I have a bay plant that I move inside to winter and move back out during warmer months. I've got to say, I never really understood what bay leaves can do until I had them fresh from the bush. Dried just aren't the same. If you can grow a bay plant, I recommend it.
I like plants and trees, especially the ones you eat or cook with. Every time I move, I get a new bay tree, or two, and keep them in a pot. I keep dried Turkish bay around too (just used for pickling spice in my DIY corned beef). The two times that I have lived in the Southeast US the leaves were forgeable from the red bay. Then I had a California bay in my yard in Sacramento, or at least that is what I identified it as (smelled and looked right).
Until I got geographically to where I am now (gulf coast), I moved every three to four years during adulthood. In Guam I found one bay tree after much searching, but couldn’t move with it overseas, and the same search ensued at the next two locales due to USDA rules. I have always managed to track one down eventually because I hate buying little packets of fresh herbs. (I was just at the store and a fluffy dill plant was 3.45 vs a smaller cut bunch for 2.99, vs the little plastic pack of slimy old dill for 2.50. I grabbed four plants as I am still waiting for seeds to sprout. The eastern black swallowtail are abundant and beautiful but the babies annihilate my dill twice a year).
In addition to bay, a fresh curry leaf tree is handy. There was an Indian store that had one in their backyard in Guam, and they gave me a bunch of seedlings/saplings (?) they pulled out of the ground from underneath the large one. They are weedy. From then on I wanted my own curry tree too, instead of trying to find an Indian grocery store with fresh leaves in stock. I actually found one for sale at a local Indian store where I am now, which has multiplied in the last few years. Another tree I keep around is makrut lime. It’s just a pain to haul them inside before a freeze (the tropical trees, not the bay).
Last thought, I got into cooking with Nepalese bay leaf, Cinnamomum tamala, which is in the laurel family, after getting Taste Tibet, Ayla, and On the Himalayan Trail. It smells completely different and amazing. (I have it dried, but I wonder if I could get a tree…?). I have older Nepalese cookbooks, but they didn’t request the traditional herbs and spices. (Unrelated to the laurel family, the Timut Peppercorns from Nepal are awesome too.)
Mar 18, 2023·edited Mar 18, 2023Liked by Stained Page News
When I was a kid we used to visit my grandparents in the Virgin Islands to escape the brutal upper-midwest winters for a couple of weeks. They had a bay tree in their garden, and in fact, the trees grew all over the island. The smell of them was everywhere. If you grabbed a leaf you would smell it on your hand for the rest of the day. For me, it's the smell of menthol and spice combined into something greater than its parts. The dried bay is a far cry from fresh, but I still use it because it reminds me of my grandparents and I get a tiny flash of the smell that I'll never forget.
Use them often, New Year's lentils with tomato sauce for good luck (Italian custom) come to mind and a typical Venetian dish called saor where I add one leaf (usually dry!) to tons of white onions that are stewed with vinegar, raisins ans pine nuts and used to preserve fish or vegetables. Laurel rocks
The entry for bay leaf in Harold McGee’s marvelous On Food and Cooking reads:
“Bay Laurel
Bay leaves, one of the most useful European herbs, come from an evergreen tree or shrub native to the hot Mediterranean, Laurus nobilis.
The medium-sized, tough, dry leaf accumulates oils in spherical glands in the leaf interior, and has a well-rounded mixture of woody, floral, eucalyptus, and clove notes. The leaves are generally dried in the shade. Laurel branches were made into fragrant crowns in the ancient world; today the leaves are a standard ingredient in many savory dishes.”
Adding my love of fresh bay leaves to the mix here, I definitely wish they were easier for folks to come by. A recipe in my last book is clams, butter and bay leaves wrapped in foil to grill. Simple and divine. Fresh bay has a lot of character, to me kinda nutmegy. I encourage anyone with room for a pot to consider getting a plant for their own fresh supply. I'm a middling gardener and have kept the one I bought in a 4-inch pot going for a few decades. A leaf or two goes in every pot of soup or braise of course, plus when simmering lentils, farro, chickpeas. Original purchase was for a bay leaf creme brulee recipe I needed to test, another I tested recently included a bay leaf pastry cream. So much potential.
I love it and use it a lot - fresh whenever I find at the market. Last week I put it in a strawberry jam and it was delicious! Cook some rice with bay leaves and some without if you want to see the diference!
