Herbs & Spices

These seem to cry, “Brunch! Brunch!” Take the time to make someone special a Sunday morning treat with a big cup of café au lait, and you won’t regret it. These fritters, a take on beignets, the French Quarter’s most famous doughnut, are a snap to make.

If you’re going to make ginger snaps, you might as well make ’em gingery, right? A combination of fresh and ground ginger does just that. These cookies are buttery and full of flavor, with cloves and cayenne pepper adding an undercurrent of heat. If you like your cookies a little chewy, just take them out of the oven a minute or two sooner.

My strongest memories of Thanksgiving are the mingling smells of chopped parsley, melted butter, and chicken broth going into the stuffing, and the sounds of cheering and yelling as we all watched the Army-Navy football game. At Bayona we always serve two different stuffings with our roast turkey. One is my mom’s simple bread stuffing, and the other is loaded with local flavors like shrimp (or crayfish) and andouille. I still like my mom’s the best. I call for both stuffings to be baked in casseroles, but you can also follow your favorite method for baking them inside a bird.

This is a recipe I created to celebrate satsuma season. Satsumas are sweet, juicy tangerines that flourish in Louisiana during the winter. (If you can’t find them in your area, any tangerine will do.) You can certainly make the marmalade in larger quantities—it keeps well and is terrific with any grilled or roasted meat, served hot or cold. Try it with grilled quail, duck breast, or even smoked pork sausage or ham. Brining is a technique that serves many purposes. It tenderizes, flavors, and keeps meat juicy. This brine can be used with chicken, turkey breast (I’d leave the soy out), and pork loin or tenderloin. You can throw in herbs or spices appropriate to the dish, but you’ll want to keep the salt/sugar ratio the same. Green beans with shallots make the perfect accompaniment to this dish.

This, to me, is the essence of French home cooking: a simple sauté and flavorful pan sauce made with vinegar, mustard, and tarragon (the quintessential French herb). If you can’t find fresh tarragon, you can use tarragon vinegar instead and finish the dish with chives, but it’s just better with fresh tarragon. For the best results be sure to use a flavorful Chicken Stock (p. 206). If yours tastes a little weak, start with two cups instead of one (as called for below) and let it reduce longer to concentrate the flavor.

One of the great things about living in Louisiana is the plethora of sunny citrus fruits available during winter. When my grapefruit tree started producing more than I could use at home, I developed this recipe to serve at Bayona. Fresh basil is commonly partnered with lemon or orange, but I love how the faint anise flavor of the herb plays off the bright, tart-sweet punch of grapefruit (and since it rarely freezes in New Orleans, we can typically grow basil all year round as well). Citrus and fish is such a great match—this sauce is delicious with pompano, amberjack, or just about any fish.

This is a dish I make often, especially for informal parties. It is delicious, easy, and pretty, and makes a great buffet item, especially when paired with all those other Mediterranean dishes I love to cook and eat, such as Eggplant Caviar and Black Olive Tapenade (p. 191), Artichoke Dolmades with Lemon Sauce (p. 20), and Simple Orzo Salad with Black Olives and Feta (p. 115). The tomato sauce is also a good base for moussaka or baked stuffed eggplant, or just tossed with noodles and some sharp Greek cheese, such as kasseri. The dish can be completed up to the final baking point and kept refrigerated for several hours or even overnight. Bring it to room temperature before baking, or it will overcook.

This unusual pesto variation, adapted from a recipe by Colman Andrews in his book Flavors of the Riviera, cries out for grilled or roasted lamb, but you will discover many other ways to use it. In fact, it’s perfectly delicious on simple grilled bread with a glass of white wine or rosé.

This unusual aïoli is good on any kind of grilled meat, especially lamb, and the tasty little chickens known as poussins. You might also serve it with roasted artichoke quarters. For this recipe you can steep your own lavender honey, as described below, or simply buy a good-quality lavender honey from Provence.

Green and pungent, this is my favorite version of the famed Argentinean sauce. For a more traditional version, substitute fresh oregano for the cilantro, and red wine vinegar for the lime juice. Serve it with fat, juicy rib eyes, grilled chicken breasts, or tuna steaks.

There are many different versions and interpretations of this exotic mixture, which can be used as a marinade, a sauce, or, with a little more olive oil, a vinaigrette. Use a portion of it to marinate fish or chicken, then grill, and toss the remaining mixture with thinly sliced Vidalia onions and sweet red peppers for a quick summer supper.

This fabulous, herbaceous gumbo used to be primarily a meatless Lenten dish, served on Good Friday. It is a pretty rare find on menus these days, but if you should come across it, give it a try. It is a thinner, soupier gumbo than most, and you’ll be surprised how much flavor the greens impart to the broth. When I made it the first time, I thought of how wonderful oysters would taste with the herbs, so I decided to top it off with a few fried ones. You could still serve it during Lent, but don’t reserve this delicious gumbo for once a year.

This irresistible salad became a signature at Savoir Faire. I coat the oysters with bread crumbs flavored with sage, rosemary, and parsley—and strongly encourage you to use all three. The smell alone will have your mouth watering. Fried in this coating, the oysters take on a rich flavor that suggests stuffing. Placed atop a fresh spinach salad, the dish becomes a playful twist on Oysters Rockefeller (raw oysters on the half shell, topped with a spinach-bread crumb mixture and baked). The Rosemary-Dijon Dressing (which should be made first so the salad will come together easily at the end) is one you’ll make again and again—it’s delicious on just about any mix of greens.

All along the Gulf Coast, crab is plentiful and almost cheap during the summer. It has a luxurious flavor, but it’s still light, and in this ceviche-like salad the lime and basil enhance the warm-weather flavors. The salty capers are a good foil for the sweetness of the crab and carrots. Serve this refreshing combination on lettuce leaves, as described below, or in a parfait or martini glass, garnished with a wedge of lime and some tortilla chips.

There are two versions of remoulade. French remoulade means celery root remoulade, a beloved bistro slaw bound in a creamy white mustard-mayo dressing. But in New Orleans, classic remoulade is red and more of a vinaigrette, made with two traditional spices, paprika and cayenne, and balanced with plenty of celery and parsley that provide a fresh, clean crunch. This remoulade is my favorite way to eat chilled, boiled shrimp, crab, or crayfish, but the dressing is also great on crabmeat or on a simple boiled egg, sliced in half and served atop crisp shredded lettuce.

This recipe is based on the much-loved Spanish dish called Gambas al Ajillo, or shrimp with garlic. The basil is not a traditional ingredient, but I like how its fresh flavor pairs with the sweet, garlicky shrimp. Smoked Spanish paprika, or pimentón, has a unique flavor and is well worth tracking down. You can find it at most specialty food stores, or in Latin markets. It’s typically much cheaper at the latter.