Herbdacious

This Will Make It Taste Good

To me, this is a cross between a chimichurri and a pesto, probably because I chose to use cilantro with the other herbs. If you don't like cilantro, or are looking for a slightly different flavor profile, you can choose dill or mint instead. (Or probably any soft, green herb you prefer.) We don't eat much lamb, but I imagine if you use mint it would compliment roast lamb very nicely.

There's no strong raw garlic bite to this, but plenty of garlic flavor from the garlic confit that is the first thing you make for this recipe. You can just stop there if you want, but blending that up with herbs goes one step further, giving you a flavor base that will keep your herbs tasting fresh much longer than actual fresh herbs.

You can use this as a dip for roasted or grilled meats, or just mix a big spoonful into anything that needs a punch of fresh herbs and roast-y garlic flavor. I added it to a grilled corn, avocado, and tomato salad, and it was perfect! I've frozen the rest much like the pesto we made from It's Always Freezer Season, so now I'll have some to liven up our winter meals.

I found this recipe included here, along with a meatloaf recipe from the book that will definitely be a project for another day: https://www.thedailybeast.com/make-star-chef-vivian-howards-crave-worthy-meatloaf-from-her-book-this-will-make-it-taste-good

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with heather today we're going to be
[00:08]: working again from this will make it
[00:10]: taste good vivian howard's book where we
[00:12]: sort of make
[00:13]: an ingredient and then there are a bunch
[00:15]: of recipes for you to use that
[00:17]: ingredient
[00:18]: the we're going to be making one of the
[00:20]: ingredients today one of the recipes
[00:22]: that is then used in a bunch of other
[00:24]: recipes
[00:25]: we're going to be making what she calls
[00:26]: herbaceous this is
[00:29]: a lot like pesto
[00:32]: except
[00:34]: well there are a few different changes
[00:36]: there are no nuts
[00:38]: we're going to use a lot of garlic but
[00:41]: we're going to make garlic confit
[00:44]: and we add a few other herbs to this
[00:47]: it's not just basil so
[00:50]: first thing we have to do is to make the
[00:52]: garlic confit and that is an ingredient
[00:54]: all by itself you could you stop there
[00:57]: and do that
[00:59]: but we're going to continue with the
[01:00]: herb dishes because
[01:02]: it's mid-august and our basil is going
[01:05]: crazy so we're even going to have to
[01:06]: make some more pesto after this or
[01:08]: something else
[01:10]: maybe dry some i don't know we've got a
[01:12]: ton of basil and pretty soon it's going
[01:14]: to be
[01:15]: not really useful because it'll start
[01:17]: bolting and going to seed so
[01:20]: um
[01:21]: this is a lot of garlic and i'm putting
[01:24]: it in this really
[01:25]: my smallest saucepan
[01:27]: that i've already measured some extra
[01:29]: virgin olive oil in
[01:32]: these are peeled
[01:34]: she has a whole
[01:36]: sort of
[01:38]: section on
[01:39]: pre-peeled garlic and how she never will
[01:41]: use the pre
[01:44]: diced garlic that you can buy in jars
[01:47]: but she does sometimes use pre-peeled
[01:50]: garlic and probably has some in her
[01:52]: refrigerator right now
[01:53]: i generally don't
[01:55]: she says it tastes different
[01:57]: but
[01:58]: my philosophy is if that is what is
[02:00]: keeping you from
[02:02]: cooking be having to peel garlic
[02:04]: use the pre-peeled garlic
[02:07]: it won't taste exactly the same but
[02:09]: it'll probably still be delicious
[02:11]: so
[02:12]: we are going to put this on
[02:14]: low heat
[02:16]: to bring it to a simmer she says very
[02:18]: low heat i'm going to start sort of
[02:20]: medium low
[02:21]: but if it starts to
[02:24]: sizzle and boil you should sort of cool
[02:26]: it down take it off cool it down before
