Culinary herbs have been improving the flavor of raw and cooked food since pre-historic times. Barbecuing your fish at the side of the river, or on an ocean beach, at a campfire is as old as the first fishermen and fire. Ancient civilizations have records of how to use herbs. There are herbs mentioned throughout the Bible. And, through medieval times, some of the first written works were about how to recognize and utilize herbs. Some lore has been lost over time, but lots of words are still written, and becoming more popular again, about how to grow, harvest and use herbs for flavoring your food.
There are multiple ways to prepare your freshwater or saltwater fish. Pretty much any cooking method has been tried to cook your catch. Recipes can be found that are prepared by baking, poaching, grilling, boiling, steaming, stewing, frying, deep frying or braising the fish. For the most healthy means of fixin’ your fish, stick to grilling or broiling.
My family prefers baking or broiling the fish, with a covering of the juice of half a lemon, and some pepper. When I broil fish, I put the broiler on low, and score the fish or cut it through, in to serving size pieces. This gets it out of the broiler before it becomes dry. If I bake the fish, I put it in a glass pan, with a bit more fresh lemon juice, a sprinkle of pepper, then cover with aluminum foil, and bake in a preheated fairly hot oven (375 – 400) until the fish flakes with a fork. I also score or cut the fish in to serving sizes when cooking this way, as it speeds the cooking process. Really, the fish steams in the lemon juice.
A favorite hint is to buy a bag of lemons, and place the bag in a ziplock freezer bag, and put them all in to the freezer. As a lemon is needed, just take one from the resealable bag and “cook” it in the microwave for one (1) minute. The juice is fresh, there is more of it, and the lemons do not spoil!!! So easy…who knew!!! Clearly, the person who was putting hints like that in a cooking magazine. This one hint has saved me $$$ in spoiled lemons; and always gives me a “fresh” lemon for cooking.
Some Herbs, and HOW to use them with your fish
Dill: (A) (Anethum graveolens) Dill can be planted near your cucumbers. They are good companion plants, and then the Dill is available when you pick your cucumbers. When it goes to seed, if seed heads are not cut off VERY early, Dill will reseed itself. So, if planting it where you will retill the soil from a cucumber patch, be aware that you may spread your dill through your future rows. Do not plant Dill near Bronze Fennel. They can cross-pollinate.
Dill can be used as a garnish for your fish, vegetables, potatoes, etc. A whole seed head looks lovely in a jar of pickles, or in a bottle of homemade herb vinegar. Snips of dill leaves can be added at the last moment to sauces.
Bronze Fennel: (P) (Foeniculum vulgare, “Purpureum”) Bronze Fennel is a gorgeous fernlike perennial. It is one of the first plants to peek out in the Spring, and one of the last to die back after a hard frost. Bronze Fennel is lovely as a specimen plant, or in the back of a perennial border. It can grow quite tall, averaging 4-5, up to 6 feet tall. But it can also be trimmed back by pruning throughout the growing season. Its’ long fronds and stems make it a natural for specialty flower arrangements.
Use Bronze Fennel in the ways that you would use Dill for a different, anise flavor to your meal. Put the tiny leaflets in salads, soups, and sauces. A traditional way to utilize Bronze Fennel is to use the seeds to add flavor when making or serving sauerkraut.
Again, a reminder to not plant Bronze Fennel near Dill. They can cross-pollinate.
The Onion Family: Chives, Garlic Chives, and Egyptian Walking Onions
Chives: Common, German, or Onion Chives (P) (Allium schoenoprasum)
Common Chives are very versatile as far as places to plant them. They can be put in the ground, placed in a container of mixed herbs, grown in a window box, or left in the pot and brought in the house.
In the garden or outside in a container, they prefer full sun, but will tolerate light shade. Especially if grown in a container, Chives like a bit of afternoon shade in the south. However, I have several clumps in containers in full sun, and they do just fine. We are careful about maintaining moisture in our containers.
Chives can be brought in in Winter. They are a true windowsill or counter plant. As far as harvesting is concerned, they are best freshly snipped. They are better frozen than dried. Some people will say that they are ok dried. If you aren’t going to keep a pot of fresh inside, then to freeze Chives, you can snip bits in to ice cube trays and fill the segments with water; or just freeze in a ziplock freezer bag. Fresh is definitely the best.
Chives are best used snipped on the top of your fish, when the fish is put on the serving platter, or plates. It is, of course, wonderful on top of baked potatoes with sour cream. And it is a flavorful addition to dips or salad dressings. Chives are terrific in potato salad, or as a topping on deviled eggs.
Garlic Chives: (Allium tuberosum) Garlic chives (24” high) are about twice as tall as Common Chives. Like Common Chives, they have a special place as an edging plant in a garden or mixed border. They have a white flower head that resembles Queen Anne’s Lace. Garlic Chives are also known as Chinese Chives, or Chinese Leeks. They have a longer, flatter leaf than Common Chives.
The best culinary usage for Garlic Chives is that they are milder in flavor than true Garlic. Use them at the end of cooking in stirfries or sauces.
