Thanks Lars!

I find with flavors that are new to me it is more like I don’t know how to use them than I dislike them. Following a recipe or winging it I often just know if I should add more parsley or oregano. Or that basil would go with whatever... I like tarragon although it doesn’t often land in the little shelf where my most used flavorings land - currently oregano, thyme, salt, pepper pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil and usually a vinegar or two.

Chervil just surprises me with sweet licorice notes when eating in a peppery salad mix of radishes and cress.

Mind you I do have food I seriously dislike. Most dried fruit. Mayonnaise. I just had a lovely roast beef sandwich slathered with mayo. I tried to eat it - made it halfway through.

The only herb like thing that I can think of right now is garlic scapes which I find acrid and icky. Many people I know wait with excitement for the time to remove scapes and use them. Not me.

I've never cooked with fresh chervil. Eating it raw, as you have in your salad, is a good idea for familiarity. Also, try some on a sandwich, either raw or wilted. When I'm learning a new herb or spice, I use it in a lot of simple things, like eggs, or a basic sauce, like a white sauce or wine sauce on pasta or chicken, and let it be the star, to learn what it does. Once you've made friends with it, you'll be able to judge what it goes with, and how much, like you do basil or oregano.

Gorgeous micros. I've got my usual winter grows doing well. Winter herbs needing a longer grow time seem to like the dryer/cooler indoor temps. I started some too soon when we had so much Fall rain, yuck. (i should know better). We have been bickering in good fun about home night temps...i like 62 nights and cool that helps my plants.(cozy bed comforter)... 67 day temps. He likes 65 night and 70 day temp. Too hot but still dry.

Like said, we fight it in good humor.

I like so many freash herbs we love and some i'm indeffernt. Same with dried.

Most young tender micros i use as a fresh garnish. They get lost in a cooking situation. Even the thai basil and par-cell. Intensly floral when fresh cut.

I use micro chervil in winter chowders and shrimp/dumpling miso soups at the finish. At the plating fresh. Micros are young and tender. Most micros are best as fresh in winter spring rolls or any dish that makes sense via pasta, chowders, veg soups, chili, miso grain bowls. Our winter meals get heavy and warm stewy. A healthy pile of fresh greens and herbs? no brainer but the combinations gets tricky. Need to find what works for your plate and palate. We both adore fresh tarragon with steak and garden tomatoes. I like fresh dill with eggs. Fresh pan seared sage leaves with slivered garlic low and slow crispy over cachia e pepe. Or fresh made ravioli. Chervil would be topped fresh at the table.

I adore chervil and it is such a rare delight. one of my favorite yum memories was a pureed carrot soup with chervil garnish.

i do like tarragonas well and find that scrambled eggs with mushrooms and tarragon is quite good. chervil would do as nicely.

@lisaam Thank you! I have some elderly mushrooms that need using. Perhaps an omelet tomorrow. I will look into that soup too. I love carrots.

Thanks all. I clearly need to play around with some plain ingredients and the chervil. I was thinking potatoes as well as eggs.

@sleevendog - My growing space is full up right now. I am really liking how Mizuna looks right now. I hope to get some slower varieties going in preparation for Christmas as I harvest and make space. I have cilantro soaking and ordered basil and parsley seed today. My friend will pick it up for me tomorrow.

My favorite tray right now is this combination of little trays of celosia, nasturtium, amaranth and shungiku. If I remember correctly shungiku or garland chrysanthemum has a fairly strong floral herbal note.

Bearnaise sauce is a classic use.

So! I realized last night I had a few people to ask in person. One is a friend who lives nearby but is in fact from Argentina and Belgium. She is an art historian/professor who it seems has lived all over Europe. And most importantly is a fantastic cook...

Her response is below.. I told her I would grow her a flat after the Holidays.

