Tarragon

Flavored butter can make plain food instantly interesting by enlivening it with the flavors of fresh herbs, ginger, citrus, chiles, or roasted garlic. Keep some in the freezer to use in cooking or at the table. Give an instant flavor boost to plain steamed vegetables, broiled or grilled fish, eggs, grains, pasta, corn on the cob, or mashed potatoes. Slather it on fresh bread, rolls, or biscuits.

Take a few minutes to turn mayonnaise into something special. Aioli is a flavorful topping for steamed vegetables of all types, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, fish, and shrimp, as well as a dressing for a simple salad, a dip for artichokes—even a sandwich spread.

For a summer luncheon or a light supper, there’s nothing better than this lovely salad dressed with lemon and tarragon.

This is one of the fastest yet most delectable fish preparations. Flounder is a delicate fish, so you need to use care (a wide spatula helps) when turning it to cook on the second side.

Lobster and sweet potato: a seemingly odd couple, we know, but they have in common great textures, beautiful color, and a certain sweetness. Knowing that tarragon and lobster is a classic combination, we dress the sweet potato with a tarragon vinaigrette; the fennel adds a complementary fresh taste.

Use this technique to make infused oils with any soft herbs, such as tarragon, basil, and mint. I use herb oil as a garnish whenever I want an intense, concentrated herb flavor in a dessert. Think about serving strawberries and ice cream with a drizzle of black peppermint oil. Or drizzle some tarragon oil on a salad of tender lettuce and shrimp.

In this dessert, a grapefruit gelée gets poured over grapefruit segments, which brings a different flavor note out of the grapefruit. It’s important to add the zest at the end to avoid bitterness. The combination of grapefruit and tarragon is one I really love, but I also wanted to add something spicy. Ginger is a natural, since it enlivens the herb flavors and is intense enough to carry through the ice cream, which gives this dessert its great mouthfeel.

Use this recipe as a guideline and a suggestion, as you could really serve any odds and ends you find in the vegetable bin with this versatile vinaigrette. Think about adding broccoli florets, green beans, or summer squash, just to name a few.

Purists will probably take issue with my spin on lobster rolls, but I think the light, sweet texture of mascarpone enhances the flavor of lobster far better than mayo does. There’s no question, though, that this is a decadent dish; enjoy it as an occasional—and outrageously delicious—treat.

This aioli is a riff on a tartar sauce that I made for the fish and chips episode of my show Throwdown. I may not have won that particular battle, but I did come out of it with some good ideas. Fries taste delicious doused with malt vinegar, no question, but they can quickly become soggy. This aioli, fragrant with anise-flavored tarragon, blends the great taste of malt vinegar into a creamy dip for fries with even more flavor than the original combo, and none of the sogginess.

Béarnaise is one of the classic French sauces. Its standard formulation includes a lot of butter and egg yolks. In this version, I kept the licorice-tasting tarragon that’s a hallmark of the sauce and let the fat and calories go.

A great green salad has always been a staple on my restaurant menus and on my table at home. The combination of Dijon mustard, good-quality vinegar, and olive oil gives tender green leaves their raison d’être. There is no olive oil in this dressing and it still tastes great. I kept the Dijon mustard in the mix because it’s very low in fat—and because few ingredients can pack a punch like Dijon mustard. Yogurt, lemon juice, and aromatics like tarragon and fennel round out the dressing. You’ll never again eat a green dressed with artificial-tasting, gloppy, low-fat dressing.

With veggies and pasta in one dish, there’s no need to make any sides—plus, you only have to wash one pot!

Hey, you asked for more! This is a favorite of my mom’s, so I had to include it!

Serve with a green salad.

This is a very quick recipe, even quicker today because of Picard Surgelés, the French chain of grocery stores selling superb frozen food products. Although the vegetables are not certified kosher, even the Beth Din of Paris, the religious governance, approves of their use. I tasted this particular soup at a Shabbat dinner at the home of North African–born Sylviane and Gérard Lévy. Gérard, who is a well-known Chinese-antique dealer on Paris’s Left Bank, recited the prayer over the sweet raisin wine sipped on the Sabbath in French homes. Everyone then went into the next room for the ritual hand-washing. When they returned, Gérard said the blessing over the two challahs before enjoying the meat meal, which began with this creamy (but creamless) frozen-pea-and-tarragon soup.

In Turkey and Egypt during the period of the Ottoman Empire, the women in the harems, the wives and concubines of the Sultans and aristocracy, were the widows and daughters captured at war. The Circassians among them were known for their beauty and their culinary skills. This classic is part of their legacy. The recipe was given by Luli Fevsi and comes from the kitchens of the old Ottoman aristocracy in Egypt. It is a cold dish which may be served as an hors d’oeuvre or as part of a buffet table.

The Green Goddess dressing is also terrific on salad or as a dip for crudités. It will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator stored in a jar or airtight container.