[02:28]: you put it back on
[02:30]: the
[02:31]: end what we're looking for is a
[02:34]: poached garlic um she says it'll take as
[02:38]: long as 20 minutes if you keep the heat
[02:39]: low we'll see how long it takes for us
[02:42]: um in the end the garlic should be soft
[02:44]: and just slightly browned you certainly
[02:47]: don't want to burn it
[02:48]: um
[02:50]: i did use whole heads of garlic i tried
[02:52]: the bowl trick
[02:53]: if you're on the internet at all and you
[02:55]: cook you've probably seen that where you
[02:57]: put the cloves of garlic in between two
[03:00]: bowls
[03:01]: and shake it up
[03:04]: i decided to finally try that
[03:06]: not sure
[03:09]: it took a long time it took a lot of
[03:10]: shakes and then basically eventually
[03:15]: i would shake it and take a few of the
[03:16]: cloves out and shake it again and take a
[03:18]: few of the cloves out because they would
[03:20]: be
[03:20]: peeled but
[03:22]: so now we're going to put this
[03:24]: on medium low heat
[03:26]: and we'll see you back in about 20
[03:28]: minutes i guess because that's how long
[03:31]: this is gonna take and i'm gonna
[03:33]: set up
[03:34]: the
[03:35]: blender because that's what we need
[03:37]: after this so
[03:39]: we'll see you in about 20 minutes i
[03:41]: might take a little
[03:42]: shot of just the oil and so you see what
[03:46]: it looks like when it's
[03:47]: simmering
[03:48]: but we'll show you what it looks like
[03:49]: when it's done for sure
[03:51]: be right back all right so this i think
[03:54]: is kind of what she means by a simmer
[03:57]: i don't know if you can see but there
[03:59]: are a few little bubbles i'm going to
[04:02]: turn it down a little bit because i
[04:04]: think it's going to get a little bit too
[04:06]: warm like this i think it's going a
[04:08]: little bit too much so
[04:10]: um that only took maybe five minutes to
[04:12]: come up to this but
[04:15]: we'll see what it looks like when it's
[04:16]: done so this is about
[04:18]: uh 10
[04:20]: 12 minutes in
[04:22]: doesn't look anywhere near done but this
[04:24]: is where i've landed on where i think it
[04:26]: should be and my heat is
[04:29]: at 1.6 on my stove so that's pretty low
[04:32]: it's it's not quite as low as it'll go
[04:34]: but
[04:36]: it's not sizzling
[04:39]: it's not popping it's not really boiling
[04:41]: so i
[04:42]: think this is kind of where it should be
[04:46]: and we'll see how much longer it takes
[04:48]: my garlic took
[04:49]: probably closer to 30 minutes from when
[04:51]: i put it on the stove at about 20
[04:54]: minutes
[04:55]: the smaller cloves were soft but the
[04:57]: bigger ones were not quite there yet
[05:00]: and you can kind of see they've
[05:02]: turned a little bit brown they're in the
[05:05]: oil
[05:06]: and these you can use
[05:09]: separately
[05:12]: put them um
[05:14]: put them in anything the garlic has
[05:16]: mellowed
[05:17]: you could put it on toast be delicious
[05:20]: it's all spreadable
[05:21]: anyway
[05:23]: but now we're gonna make the herbaceous
[05:24]: with it so
[05:26]: we're putting everything
[05:29]: in she says the most powerful blender
[05:31]: you have for me that is this one
[05:37]: anyway um so we're going to just put all
[05:40]: of our ingredients and i'll talk about
[05:41]: them all as we go
[05:45]: so this is the garlic confit
[05:51]: trying to get as much oil
[05:54]: out as i can
[05:57]: there we go
[05:58]: and that is at room temperature so i let
[05:60]: it sit on my cold countertops for a
[06:02]: while and it's it's pretty pretty much
[06:04]: chilled because you don't want to cook
[06:06]: these herbs
[06:08]: and now we're going to put um this is
[06:11]: basil
[06:12]: these were packed
[06:14]: but it unpacks into a lot more
[06:18]: just mostly just the leaves but you can
[06:21]: use the um
[06:24]: tender stems so you don't have to worry
[06:27]: too much about getting all the stems out
