Types of Culinary Herbs

The herbs below are a list of botanical herbs used in popular cuisines today. Prime flavorful culinary herbs are harvested from well tended plants while in their leaf phase. Herbs have two phases of growth: the leaf phase and the flower (or reproductive phase).

When plants enter a flowering stage, leaf production slows down or stops. In this stage the leaves on the plant may become woody, bitter, grassy and yellowed. The quality of these leaves are not optimal for cooking. Growers can delay the flowering phase by harvesting often.

Mitsuba

Mitsuba

Mitsuba is also known as Japanese parsley, Japanese Chervil, Japanese wild parsley or honeywort. Mitsuba - a delightful Japanese herb with a clean fresh flavor reminiscent of angelica, celery and parsley.

Leaves, root and stems are used raw or cooked, seedlings and young leaves added to salads. The seed is used for seasoning and the stem can be blanched and used as a celery substitute. The cress-like young seedlings are used in salads and the stems and leaves are chopped and used to flavor a number of dishes.

The leaves which are dark green look a little like oversized flat leaf parsley.

Though the plant's stems are cooked in the Orient for special uses (such as tying up sushi rolls), in western cuisine what's wanted is the leaves - used raw, not cooked into dishes, as cooking destroys the flavor (as with chervil).




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