Weekend Herb Blogging #60 - Recap

This is my very first hosting gig and it's my pleasure to bring you the recap for this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging.

First up is Ruth from Once Upon a Feast who unfortunately missed out last week but offers up two recipes this week.

The star of this first dish is thyme and it features in a dish guaranteed to cheer up the gloomiest day - Spinach Crepes with Creamy Mushrooms

Ruth's second dish is Morocco on a plate with it's use of Ras El Hanout, apricots and figs.

Moroccan Style Shepherd's pie - and it's made South Beach friendly with its clever use of mashed sweet potatoes as a replacement for mashed potatoes.

Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen is next, the CEO of Weekend Herb Blogging. Kalyn wasn't sure about rosemary and beef but discovers it's a marriage made in herb heaven.

Beef and Butternut Squash Stew with Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar - there's a double dose of butternut squash, the initial quantity helping to form the rich, thick stock.

Kalyn also helpfully provides an excellent list of butternut squash recipes from around the blogosphere - if you're a lover of squash it's a must visit list. Also check out Kalyn's Blogher post on Squash.

Angie is from Singapore and her blog is My Kitchen:My Laboratory. The subject of Angie's post are the in-season Blood Oranges. She plays around with a couple of Donna Hay recipes to produce, and I hope you agree, the most adorable Blood Orange Curd Tartlets.

Neil from At my Table is a fellow Melbournite and he offers up a prickly tale about prickly pears. Neil extracts revenge in the form of his recipe for Spiced Prickly Pears.

Staying in Melbourne, we turn our attention to Anh from Food Lover's Journey - it's a story of love, or is it passion, for Passionfruit. Anh draws inspiration from our recent hot weather to make the most delicious, healthy and refreshing Frozen Passionfruit Yoghurt.

Regardless of the weather, you'd love a bowl or two of this!

It's back over to the northern hemisphere where we find Anna of Anna's Cool Finds. Anna has all the good info on Chard or Silverbeet as it's known here.

With this fantastic bunch of Chard, she combines it with Seitan and flavours it with Sweet Teriyaki sauce to make a delicious and nutritious Chard Skillet Saute.

Burcu from Almost Turkish Recipes offers advice on Celery Root and lets us in on it's special relationship with Dill.

Burcu creates this comforting dish of Celery Root à la Turque (Zeytinyağlı Kereviz).

Slow-roasted Tomatoes were a blog hit back in August and they are given a new life by Genie from The Inadvertent Gardener. With just three simple ingredients she turns them into something special - Slow Roasted Tomato Dip.

You just know this is going to full of flavour - you may find yourself doubling the recipe!

Cucina Bella is Sarah's blog and she treats us to a special soup - the stock made from leftover thanksgiving turkey carcass.

Sarah's Portabella and White Bean Soup will see you happily through those winter nights - along with portabella mushrooms and white beans, a variety of fresh herbs, sage, parsley and thyme are used to infuse the stock adding a lot of flavour without making it feel too heavy.

We now head back down to Australia, this time we're in Sydney where we visit with Em from Kitchem and she puts thyme under the spotlight. Em whips up in no time a perfect weekend meal - Slashed Roast Lamb and Drunken Potatoes.

A spiced paste of garlic, chilli and thyme is rubbed into the lamb slashes to ensure the flavour permeates through the meat. The baked veggies are treated to a good splash of white wine and thyme as they bake.

What did you eat? is the question Sher sets out to answer in her blog. For WHB the answer comes in the form of Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and Cilantro Coleslaw.

Now the chicken enchiladas can also be made using leftover turkey and with it's cheesy and creamy combination, I'm sure there won't be any these leftover. There's quite an interesting version of Coleslaw using fresh Cilantro (WHB's most popular herb) and a wonderful dressing made from lime and cumin. I just think that sounds so refreshing. Don't forget to check out the most gorgeous Upsie too!

Cate from Sweetnicks is offering another welcome solution to those Thanksgiving leftovers. She creates a moorish stack of Ham and Potato Patties with Horseradish Sauce.

Described as "oozing with cheesy goodness" I think we'll all be lining up for these.

If you've over indulged or just looking for something that's good for you but tastes great, then Lakshmi from Flavors of Indian Rasoi has created a delightfully Healthy Moong Sprout Salad.