Egyptian Walking Onions: (Allium cepa) Egyptian Walking Onions (EWO) are a very interesting plant in the garden. And they are very useable in cooking fish dishes.
While they can be grown in rows, like regular onions, and pulled up from the garden at harvest, it is better to grow them in a bed. An area set aside for the EWO to self-propagate is an interesting showpiece. The plant gets a small flower, that then forms a bulblet. The small bulblet then weighs the stem down, eventually bending it to the ground, and forming a new plant with a larger underground bulb.
All parts of the EWO are usable while cooking fish. The bulblet on top can be used like a shallot, although it is a bit stronger flavored than the shallot. The green hollow leaves can be used as a substitute for bunching onion greens. And the bulb onion in the ground is a small sized onion for dicing or using whole.
Italian flat-leaf parsley: (Petroselinum crispum) Curly leaf parsley does have flavor. However, the Italian flat-leaf parsley is much more flavorful. Parsley’s role is NOT just to look pretty on the plate, adding a bit of color. Parsley’s original purpose on that plate was to provide a cleansing of the palate between courses, as well as to aid in digestion. Italian flat-leaf parsley can be roughly chopped and added to stuffing for baked stuffed fish, or it can be sprinkled on the fish just prior to serving. Parsley can also be added to a bit of wine or butter and olive oil at the end of cooking, to make a sauce for serving on your fish dish.
Rosemary: (P) (Rosmarinus officinalis) Either the Prostrate (Creeping) Rosemary or the Upright Rosemary can be used. They are both Perennial in the southeast. The upright Rosemary is a bit more hardy, and can be trimmed in to a nice bush or hedge. Since rosemary is safe to winter over in the garden, and it stays fairly green all year, it is easy to always have some available to use right outside your kitchen door. Creeping Rosemary looks stunning tumbling down a wall.
One sprig of Rosemary can be placed in a pan to flavor your baked fish. Sprigs can be used to make fish kebabs. Sprigs of Rosemary tossed in the campfire will scent the air and tempt the appetite. Needles from one sprig can be pulled off, roughly chopped, and tossed in cooking oil when fish is being fried.
Salad Burnet: (P) (Poterium sanguisorba) Salad Burnet is an interesting and easy-going plant. It has a mild cucumber flavor, making it useful for people who love cucumbers; and for people who love cucumbers, but find it difficult to digest the cucumbers.
Its’ virtues in the garden are many. It stays green almost all Winter. So, it is useable fresh, and stays green in the garden. Salad Burnet is drought tolerant in the Summer. It will become about 18” in an oval to round plant. In Spring, Salad Burnet sends up a stalk with a small purple flower head that waves in the breeze. The flower stalks can be trimmed off to keep the plant low. It is not invasive. If the flower is allowed to go to seed, a few baby plants will expand the diameter of the planting.
Salad Burnet can be used in any way that you would use Parsley. The older, tougher leaflets can be tossed in soups, stews and stuffings. The young, fresh leaflets can be tossed in salads and sprinkled over the fish dish prior to serving.
Herbs can be just pleasant plants to have in the landscape. But as additions to the fisherman’s garden or pantry, herbs can take a fresh fish to a whole new level of taste and variety.
Recipes:
Please refer back to early in the article for how I bake/steam, broil or grill fresh fish of most any variety, or cut. If you absolutely have to fry your fish, here is a good method for a flavorful quick meal.
Bronze fennel fronds for platter, or plates.
Melt the butter and olive oil in a large cast iron frying pan, with grill ridges, until it sizzles. Brush the oil and butter mix up along the ridges. Keep the brush just for doing oil in cast iron pans. A decent 1” or so paintbrush works well.
Put the trout - skin (or skinned) side down - and fry for 1 minute.
Flip and fry for about 4 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your “catch”.
Flip and fry again for 4 minutes, as above.
Flip and fry for 1 more minute until the fish is cooked through (opaque) and hot, with great grill marks.
Remove the fish and place on a platter, or plates, edged with bronze fennel fronds.
Add the cup of white wine and chopped flat leaf Italian parsley to the frying pan.
Scrape any fish bits from the frying pan and stir the mixture thoroughly. This is a bit tricky when using a pan with grill ridges; but the grill marks are worth the extra difficulty.
Pour the white wine sauce over the fish and serve with some baby potatoes, sprinkled with bits of bronze fennel and a fresh green vegetable, like asparagus or green zucchini; or a salad, with olive oil and vinegar.
Variations:
To make this meal without the wine, a cup of apple juice, apple cider, or apple cider vinegar would work well. Also white grape juice would work. I’d add a bit of sugar to the apple cider vinegar, if I was using it as the substitute.
An entirely different sauce could be made with half a cup of soy sauce, and half a cup of rice wine vinegar. Although, I would not use that sauce on Trout. I’d use it with a thicker less delicate tasting white fish, and I would switch the Parsley to Garlic Chives.
Experiment with your herbs, and let them flavor your fish.