On Feb 6, 11:33 am, piedmont > wrote:

> Robert,
> I envy your dedication to growing and having fresh herbs.

Mike, it's really easy to grow most herbs. I don't know where you
live, but moderate weather and sunshine with regular watering will
grow just about anything.

I like to tell my buddies that after all, if we didn't eat them they
would just be weeds, right?

Seriously, most aren't hard to grow, and many will co-exist with one
another quite well. The only herb I have had a lot of trouble growing
here in South Texas is chives. It will do pretty well in the winter/
spring/first of summer, but if we have our long S. Texas boiler of a
summer, it dies.

> Do you have
> any favorite rubs you would share? Do you have different favs for
> different meats, chicken vs beef or pork?

I actually tend to use store bought herbs to make rubs. And unlike a
lot of rubs, I don't use a lot of ingredients. Since I cook mostly
beef over oak with a stick of mesquite thrown in every once in a
while, I have found the only herbs that stand the 12+ hour smokes are
pepper, paprika, cayenne and cumin. So my rubs tend to be store
bought ingredients mixed with some table salt.

If I am baking, that is different. Baked fish, baked chicken, pork
loin, etc., will get a dose of fresh herbs in an olive oil
suspension. I like to take the skin off a chicken to bake it. I take
a good bit of quality smoked paprika, some oregano, some black pepper,
a little salt and a little fresh minced garlic and heat it gently in a
small pan with some olive oil to warm it.

I like it to be a paste, so I adjust the thickness with more paprika
and pepper until it is as I want it. I put this on chicken, loin
slices, etc., and smoke them cook them in the oven at about 225 until
they are done.

This stuff is even good to reserves a bit and put a small amount on
loin slices after it has cooked. After smoking or grilling a piece of
salmon, it is wonderful on that as well.

I use almost all my spices for sauces and particularly for Italian
themed sauces. I can whip up a red sauce for noodles that has no
added salt, nor does it have the tablespoons of sugar that the store
bought stuff does. It takes about 15 minutes of cooking, so with the
herbs ready, you have your own ragu in minutes.

Example:

One eight ounce can of tomato sauce
One small can of tomato paste
One tablespoon finely chopped basil (plain Italian, Genovese, or
similar)
One teaspoon finely chopped oregano
Two teaspoons finely chopped garlic
One teaspoon finely chopped onion
Two teaspoons finely chopped parsley
One tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
Water as needed to adjust thickness

Put all the ingredients in a pan. Heat until bubbling, then only 15
minutes more on low heat. Longer cooking destroys the fresh herb
taste. This sauce is bright and tasty and since it is made with fresh
ingredients it will taste completely different than the flat, acidy
(or sweet) sauces most folks are familiar with. It is great on all
kinds of things from pasta to chicken breasts.

You can make it in 20 minutes from start to finish, and 15 of it you
can use to make the pasta, cook chicken, or homemade mini meatballs.
It is a favorite around here for flavor first, then due to the low
salt content and NO sugar like the jar stuff.

I also use the herbs I grow for soups, breads (how about a fresh loaf
of rosemary/garlic Italian bread?) and vegetables. Because parsley is
well known to be a good aid to digestion, everything I cook seems to
get a good dose of it, even it if is just chopped and sprinkled over
the top of the finished meal to make it look better.

No magic stuff for rubs, though.

Fresh herbs lose their taste very rapidly when exposed to heat, so
they don't lend themselves to outdoor cooking unless they are used as
a sauce or marinate employed before or after cooking.

Robert