I grew a real champ of a sage plant this year. It is lush, it has great big leaves with a lot of texture, and it is tasty- I pluck a leaf and chew it just about every day. Neato.
But what am I doing? I am fairly new to growing herbs and basically made a go at a handful of them just to see what would work out. The endgame for them was never even a twinkle in my eye, and it is a bit of a surprise that the sage turned out to be the champ. So, what now? I could really use some suggestions for cooking with sage. Entrees, snacks, even desserts- if it uses sage, I am probably game for it.
Mmm. Sage is good friends with chicken. If you’re roasting a chicken, slide whole leaves under the skin of the breast and thighs, and crumple a few more up for the cavity. You can also mince the sage and add to chicken soup or stew.
You can crisp sage leaves in butter or oil for a tasty garnish.
Pork and sage are best friends. You can use dried sage in many chicken casseroles. Dressings and stuffings, too.
I could give you some ‘sage’ advice, if you want.
Pound a chicken breast flat
season with salt and pepper
add thin sliced lemon on one side (make sure bits of the pips are removed)
evenly space 4 sage leaves on the lemon
starting with the lemon side roll the chicken into a log
spread 2 or 3 slices of prociutto down in a sheet and wrap the chicken in it
Cook right away at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes
Freezes very well and cook from frozen at 375 for 45 to 50 minutes
I always have 4 to 8 of these in the freezer. Spend a half hour on a weekend making them up and then use them for easy meals when I don’t want to make a big production.
These are some good ideas, folks. I could try the fried sage leaves tonight, and I bet the gf would be impressed with a chicken sage prosciutto log. Keep 'em coming
My sage plants were very productive this year. As a result, I have a lot of dried sage to use until next year.
To dry sage (and other herbs), put 'em in the microwave. Not too much at a time, though, because you want to dry them, not steam them. Because they’re so thin, they will give up their water much quicker than they’d cook.
Store them air-tight, 'cos they’ll still lose their volatiles.
Beef gravy. IMO impossible to add too much sage to beef gravy. Or to pork in any form. Pork Wellington with sage wrapped in with the prosciutto layer, and added to the mushroom duxel.
Heh. I had some cornbread and I pretty much put a sage leaf on it like in the photo at the top of your article. Yummy. Wash down with beer or wine or water.
I like sage with mushrooms. Sauté a big pile of mushrooms in olive oil and/or butter, and when they are quite brown, add some garlic and sauté for another minute. Then add a splash of sherry and sauté for another couple of minutes. Then add some finely minced sage and some black pepper and sauté for another minute. When you are ready to eat, add a blob of sour cream and heat through. Awesome over pasta.
Yeah, for me, pork & mushrooms are the two foods that scream out for sage. Poultry, too. I use it when I want that deep, earthy, fall-type of flavor in my food. Also great with the very simple brown butter, mentioned above. Just make some sage with brown butter, add a little pasta cooking water at the end to help it become more of a “sauce,” toss it with your cooked pasta, serve with a generous amount of freshly grated parmesan/pecorino/whatever cheese you like. You don’t really have to get any fancier than that. But squash or mushroom ravioli also work very well with this prep.
ETA: I should add that I, at least, find sage very potent flavor-wise, so careful about overdoing it, but if you’re just chomping on raw sage leaves, you’re definitely used to the taste and probably are not in any danger of overdoing it for yourself. I also personally tend to use the small-to-medium sized leaves, as I find the big ones towards the bottom of the plant tend to get more bitter over time, but taste for yourself and see what you think.
I tried this recipe last week in an attempt to impress my gf, only I substituted sea scallops for chicken. I kind of squished them flat in wax paper, that part works pretty well. I laid out the sage and lemon, rolled them up with prosciutto and baked them. Poured her a vodka lemonade made with coconut vodka, coconut water, squeezed lemons and simple syrup while we waited.
It all seemed to be going so well, but it turns out there was Way Too Much Lemon in the things. I thought I sliced the lemons thin, but the slices just overpowered everything. Really made us pucker. But the sage did seem to fit.
So, maybe worth trying again. Maybe chopping the sage up and mixing with lemon juice or lemon bits would work better- I’d skip the lemon rind altogether next time. Or, just follow the freakin’ recipe and make it with chicken :smack:
