Lovage: The Topic

[MatthewB]

On Saturday morning, the SO & I made the rounds on the local greenhouses. (It was her idea. What a great gesture after my buff mozz oven fire on Friday evening.)

Anyway, we picked up a lovage plant to add to our herb garden.

Now, what should I be doing with lovage?

Edit: (clarification) What should I be doing as far as cooking, *not* growing.

Edited June 30, 2003 by MatthewB (log)

[carswell]

Lovage is related to celery. In fact, the celery seeds in our spice racks are actually lovage seeds (or so I have been told).

Young leaves and blanched stalks can be added to salads. Larousse Gastro says the raw or cooked roots can be, too, and that the stalks can be candied like angelica.

Lovage is also good added to soups, braised vegetable dishes (potatoes!) and stews. It combines well with fish and seafood, eggs (omelets and frittatas), veal and beef and is good in stuffings (fish, poultry). Be aware, though, that a little goes a long way.

Lovage salt: In a jar, layer finely chopped lovage with sprinklings of sea salt until the jar is full. Refrigerate. Use in cooking.

Searches of sites like epicurious.com will turn up a few interesting recipes. Or google lovage and the ingredient of your choice (e.g. recipe lovage "sea bass").

Edited June 30, 2003 by carswell (log)

[Suzanne F]

Lovage tastes like celery on steroids, but without the bitterness of celery leaves.

At An American Place, we did a lunch dish called a Buffalo Chicken Salad: chicken tenders deep-fried plain (no breading), then doused with a butter-and-hot-sauce mixture; served over a green salad topped with blue cheese dressing (Maytag blue + sour cream + buttermilk) and garnished with more crumbled blue cheese, celery sticks, and lovage leaves. That was pretty damn good!

[MatthewB]

Lovage tastes like celery on steroids, but without the bitterness of celery leaves.

At An American Place, we did a lunch dish called a Buffalo Chicken Salad: chicken tenders deep-fried plain (no breading), then doused with a butter-and-hot-sauce mixture; served over a green salad topped with blue cheese dressing (Maytag blue + sour cream + buttermilk) and garnished with more crumbled blue cheese, celery sticks, and lovage leaves.  That was pretty damn good!

I'm going to give this a try as soon as the plant gets going--which should be soon given this weather!

Thanks, Suzanne.

[tsquare]

Use the hollow stems as stir sticks / straws in bloody mary's.

[guajolote]

Did you hit Romances (what a great name for a nursery?) They're friends of our family.

[Ruth]

If you ever make a borscht - or any other sour soup - add some chopped lovage at the end of the cooking. It is a perfect marriage.

Lovage is extraordinarily hardy. We have four plants in our Brooklyn backyard that have come back every spring for 25 years or more even after tough winters when all the other perennials died.

Edited June 30, 2003 by Ruth (log)

[Jinmyo]

Lovage is great with borscht, as Ruth said. And gaspacho.

I like blanching it, buzzing it with EVOO pecorino and pine nuts to make a pesto and serving it with grilled or pan-fried ocean perch. Also nice with rabbit.

[MatthewB]

Did you hit Romances (what a great name for a nursery?) They're friends of our family.

Yup. Got the lovage there. Also, hit Bos & picked up some stuff there.

With all these great suggestions, I think I need another lovage plant.

(Now I'm going to have my version of a Spencer Davis Group song in my head today, "Gimme Gimme Some Lovage." )

[cdh]

I don't know that you need another lovage plant. Those things grow like crazy and will overshadow your herb garden pretty quickly. Mine is probably at least 6 feet tall right now, and it had been hacked back once already this season.

[MatthewB]

I don't know that you need another lovage plant.  Those things grow like crazy and will overshadow your herb garden pretty quickly.  Mine is probably at least 6 feet tall right now, and it had been hacked back once already this season.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Great info.

(Exposing my ignorance returns rich rewards.)

[ewindels]

I'm sorry to see that this thread has gone moribund, as lovage has been one of my favorite recent discoveries and harbingers of spring. Sadly, for us urbanites, it's tough to come by (at least in NYC), which is why I tend to grab it as often as it shows up at the Farmers Markets.

Favorite recipes:

- Lovage potage

- Chicken liver and lovage stuffing

- Lovage, asparagus, morel and fresh shell pea risotto

Gulleters, share yours!

[Paul Bacino]

First yr I planted Lovage.. on my first harvest made a wonderful vegetable soup, and added the Lovage at the end... what a wonderful addition of flavor.

Gonna look around for some recipes.. here and their

Cheers

Does dried Lovage and any/much flavor?

[SobaAddict70]

As soup:

Stewed spring vegetables with poached eggs:

If I have a large quantity of them, they're wonderful as tempura.

[Paul Bacino]

Apparently.. Lovage is like catnip!! I have been pruning my plant and bagging the dried leaves. My cats love it and want to cuddle it ( the bags ). Now I found they it too!!

Crazy

[nikkib]

In a champagne/prosecco cocktail with a splash of benedictine - suspect it would go well in a hendricks martini/g&T as well....

[Paul Bacino]

This Lovage is very interesting stuff.. here I came up with I think is a good IDEA!!

Radish/Cucumber/Lime Juice/ Lovage/ Good Black Pepper and Sea Salt/Evoo-- I wanted a bit more acid an I added red Wine Vinegar

Edited July 8, 2012 by Paul Bacino (log)

[heidih]

I went on a trip to shop at 4 big plant nurseries north of Los Angeles yesterday and never scored any. You have inspired me to be more proactive. Panaderia Canadiense mentioned it as an ingredient the ubiquitous Maggi sauce.

[andiesenji]

Lovage grows like a weed here, sending up flower/seed spikes (which I keep cutting back) and seeding itself all over the yard. If you keep it in a (large) pot, you have to dig it out every two or three years, divide the root mass and replant in fresh soil. It pairs well in pots with sorrel.