‘Oh wow. I LOVE chervil and you never see it in stores! It's used quite a bit in French cookery. For instance, this lovely recipe of cooked cucumber (you cut it in cubes, having removed the seeds--you just slice it across in quarters and slice the section with the seeds--and then sauté it in butter and serve it with chopped chervil over it).

I checked: it should be used immediately after been cut. Add it to the dressing of salads, it goes well with fish and sea-food and can be used in omelettes and over sauteed veggies of all kinds. I saw a lovely recipe of baked potato served with crème fraîche and cervil. I see that you can even make a pesto with it (in a recipe it's not cooked but accompanies raw tomatoes stuffed with a mixture of what's called in French "fromage frais": not unlike cream cheese or something similar). I could go on... did this help?’

The other would be my uncle and aunt who both were fantastic cooks. My uncle has passed. My aunt lives a simpler life now. This will be a good reason to call my aunt and discuss recipes. They had an extensive cookbook library. They lived in Italy for a decade and generally cooked italian dishes but liked french cuisine as well.

I have some recipes that suggest subbing it for tarragon, that I do not like (the tarragon, not the chervil). My one chervil recipe is for potato salad using it. I hardly every make it. It has red potatoes and cubed swiss cheese and peas.

When I was in the herb society group one of the presenters gave us a variety of herbs to taste. She did caution that Chervil should not be eaten by pregnant or breastfeeding a baby.

"Pregnancy and breast-feeding: It's LIKELY UNSAFE to use chervil in medicinal amounts if you are pregnant. It contains chemicals that might cause a change (mutation) in the genes of the developing fetus."

Source: webMD

Guess it's time to start my micro-greens. I've been harvesting from the garden and they are just now starting to die down.

@nancyofnc interesting. I am not sure what a ’medicinal’ amount would be though. I am always concerned with people who conflate ’natural’ with benign especially when self medicating. If some plant in my yard theoretically shrinks tumors or lowers blood pressure it clearly has biological effects. And they could be negative.

There are a fair number of fans of herbalism in the fairly alternative community that I grew up in... I only really try to get info from those with a healthy respect for the power of plants.

@cindy-6b/7a VA - I am jealous of your fresh garden greens. We have had a unusually late fall in Maine but my garden is frozen now. Although no significant snow yet.

Have you grown shiso? I used to grow that also, and while I like it, I ended up with way more than I could eat. Anyway, I prefer it to chervil. I used it mostly in Japanese soups, but I also put it in egg rolls and spring rolls.

Love shiso. :) But I've never cooked with it myself. Another thing for the project list.

I don't know what "medicinal" means in this quote, but it makes me think of a guy I met who consumed something like a dozen 2" turmeric "worms" daily for his arthritis (under 40 years old). Definitely a medicinal amount. In culinary use, one is plenty for most family sized dishes.

@Lars I just ordered more seed from Johnny’s - basil and parsley. I debated Shiso but the seed was very expensive. If I can get good at growing other herbs I will consider it. I really do not need more seed - I have pounds and pounds.

I had shiso naturalized in one area outside for quite a few years courtesy of a friend’s lapsed romance with a Japanese man. She brought me an armload one fall. I didn’t know what to do with it. I had a big bouquet of it that eventually got slimy. It seeded itself into my houseplants. And then after I transplanted a few into my garden they self seeded there as well.

Unfortunately I was overly ruthless in trying to control it and it is gone.

I have a neighbor who spent time in Korea as part of her service. She made some lovely fritters with shiso a couple of times. And a pickle dish.

OT, I love tumeric and use it a lot in cooking, but when I researched the medicinal amount to try and alleviate a skin irritation problem I was having, whoa! I also had to take large capsules throughout the day. Unfortunately it did not work. Found out eventually I had a rare allergy to a red dye in a pill I was taking, and when I removed the allergen, the skin condition magically went away. I asked the doctor if there was anything in the literature of side effects about the rash, and she said no, but I find that hard to believe. I had to really work to find a similar pill without the dye . . .