Recipe No 343 Original 2011

Bouquet garni

We’ve seen French chefs make a bouquet garni like we’ve rarely seen in western kitchens. It is no meek affair of a few sprigs and leaves. We use one of these in many of our braised dishes. It is a great way to use often-discarded parts of celery, leek and parsley.

Marcus Longfoot and Simon Paterson

Recipe: Bouquet garni.
Time

Prep:

Total:

Difficulty
easy
Yield
6–8 serves • 300 g
Metric Imperial

Processes

  • Leek greens (1 medium)
    70 g
  • Celery leaves and stems (2 stalks)
    70 g
  • Parsley stalks and leaves (2 sprigs)
    70 g
  • Thyme (10 sprigs)
    8 g
  • Bay leaf (2 leaves)
    1.2 g
  1. 01
    Use the leek greens to wrap the other ingredients into a large cylinder.
  2. 02
    Tie with four strands of kitchen twine, evenly spaced.
  3. 03
    Trim ends and cut in half.

Notes

If possible, use the younger and more pale leaves of the celery if available.

Make a few gashes in the leek leaves so liquid can penetrate.

Storing

keeps in the vegetable part of the refridgerator for 3 days

Finished recipe

  • Recipe: Bouquet garni
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni
    A scaled version of this recipe. Beautiful. (Photo by Marcus Longfoot)

Steps

01 Use the leek greens to wrap the other ingredients into a large cylinder.

  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step a. a
    Make a few small slits in the leek greens so that liquid can easily penetrate.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step b. b
    Thyme.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step c. c
    Some of these are parts of the herbs which are often discarded.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step d. d
    Parsley.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step e. e
    Celery and bay leaves.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step f. f
    Gather all the herbs into the leek greens.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step g. g
    We use a clean rubber band to hold the cylinder’s shape while we tie it up with twine. We also trim ours, which prevents stray leaves from entering the dish.

02 Tie with four strands of kitchen twine, evenly spaced.

  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step a. a
    Tie the twine really, really, really tightly. The whole cylinder shrinks during cooking and the twine will become loose. We use a “sugeon’s knot” to keep the twine in place while we secure with a closing knot.
  • Recipe: Bouquet garni. Step b. b
    Using four pieces of twine allows you to cut the cylinder into two pieces and still maintain shape. It also makes it easier to remove from your pot when cooking is finished.

Categorisation

Meal
component
Cuisine
french
Diet
vegetarian
Tags
bouquet garni herbs