I have a bay plant that I move inside to winter and move back out during warmer months. I've got to say, I never really understood what bay leaves can do until I had them fresh from the bush. Dried just aren't the same. If you can grow a bay plant, I recommend it.
I like plants and trees, especially the ones you eat or cook with. Every time I move, I get a new bay tree, or two, and keep them in a pot. I keep dried Turkish bay around too (just used for pickling spice in my DIY corned beef). The two times that I have lived in the Southeast US the leaves were forgeable from the red bay. Then I had a California bay in my yard in Sacramento, or at least that is what I identified it as (smelled and looked right).
Until I got geographically to where I am now (gulf coast), I moved every three to four years during adulthood. In Guam I found one bay tree after much searching, but couldn’t move with it overseas, and the same search ensued at the next two locales due to USDA rules. I have always managed to track one down eventually because I hate buying little packets of fresh herbs. (I was just at the store and a fluffy dill plant was 3.45 vs a smaller cut bunch for 2.99, vs the little plastic pack of slimy old dill for 2.50. I grabbed four plants as I am still waiting for seeds to sprout. The eastern black swallowtail are abundant and beautiful but the babies annihilate my dill twice a year).
In addition to bay, a fresh curry leaf tree is handy. There was an Indian store that had one in their backyard in Guam, and they gave me a bunch of seedlings/saplings (?) they pulled out of the ground from underneath the large one. They are weedy. From then on I wanted my own curry tree too, instead of trying to find an Indian grocery store with fresh leaves in stock. I actually found one for sale at a local Indian store where I am now, which has multiplied in the last few years. Another tree I keep around is makrut lime. It’s just a pain to haul them inside before a freeze (the tropical trees, not the bay).
Last thought, I got into cooking with Nepalese bay leaf, Cinnamomum tamala, which is in the laurel family, after getting Taste Tibet, Ayla, and On the Himalayan Trail. It smells completely different and amazing. (I have it dried, but I wonder if I could get a tree…?). I have older Nepalese cookbooks, but they didn’t request the traditional herbs and spices. (Unrelated to the laurel family, the Timut Peppercorns from Nepal are awesome too.)
Went in search of bay leaf-flavored bread recipes after this, and found some! Gonna try one soon.
When I was a kid we used to visit my grandparents in the Virgin Islands to escape the brutal upper-midwest winters for a couple of weeks. They had a bay tree in their garden, and in fact, the trees grew all over the island. The smell of them was everywhere. If you grabbed a leaf you would smell it on your hand for the rest of the day. For me, it's the smell of menthol and spice combined into something greater than its parts. The dried bay is a far cry from fresh, but I still use it because it reminds me of my grandparents and I get a tiny flash of the smell that I'll never forget.
Use them often, New Year's lentils with tomato sauce for good luck (Italian custom) come to mind and a typical Venetian dish called saor where I add one leaf (usually dry!) to tons of white onions that are stewed with vinegar, raisins ans pine nuts and used to preserve fish or vegetables. Laurel rocks
The entry for bay leaf in Harold McGee’s marvelous On Food and Cooking reads:
“Bay Laurel
Bay leaves, one of the most useful European herbs, come from an evergreen tree or shrub native to the hot Mediterranean, Laurus nobilis.
The medium-sized, tough, dry leaf accumulates oils in spherical glands in the leaf interior, and has a well-rounded mixture of woody, floral, eucalyptus, and clove notes. The leaves are generally dried in the shade. Laurel branches were made into fragrant crowns in the ancient world; today the leaves are a standard ingredient in many savory dishes.”
Adding my love of fresh bay leaves to the mix here, I definitely wish they were easier for folks to come by. A recipe in my last book is clams, butter and bay leaves wrapped in foil to grill. Simple and divine. Fresh bay has a lot of character, to me kinda nutmegy. I encourage anyone with room for a pot to consider getting a plant for their own fresh supply. I'm a middling gardener and have kept the one I bought in a 4-inch pot going for a few decades. A leaf or two goes in every pot of soup or braise of course, plus when simmering lentils, farro, chickpeas. Original purchase was for a bay leaf creme brulee recipe I needed to test, another I tested recently included a bay leaf pastry cream. So much potential.
I love it and use it a lot - fresh whenever I find at the market. Last week I put it in a strawberry jam and it was delicious! Cook some rice with bay leaves and some without if you want to see the diference!