This month we salute British herbs as the ultimate accessory to British cuisine and The Sauce waves the national flag for a patriotic pudding.

Herbs are the ultimate accessory to British cuisine.  Boiled ham with parsley sauce, roast pork stuffed with sage and apple, roast chicken stuffed with parsley and thyme and lamb roasted with a sprig of crushed rosemary on top and served with mint sauce on the side.  Like cheese with chives, the best British dishes come dressed with herbs.

Herbs have always transcended British class and fashion. They are the common denominator in every vegetable patch from the middle ages until the present day, be it a thirteenth century monastic garden, fifteenth century strip of land belonging to a peasant or a seventeenth century landowner's kitchen garden.  As different types of fish or cuts of meat have fallen in and out of favour, herbs have remained a mainstay. Just as coriander, dill, mint, thyme, sage and lavender were immensely popular in medieval times, so they still are today.  It is true to say that there were a few post-war decades in the last century when British cuisine had become slightly stuck in a garnished-with-a-sprig-of-parsley rut.  However, thanks to culinary awareness initiatives such as Love British Food and the ubiquitous celebrity chefs herb-apathy was a short-term glitch in our British food heritage.

A herb is defined as a leafy plant. It is not a food in its own right but a flavouring for other foods.  Herbs can be frozen, dried and eaten fresh.  You can create your own herb garden or grow them in a pot on your windowsill - chives are particularly good for this.  Interestingly, their taste is milder in the wild state than under domestication.  Therefore, if using wild herbs you will need to double the quantities you would normally use.  The best time to pick a herb is just as it is coming into flower.  Gather herbs in dry weather and early in the morning before it has had too much sun.  Wet herbs will tend to develop mildew and those who have had large exposure to sunshine will have lost some of their natural oils due to evaporation.  Cut whole stalks of the herb with a knife or scissors to avoid damaging the parent plant.  If you are going to dry the herbs do so as quickly as possible without too intense a heat.  The stalks can be hung up in loose bunches in the kitchen and covered by muslin to protect them from flies and to catch any leaves as they start to dry and fall.  The herbs flavour comes from the oil stored in the leaves, which is released when the herb is crushed, chopped or heated.

If you are buying fresh herbs, as always, check that they are British and in season.  The British herb season starts in April and goes on to November/December.  The UK's herb growers make up approximately 50% of the nation's supply - the rest comes from Israel, Spain and France.  Typical spring herbs are chives, sorrel and chervil.  Summer herbs are basil, dill, mint, oregano and parsley.  Winter herbs are sage and thyme.  Most importantly buy local - farm shops and farmers markets should have them in abundance.  Fresh British herbs can be bought from specialist growers such as Manor Farm and Iden Croft. All herbs - with the exception of Thai lemon grass - sold in Sainsbury's in July and August this year will be British. But be warned - if you are buying fresh herbs they come with a hefty price tag.  Nothing should inspire you to grow-your-own more than herbs. Herbs make great profit margins for retailers. A 10g packet of fresh herbs retailing for 65 pence earns the supermarket £65.00 a kilo.  The consumer often throws away the stalk and the packaging is unnecessary waste.  It is better to buy pot herbs - they are nearly always British and are the most economic option in terms of waste and value.

If you are interested in finding out how to cook more with herbs why not go on a herb cookery course.  Judith Hann’s herb garden, containing over one hundred different types of edible herbs, transformed her cooking so dramatically that she decided to start a herb cookery school [click here].

For more information on British herbs visit The Herb Society or the National Herb Centre

The Royal Horticultural Society recommends a herb of the month for schools to grow as part of their Campaign for School Gardening.  [click here].

In the March newsletter, Love British Food suggested a Union Pud to eat in celebration of the Royal Wedding - the name deriving from the national flag and the union of marriage.  The pudding is a rectangular meringue covered in cream and British berries to make the Union Jack flag.  This month, The Sauce tests it out…

The Sauce

Union Pud

• What ingredients did you use and how readily available were they?
  For the meringue, I used the following recipe by Nigella Lawson:
  Oven pre-heated to 180C
  4 large British free-range egg whites, beaten until satiny peaks formed,
  then
  250g British Silver Spoon caster sugar, gradually beaten in until meringue was stiff and shiny.
  2 teaspoons of Dove's cornflower, a teaspoon of Aspall white wine vinegar and a few drops of Langdale vanilla extract sprinkled on top and gently stirred into the mixture with a metal spoon.
  
  Mixture spatulated out onto greaseproof-paper-covered baking sheet, in the shape of a rectangle.  Put into oven and immediately reduced temperature to 150C.  Left it to cook for an hour and then turned oven off and left the door open, whilst the pavlova was left to cool.  Once cool, I took the meringue out of the oven and inverted it onto a plate
  
  I whisked 500ml Graham's Double Cream and spread it over the pavlova with a palet knife.  Using frozen British blueberries from Waitrose and fresh English Rose strawberries, I made the pattern of the Union Jack flag on the top.


• What was the sum total cost of this meal
  I already had cornflower, white wine vinegar and vanilla essence in my store cupboard.
  £2.29 - frozen British blueberries
  £1.99 - English Rose strawberries
  £1.85 - Double Cream
  £1.81 - eggs
  £1.19 - 500g caster sugar
  £9.13 in total.  However,  I would imagine many people may already have the ingredients, bar the cream and fruit, in their cupboards to start with.


• How many people did it actually feed?
  8 people


• How long did it take and how easy was it?
  I accidentally allowed some yolk into the egg white mixture so had to start again.  That incident aside, it was very easy to make and the whisking is actually rather theraputic.  I would say 15 minutes prep time, followed by an hour cooking, 15 minutes cooling and then 15 minutes making the Union Jack pattern so 1hr 45 mins in total.  I would urge anyone doing this recipe to have a picture of the Union Jack flag to copy from.


• What did you do with the leftovers?
  There were none.


• What did you and your guests think of the meal?
  They all thought it looked brilliant and it brought a smile to everyone’s faces. The meringue was lovely and chewy and the sharpness of the frozen blueberries gave it a lovely tangy feel.


• Would you cook it again?
  Yes but it is definitely a celebration pudding.

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