'Tis highly cordial and friend to the head, heart and liver.'~ John Evelyn on Tarragon
If George R. R. Martin had included more herbs and plant medicines besides Milk of the Poppy in his book series A Song of Ice and Fire, he might have written about Dragon's Wort aka Tarragon aka Artemisia dracunculus. Even the names sound right. A little Tarragon for the Targaryens, possibly to season their cod cakes. Maybe a poultice a A. dracunculus could of saved Khal Drogo from his fatal wound. And if Dany had just put a few drops of Dragon's Wort tincture into Drogo's water bowl, he might not a roasted and eaten that poor child. Who can say? It can not be known.
What is known however, is that tarragon, French tarragon especially, is a lovely herb that is highly aromatic with a unique flavour much used for its culinary properties, especially in Eastern Europe and also as one of the four fines herbes of French Cooking. A traditional use is to infuse the herb in vinegar, to which it will impart its flavour and aroma.
Last summer I was gifted a little bit of fresh French tarragon that I immediately put up into vinegar and then forgot about until it resurfaced recently in the move.
Now I think many of my readers know that I haven't used shampoo to wash my hair in years. Instead I use baking soda with an apple cider vinegar rinse. Today as I was about to get in the shower I realised that I was out of regular apple cider vinegar (ACV). Then I spotted my jar of infused tarragon ACV and decided to give it a try.
Guys! It was heavenly. Like borderline inappropriate Herbal Essences commercial heavenly. I felt like Daenarys coming out of the Red Waste and stepping into the palatial dwellings of Xaro Xhoan Daxos. Only, if the tarragon vinegar asked me to marry it, I totally would!
The sad things is, I only had a little of the infused ACV and I used most of it in the shower. So now my project for the summer is to get my hands on some French tarragon plants and grow as much as I can and put it up in ACV. Even if I have to cross the Narrow Sea to find some!
It is written.
2 comments:
Hilarious. How herbs could have changed the course of Westeros history!
I have just had a tarragon laced dinner, but I haven't tried it in vinegar. I will do so straight away! Thanks for the tip. :)
I picked up three plants at the farmer's market on Saturday!!
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