Several years ago, while at the garden center, I made the random decision to purchase a tarragon plant. I had never used tarragon in a recipe but thought it might be nice to have on hand. These are the sorts of decision you make when plants are priced very low. Tarragon has a sort of licorice-y aroma and is popular in French cooking. Tarragon vinegar is a very common ingredient in salad dressing.
Ina Garten uses
tarragon quite a bit.
Much like the thyme plant we have, the tarragon grew rapidly and soon overtook the bed it was planted in. It was the first plant I uprooted and moved to another location, figuring since I kind of hadn't used it yet, there was no real risk. If it didn't make it, so what?
Several years later, the tarragon is flourishing.
It gets along well with its neighbors in the row of herbs I've planted and transplanted along my deck:
I trim it back from time to time, as it grows like crazy. And I use it... hardly ever! If you have any good ideas (other than those I've linked above), please share!
It also appears to have multiplied. When I was cutting it back the other day I noticed that we seem to have five plants instead of just one:
Which I am sure is an important biology lesson, but I'm not a botanist and have no idea how to explain it. What I know is that tarragon is bright green and healthy, smells nice, and apparently goes well with tomatoes. I welcome any other information!
I like tarragon in egg dishes, also in salad dressings. It's also good with mushrooms in my opinion, and I always add some when I make a veggie stroganoff-like dish.
ReplyDeleteAl, it smells pretty strong... about how much would you throw in to a mushroom stroganoff recipe?
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