Studded with glistening pomegranate seeds, this salad sparkles with freshness - it contains moong sprouts, cucumbers, carrots with a dressing of lime and chat masala. Lakshmi suggests also adding green onions and grated raw mango and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Cooking in Westchester is Rinku's blog and she shares her experiences with a vegetable she recently discovered, Parsnip. Rinku has two offerings - Parsnip and Lima Bean Tikki and Lamb with Blackbeans and Parsnips.

The Tikki are like little fritters, using a base of parsnip, potato and lima beans and spiced with cilantro, chillies, fenugreek, chat masala, ginger and lime. The Lamb stew can be made in a crock-pot and cooked slowly overnight - it's also wonderfully spiced with ingredients such as cardamoms, cinnamon, turmeric and chilli to name a few.

We're back in Australia and in Sydney with the lovely Anna from Morsels & Musings. Anna treats us two recipes - an Afghani dish of Bouranee Baunjan (Eggplant with Yoghurt) and Lamb Koftas with Cumin and Mint

For the Bouranee Baunjan, sliced eggplant is sautéed until golden and then cooked in a spiced tomato and onion sauce. It's then served on a bed of garlic flavoured yoghurt. Flatbread is essential to mop up the tasty sauces. Anna uses lamb mince and a combination of fresh herbs and spices to make her Lamb Koftas.

Jetting off to France we find Katie from Thyme for Cooking, the Blog. Katie has a huge Bay (laurel) tree and takes advantage of the plentiful supply in her two dishes - Braised Pork with Laurel and Carrots & Potatoes With Bay.

The pork is slowly cooked with bay leaves, white wine and chicken stock resulting in a succulently soft meat. Reduced pan juices form the sauce. The vegetables are also gently cooked in bay leaf spiked chicken stock.

Still in Europe, we're off to visit Ulrike of Küchenlatein in Germany where she continues her series on sloes by producing a warming Sloe Liqueur called Hexenschreck which roughly translates to witchshocker.

Ulrike includes a photographic step-by-step to guide you through the process and unlike the more traditional method which takes 2 months to mature, this only takes one week! When I find some sloes I know exactly what I'll be making.

Back in America we visit Gattina where I hope some extra sunshine will see her Thai Basil plant survive the winter. Thai Basil is an essential ingredient in Green curry - do take note of Gattina's advice and don't try to substitute it with Italian Basil, it just will not give the correct taste.

Gattina also shows us this elegant dish of Thai Eggplant with fish fillet in green curry.

For Chrispy of Experimentation of Taste, WHB is all about Thanksgiving and she shares four recipes with us - Squash Apple Bake, Fresh Organic Pumpkin Pie, Fresh Cranberry-Orange Relish and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds.

Do check out Chrispy's other posts on all things squash.

Time to hit the sky again and we join Virginie from Absolutely Green in France. Virginie talks about her latest discovery - Tamarind and an intriguing Tamarind and Chilli Candy found at her local Vegetarian restaurant.

Virginie also offers helpful advice on growing Tamarind and it's varied culinary uses.

Dashing back to New York we meet up with The Chocolate Lady from In Mol Araan for her Soy Milk and Hempseed Shake.

It's a trans-atlantic crossing to reach Betul in England and her blog Rustic - Betul greets us with a cheesy snack designed to quell any tummy rumblings.

It's a quick and easy and all too tasty recipes - baguette slices covered in mix of mashed feta, eggs, onion, tomato, parsley, chilli and mint, grilled until the cheese bubbles and browns - this is bound to cure all ills, including Mondayitis!

One last hop sees us in Canada with Elizabeth at Blog from Our Kitchen. Elizabeth puts her spin on Cherry's Claypot Chicken, the unmistakable aroma of rosemary permeates this dish

Skinless chicken rubbed with mixed herbs sit on a base of sliced potatoes, onions and garlic then bathed in a little white wine and a sprinkling of fresh rosemary.

Final stop this week is my own post on Beetroot and a dish of Buttered Grated Beetroot.

Next week, Weekend Herb Blogging returns home to Kalyn's Kitchen so send your entries to kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net.

The recaps of all WHB's can be found here - the rules for WHB are listed here - and you can get a heads up on who's hosting at this link.

Thanks again to everyone that participated - I had such a great time visiting all the blogs and am inspired by the depth and variety of dishes on offer.

Tagged with Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB