You will find bouquet garni mentioned quite a lot in cookery. A bouquet garni is a small bundle of herbs, vegetables and spices tied into a bundle and dangled into stocks, soups, stews, etc.
Bouquet garni – a step by step guide to making
You can buy ready made bouquet garni, which may remind you of tea bags. However, it is so much nicer to spend a couple of minutes to make your own fresh bouquet garni.
Pop into a draper’s shop and buy a metre of fine muslin, which will make many bouquet garnis in the months ahead. Plus, the muslin is great to strain stocks and there’s nothing better to dry washed salad leaves. It is always worth having a little muslin in the kitchen drawer.
- Cut out a square of muslin. In the centre, place the herbs, vegetables, spices, etc. that you are using (e.g. bay leaf, parsley stalks, peppercorns, sprigs of thyme, celery and star of anise).
- Gather up the muslin and tie into a neat bundle.
- Leave enough length of string to be able to tie the bouquet garni to the saucepan’s handle. You now have a fresh bundle of flavour.
If you haven’t any muslin, blanch a large leek leaf and tie your ingredients together with that. It is a good idea to always tie your bouquet garni to the saucepan’s handle, which allows for easy removal when it is finished with.