Cooking with herbs: Bouquet Garni

French Bouquet Garni..... what is it? Basically a bundle of culinary herbs used during cooking to flavor the dish and removed prior to serving.

The Bouquet is usually made from dried bay leaves, parsley and thyme leaves.

For the dried Bouquet use 1 tablespoon each of bay leaves, parsley and thyme leaves.

For the fresh Bouquet use 1 bay leaf, 3 sprigs parsley and one sprig of thyme.

You can use fresh or dried herbs either bundle the fresh together with some string or cheesecloth or the dried in the cheesecloth or a metal tea ball.

The Bouquet Garni can be used to flavor stews, soups, broths, chicken stock, beef stock, fish stock the list goes on.

If you are cooking with fish you can add a sprig of dill, lemon, pepper and some celery. With chicken you could add some sage leaves... do you see where I'm going with this?

The Bouquet is removed prior to serving to prevent stems in the dish or to produce a clean clear beautifully flavored broth or soup.

Be creative and enjoy!