February

A herb garden should be more than aromatic window dressing. It should be a key part of your everyday cooking. Many herbs thrive in well-drained, less fertile conditions so a rock garden could be the answer

In the garden

Most gardeners maintain two gardens, one real and susceptible to slugs, and one imaginary in which every plant succeeds. A bit of dreaming is fine – after all, a gardener’s imagination is what sustains them through the winter – but at some point ambition must be turned into practical application.

In the past I’ve worked hard to make my allotment more productive by concentrating on two large central beds, well manured and closely planted with annual vegetables. My yield has increased, but other parts of the plot have suffered, notably the herb patch; low-growing thyme, marjoram and oregano tend to be swamped by over-vigorous borage, lemon balm and bindweed. Now I intend to enclose my herb garden to make it more functional. I could make a raised herb bed or plant a square of box hedging, but instead I am going to make a herb rock garden.

One of my favourite food writers, Patience Gray, author of Honey from a Weed (1986), spent half a lifetime in Apulia in southern Italy, in a house that backed on to a stony hillside fragrant with herbs and littered with aromatic shrubs and ancient olive trees. I can’t recreate Apulia in east London, but I can create the well-drained, less fertile conditions many herbs thrive in. Having consulted The English Rock Garden by Reginald Farrer (1880-1920),

I learn that the stones of the perfect rock garden should be laid so that there is a ‘feeling of calm, of real inevitability and balance’. He advises using fewer, larger rocks (ideally limestone), buried deeply with their broadest side exposed for a flattened effect and with all rocks sloping backwards so that moisture runs back to the roots of the plants.

In the kitchen

A herb garden should be more than aromatic window dressing. It should be a key part of your everyday cooking. But how can you know which herbs you will find most useful? Here are some of my favourite uses for common herbs – food for thought as you wait for summer:

Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) I use thin strips of fresh sorrel in dals, omelettes and tarts, but you can also use it to make a delicate sauce with cream to serve with poached eggs or fish. Gently melt 20g of butter with 125g of sorrel leaves. Gradually add 125ml of cream, thinned with a little stock or water.

Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) Make an aromatic white wine vinegar by stuffing a bottle of good wine vinegar with a few branches of true French tarragon (more aromatic than the Russian kind) and leaving it in the bottle until it is used up. Used fresh, it goes well with chicken or fish, in vinaigrette, and in Béarnaise sauce.

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) Finely chop fresh chervil with equal quantities of chives, tarragon and

parsley to make the classic French culinary mixture fines herbes. For a classic dish, scatter a tablespoon over an omelette just before you turn it.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) Traditionally, the Italian condiment gremolata is made with lemon zest and parsley and eaten with braised meat. My version uses the zest of half an orange, a minced garlic clove, four tablespoons of parsley, two sage leaves, a tablespoon of roasted hazelnuts, all finely chopped, combined with salt and black pepper.

Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) Although more commonly thought of as a salad leaf, the peppery watercress is also a useful herb. Available all year round, it can be used to make herb butter or in place of mustard to flavour sauces or garnish meats.

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) If you grow fennel, spend a summer day collecting pollen with a small artist’s brush. Stored in a jam jar, it makes an aromatic dust for roast pork. If that’s too fiddly, use sun-dried stalks to flavour stocks and fish soups.

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) A strong herb, rosemary should be used sparingly. I like to add a little to tinned tomato sauces, but you can also use a twig of rosemary dipped in olive oil to baste roast meats either on the barbecue or in the oven.

Bay leaf (Laurus nobilis) As well as using a bay leaf tied into a bundle with thyme and parsley stalks to make bouquet garni, I add one (plus a little milk) to the water I boil my potatoes in for mash.

What to do

• Use any dry spells at the end of winter to prune plum trees. Shaping can be tricky, so I’ve taken some 17th-century advice. William Lawson’s New Orchard and Garden book has a woodblock print describing ‘the perfect Forme of fruit tree’, while John Evelyn advises keeping the small fruit tree ‘hollow like a bell’.

What to cook

• Zhug (Yemeni hot sauce) This fiery Yemeni relish is as addictive as it is hot. You can swirl it into light broths and bean soups, mix it with yoghurt and dip your bread in it, or use it as a relish for meat or fish.

You can use dried red chillies (deseeded and soaked for half an hour and then scraped of their pulp) instead of green chillies to make a red version or add chopped tomatoes and fenugreek seeds to turn it into a very similar Yemeni relish called hilbeh. 1tsp caraway seeds, 1tsp cumin seeds, seeds from 8 cardamom pods, 1tsp black peppercorns, 4 slim green chillies, deseeded and chopped, 1tsp salt, 6-8 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped, a bunch of parsley, 1 bunch of coriander, juice of 1 lemon.

Makes about 275ml. In a spice grinder or mortar, mill the cumin, caraway, cardamom and black pepper until fine. Cut the stalks off the herbs and blend in a food processor with the other ingredients, scraping down the sides until you have a fine purée. Add the spices and combine. Keeps for a week or two in the fridge.