaves,

Sage and onion: these two are a classic flavour combo in stuffings, but if you’re just cooking onions on their own, a little bit of sage (not too much) can add something special to their flavour. To start, just experiment with adding one chopped sage leaf to one chopped onion, and see how you go.

Sage butter: lots of Italian cooks like to use sage to flavour butter, before they add any other indredients when cooking a dish. Just melt some butter in the frypan/saucepan, then add a few whole sage leaves and let them cook in the butter until crisp, then proceed with the rest of your recipe. Sage butter is great with chicken dishes, for example.