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Corn shoots & Anise Hyssop from Lockwood’s Digital Tasting

Last night, Chef Phillip Foss at Lockwood in the Palmer House staged a Digital Tasting that used live video feeds from Farmer Lee Jones at the Chef’s Garden in collaboration with Veggie U to enhance the dining experience and support the "local narrative," which I’m going to write more about sometime soon. Because spring is coming any day now, I was particularly interested in the fresh vegetable items that Veggie U brought along, including these corn shoots.



These maize sprouts are grown from kernels of corn that germinate in the dark, so little chlorophyll is produced (they are a lot more yellow than this pic portrays). They have a lot of life in them, and they were very sweet; as Ronnie_suburban noted, “they’re so intense, they almost taste artificially sweetened,” but he meant that in a good way. They were also quite suprisingly fibrous for such little things (each shoot was about 6 inches long). I liked them a lot and plan to grow some in my basement darkroom (which we put in a few months before the Digital Revolution made chemical processing of film obsolete). The natural world is full of thrilling stuff I've never tasted before, and last night I had several occasions to practice the Italian custom of making a wish every time I try a new food (alas, I still cannot fly).

Part of the meal involved cutting herbs into the dishes. The herbs were displayed on a cool spiral “planter,” and here I am cutting anise hyssop onto one of my favorite plates of the night: Butter Poached Black Cod and Brandade. The "plug" of cod was surrealistically tender and flavorful.



The anise hyssop had a delicious vegetal licorice taste, sweet and spicy, intriguing and delicious. Debra Nickoloff, Executive Director of Veggie U, gave us four little containers of the anise hyssop and this afternoon I transplanted them into clay pots to sit on a sunny shelf for a few weeks until it’s safe to plant them outdoors. I'm germinating a group of more traditional hyssop in the basement, and I'm intrigued by this herb, which has been used for centuries (I find it in a lot of medieval receipes), and which I intend to use in soups and salads.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Be very aware (or perhaps 'wary' might be a better word) of anise hyssop's capacity for self-seeding. I had two plants last May. The seedlings started spouting last fall (!), and a new batch of hundreds and hundreds - perhaps a thousand - are everywhere within 10 feet of the original too plants, which, of course, started up in early March where they left off. They aren't a bad plant - bees and butterflies seem quite fond of them, and they seem impervious to dry conditions, disease, or insect damage - but I have *never* seen a plant self-seed like this. I thought borage was bad, but *whoa!*

Thanks for the advice. I put the anise hyssop in a planter on our deck, so there are definite limits to how far it will grow.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

David: do you have any links or further info about the medicinal qualities of anise hyssop? I am very interested.

Also, to respond to Sundevilpig's caution, Hyssop is part of the mint family, you can tell by touching the stem--it is "square" i.e. flat on all sides as all mints are , and yes, many mints are notorious spreaders. So you would do best to contain it or keep an eye on it and divide it each fall. Ornamental hyssops (like we have in the Lurie Garden) don't take over at all and still smell really sweet. But I don't think they are culinary in nature.

bjt

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"eating is an agricultural act" wendell berry

bjt, sorry, no, I'm not aware of any medicinal qualities of anise hyssop, but I'm pretty sure there are some such qualities imputed to it.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

I believe the medicinal qualities attributed to anise hyssop are identical to those attributed to regular hyssop -- good for colds and congestion, healing bruises and wounds, and boosting the immune system. I have no experience of this herb, so can't vouch for its efficacy, but it is highly regarded by many herbalists. Most non-herbalists just say "it's reputed to have medicinal qualities."

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"Nothing important is easy." Patrick White (Australian Nobel laureate)

http://waltzingaustralia.wordpress.com

1) It's 'Peg,' not 'pig'!

2) I haven't seen any underground spreading of my hyssop at all, either last year (with the original two plants), or with the forest of seedlings (which are easy to pull - very shallow roots). None of my herbals list anise hyssop as a member of the mint family - are you absolutely certain of that? The stems sure aren't square, either - I grow several types of mint in my herb garden, and the growth habits are completely dissimilar. If it is, it's a distant relative, like the relationship between giant allium and an Asiatic lily.

Funny, I've always read it as sundevilpig myself. A quick LTHForum search for "sundevilpig" reveals that several others have as well. Shows where our minds are focused, I suppose.

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...defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions." Screwtape in The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

Fuckerberg on Food

Lamest. Excuse. Ever! Kindly refrain from doing it again. It's annoying as hell, to put it mildly.

Anyway, I did check my anise stems today, and darned if they aren't square-ish! But no runners at all, nor does any herbal turn up any warnings about it speading uncontrollably by any means other than self-seeding. Its botanic name is Agastache foeniculum; it apparently is related at the Genera, but in the same distant way as is the coleus and the rosemarys.

I. Will. Try! If you will agree to never use periods in this manner again. That's more annoying than widespread famine and mass genocide, to put it gently. I also despise exaggerated metaphors as much as nuclear holocausts.

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...defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions." Screwtape in The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

Fuckerberg on Food

I finally got some seed corn and plan to plant it in my darkroom in an effort to have some corn shoots like by, maybe, July Fourth. In the event I'm successful, I'll post pix.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Sundevilpeg: I will ask the horticulturists I work with about the where hyssop falls in its mint connection, we have other agastaches in the garden, so hopefully I can provide an answer.

And sorry about the pig slip, I do believe my brain goes toward all things porcine when on this forum.

bjt

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"eating is an agricultural act" wendell berry

Thanks! I'd ask at the Botanic Garden, but my domain is the chefs, not the botanists. It's a big, big family - be prepared for a long answer.

And no worries. All is forgiven. GROUP HUG!

Has anyone tried to make tea out of the regular Hyssop? Or purchased tea in a store?