[06:29]: unless they're really woody
[06:31]: um and then
[06:33]: we have
[06:34]: this is parsley this is italian parsley
[06:36]: there's a lot less of it maybe it's uh
[06:39]: one part parsley to four parts basil
[06:43]: and then
[06:44]: this is
[06:46]: cilantro you can choose dill mint
[06:49]: chervil or cilantro i chose cilantro
[06:52]: because we love it
[06:54]: um i've had no luck growing these so
[06:56]: while the basil is from my garden and oh
[06:59]: my gosh it's going crazy
[07:02]: um the mint and the parsley and the
[07:04]: cilantro are just from the grocery store
[07:06]: um
[07:08]: so these are scallions roughly chopped
[07:12]: uh just the green parts
[07:16]: there we go
[07:18]: mine are just kind of sliced because i
[07:20]: sliced up all the ones i had and put the
[07:22]: white parts in the refrigerator for
[07:24]: something else later
[07:26]: um we have some
[07:28]: microplane grated parmesan
[07:31]: parmigiano-reggiano she says so
[07:34]: i don't know if that's exactly what i
[07:35]: had but it's some sort of
[07:38]: decent parmesan
[07:43]: um we need
[07:45]: some fresh lemon juice this is the only
[07:48]: thing i haven't pre
[07:49]: measured
[07:52]: so
[08:05]: there we go
[08:07]: and then we have
[08:11]: the grated zest of two lemons i just
[08:13]: used the same
[08:15]: uh
[08:18]: the same microplane right after i grated
[08:21]: the
[08:22]: cheese because it was all going in the
[08:23]: same place so if there was a little
[08:24]: cheese in there it didn't matter so
[08:26]: there we go
[08:30]: and
[08:32]: some salt
[08:36]: this is kosher salt for me i use diamond
[08:38]: crystal
[08:42]: which is not super
[08:44]: dense
[08:45]: but
[08:47]: we'll see
[08:49]: and
[08:50]: we're just going to
[08:53]: she says let it rip
[08:58]: there we go
[08:59]: until you have
[09:01]: until the mixture is smooth and green so
[09:05]: you probably won't see this whole part
[09:06]: but
[09:07]: we're just going to
[09:08]: i'm going to hit puree
[09:10]: i assume that's right or maybe blend
[09:13]: i'll go with puree
[09:18]: all right
[09:19]: i'm just going to scrape down the sides
[09:21]: with my spatula because i've got a few
[09:23]: things that just
[09:25]: aren't getting down into the mixture
[09:28]: and i just want to
[09:31]: get those also
[09:36]: to be
[09:36]: [Music]
[09:39]: smooth and green
[09:44]: and not just chunks
[09:57]: i went with blend the second time it
[09:59]: seemed to go i have a little bit more
[10:00]: power
[10:03]: um
[10:04]: let's see
[10:07]: that might be as smooth as we're gonna
[10:09]: get
[10:10]: for this but i'm gonna
[10:12]: just hit it one more time
[10:16]: just to see if we can
[10:19]: get it any better i still see little
[10:21]: bits of herbs in there but i'm sure
[10:24]: that'll be fine
[10:26]: this is the best my blender can do it's
[10:28]: the best my blender can do
[10:38]: okay we're going to call this done and i
[10:40]: will
[10:42]: show you what it looks like after i get
[10:44]: it all out of here and tell you what we
[10:46]: think about it in just a minute
[10:50]: [Music]
[10:58]: on this episode of cooking the books
[10:60]: with heather you watched me make
[11:02]: herbaceous from vivian howard's newer
[11:05]: cookbook this will make it taste good
[11:07]: [Music]
[11:08]: so it is
[11:10]: still pretty much the height of
[11:13]: the season we're getting a lot of
[11:14]: produce coming in it's coming to an end
[11:17]: but we have tons of basil which is why
[11:20]: we decided to make this it's a little
[11:22]: bit like
[11:23]: a pesto and a little bit like a
[11:25]: chimichurri because
[11:27]: partially because we chose to use
[11:29]: cilantro as one of the other
[11:33]: herbs in this we used um
[11:36]: parsley which is one of the things she
[11:38]: always has to use but then we also used
[11:40]: cilantro you could also choose dill mint
[11:44]: chervil or cilantro cilantro for that
[11:47]: but
[11:48]: um we chose cilantro which is
[11:51]: uh it's
[11:52]: still
[11:54]: mostly
[11:55]: basil because basil is a very
[11:58]: strong flavor
[11:59]: but the
[12:01]: the cilantro did come through and
[12:03]: so we've had it um
[12:05]: we served it as sort of a
[12:07]: topper a dipper for some steak kind of
[12:10]: like you would a chimichurri and it went
[12:12]: really well with that
[12:14]: and i also
[12:16]: added it to a corn salad so in the
[12:19]: summer quite often i will
[12:22]: make with either
[12:23]: leftover corn or
[12:25]: so grilled corn cut it off the cob and
[12:28]: make a corn salad with some
[12:30]: onions tomatoes avocado
[12:34]: and usually some herbs and so what i did
[12:36]: here is i threw some of the herbaceous
[12:39]: in there to give it that herb flavor
[12:42]: that was delicious so you could
[12:43]: basically use this
[12:45]: any sort of way that you would usually
[12:47]: use basil
[12:48]: um
[12:50]: and there are
[12:51]: 12 different sort of no-brainers that
[12:54]: aren't recipes
[12:56]: but
[12:57]: you could use this in
[12:60]: there are some other
[13:01]: actual recipe recipes you could use this
[13:05]: in which i might need to
[13:08]: make in fact i think i was planning on
[13:10]: doing the
[13:12]: meatloaf there's a meatloaf recipe in
[13:14]: here there's also like a chex mix she
[13:17]: calls chef mix
[13:19]: where you use this so
[13:21]: what i think i plan to do is to
[13:24]: freeze what i have left over in
[13:28]: the amounts that i need for these
[13:30]: recipes and sort of put those in my
[13:32]: freezer
[13:33]: labeled for the recipe so that we can
[13:35]: make this
[13:36]: in the winter when we don't have access
[13:38]: to to
[13:39]: fresh basil quite as easily
[13:42]: the fresh basil is
[13:44]: there's not a whole lot in here it's not
[13:46]: quite as much as you would use in a
[13:49]: pesto so it's something you could more
[13:51]: easily make
[13:52]: in the winter because you can get all of
[13:54]: these herbs in the grocery store in the
[13:56]: winter
[13:58]: it's just really hard to get
[14:01]: enough fresh basil in the winter
[14:04]: right now we have tons of it outside uh
[14:07]: that we still need to finish used to
[14:09]: figure out how to use up before it all
[14:11]: um goes to seed
[14:14]: so
[14:14]: we're doing a lot with that right now
[14:16]: um but so that's what i'm planning to do
[14:18]: you can freeze it just like you would
[14:19]: freeze bait freeze pesto
[14:23]: which we did show you previously in
[14:25]: another video from
[14:28]: i think it was ashley christensen's um
[14:31]: it's always freezer season so you could
[14:33]: do it that way you could do it in
[14:35]: uh
[14:36]: ice cube trays and then you just have a
[14:38]: you know
[14:39]: a little bit of basil so if you can add
[14:41]: it to your tomato sauce or
[14:43]: defrost it and put it in your pasta or
[14:46]: whatever
[14:48]: so
[14:49]: i would
[14:50]: definitely
[14:52]: make this again
[14:55]: and it lasts a long time in your
[14:56]: refrigerator too so you don't have to
[14:57]: make it and immediately use it she says
[14:59]: i think it can last up to two weeks in
[15:02]: your refrigerator your freezer for about
[15:04]: three months
[15:06]: you can always freeze things usually
[15:07]: longer than that but that's sort of a
[15:10]: and
[15:11]: cover your
[15:13]: cover your bases kind of
[15:15]: kind of um
[15:17]: timeline but anyway
[15:19]: so we really enjoyed it
[15:21]: i enjoy having it in my refrigerator
[15:24]: i'll have to try to remember to use it
[15:27]: once i put it in the freezer which i
[15:28]: need to do
[15:30]: um but
[15:32]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[15:33]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[15:36]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[15:37]: me make something else next week
[15:40]: [Music]