What's Cookin' - Thyme

Published April 30, 2008 in The Spectrum & Daily News

By Kathryn van Roosendaal

Thyme is one of the best-known herbs in the Western world – who hasn’t heard the song extolling “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme” – but for some reason it isn’t widely used in American cuisine. It is one of the base herbs in Herbes de Provence, a blend used in a wide variety of French cooking, and Virgil praised its use in Mediterranean recipes.

And this is just Thymus vulgaris, common garden thyme. It also comes in varieties that taste and smell like thyme mixed with lemon, lime, orange, lavender, nutmeg, mint, oregano or rose petals. What’s more, it’s a pretty little plant with delicate leaves and flowers in as many colors as it has flavors.

Thyme is a small shrub or creeping ground cover that thrives in hot sun and alkaline soil, so it loves Southern Utah. It is an evergreen in our climate, some varieties turning yellow or red during the cold months before bursting again into green in the spring. The flowers come on in the summer.

If you decide to grow your own thyme, find a sunny, well-drained spot for it and be prepared to water it deeply about twice a week during the summer heat. You can also grow it inside in a sunny window sill for easy access from the kitchen. It can be harvested at any time by simply cutting off the top few inches of the stalks, although the strongest flavor is in the leaves when the plant blooms. Harvest just what you need for your recipe or harvest it all and dry it for future use.

As for cooking with thyme, you can put it in just about anything. It mixes well with parsley, bay leaf and rosemary and can be used in soups, marinades, sauces and casseroles. It is especially good with heavy foods such as lamb, beef, pork and game meats – it’s slightly pungent taste helps alleviate any gamey taste and the herb itself helps the stomach digest the fats. The citrus-flavored thymes are great with fish and chicken and the blossoms can be candied or thrown into salads.

So what’s not to like? Every kitchen should have a bit of thyme.

Sole en Croute with Thyme

This is a classic French dish that matches thyme and sole fillets as a filling for pastry. You can find puff pastry in the freezer section of the grocery store.

4 sole fillets

2 tablespoons butter

Salt and pepper

2/3 cup white wine

8 ounces puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Stuffing:

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2/3 cup finely chopped mushrooms (chanterelles are best, but button mushrooms work too)

2 cups fresh bread crumbs

1/2 cup raisins

1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Put the sole fillets in a greased baking dish and dot with the butter. Pour the wine evenly over the top and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the fillets from the pan and save the juice. Raise the oven to 375 degrees F. To make the stuffing, melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the onion until soft but not brown. Add the mushrooms and continue sautéing until soft. Combine the rest of the stuffing ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the mushroom mixture and stir to combine. Add some of the juice from baking the fish if needed to moisten the bread crumbs. Divide the pastry into four portions and roll out each one to about the size of a small plate. Place one sole fillet and a quarter of the stuffing on each round of pastry. Fold the pastry over to form a half circle, moisten the edges with the beaten egg and seal. Brush the top with more beaten egg and cut a couple of small holes in the top to vent. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Serves 4.