Here's a quote from a herb book:

"Tarragon has rarely been used as anything but a culinary herb, though at one stage is was recommended as a cure for snakebites. Good tarragon is so difficult to grow and so wonderful to taste that it would be a pity to waste it on anything but gluttony!"

Apart from the usual vinegar the only thing I can suggest is to make tarragon butter. Just soften some butter, add chopped tarragon, roll it into a log and freeze until you want to use it. Good with chicken or steak. Or you could make Bearnaise Sauce.

Wendy

Tarragon needs well-drained moist soil (prone to root rot in heavy & wet soils). It likes full sun or in hot areas partial shade (though it does not grow well in hot areas as it needs a few months of cool weather but if grown in hot areas it needs to be watered regularly & will be short-lived).

Now this is what I mean about exceptions to the rule. Some books state that it dislikes other plants around it and humidity. Where I have it growing there are also several other herbs growing around it and it is doing fine.

Regarding the Russian Tarragon, this is much inferior to the French Tarragon and the flavour is to some bitter. There is another plant known as Winter Tarragon or Mexican Tarragon, not actually a member of the tarragon family but the marigold family (Tagetes lucida), the flavour of which is a little more like the French Tarragon but a little spicier. This plant is a perennial, grows about 2'.

It's quite tall and sits in a 12" pot under a gum on the western side of the house, jammed in behind my cement troughs which filled with herbs I love. I suppose if I treat it nice it will peg it, so I'd best continue to throw some water on it now and then.
Wendy - sage is really powerful stuff and you only need a very small amount to flavour anything. It tastes quite bitter if to much is used or in your case the flower heads.
thanks again Mrs B

No problem with the stuffing...very yummy.
Impressed my friends who think I'm a cooking genius! Little do they know. They get impressed when I cook a lamb roast with rosemary and garlic, because I pick the rosemary from the garden. Although I do admit to a knack with crispy roast potatoes.
Lots of sage flowers because I was stuffing three chickens. My friends have six kids.
Have you got inspired to use your tarragon Mrs B?

Wendy

It goes well with any white meat. It appears quite regularly in recipes from some of the trendier chefs of the moment (Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver et al). You haven't lived until you try pork fillet stuffed with tarragon and gorgonzola. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

Baked Eggs with Tarragon
3 sprigs tarragon
1/3 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs

Chop 3 teaspoons of the tarragon leaves. Put the remainder of the tarragon in a small pan with the cream and bring to the boil. Remove from heat, cover, and leave for 20 minutes. Strain the cream, season to taste. Break each egg into a buttered individual baking dish and stand them in a roasting pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Cook in a moderate oven until the whites are almost set. Pour a little cream over each, just covering the surface, then return to the oven for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle with the chopped tarragon, serve at once.

Tarragon Sauce
Melt 45g butter in a saucepan, stir in 30g flour, then slowly add 250ml milk. While bringing to the boil, stir in a chopped shallot and a handful of chopped fresh tarragon leaves (or half quantity of dried). Simmer for several minutes.

Roast Tarragon Chicken
1 whole chicken, about 2kg
salt and pepper
knob butter
3 teaspoons dried tarragon, or use fresh
4 tablespoons oil
2 rashers bacon

Sprinkle salt and pepper into cavity of chicken, ad the butter and tarragon. Put chicken into a baking dish, pour oil over it, sprinkle with more salt and pepper and put a sprig of tarragon (or sprinkle dried tarragon) on top. Cover the chicken with greaseproof paper and bake at 190C for 1 1/2 hours. After 20-30 minutes, remove paper, baste the chicken with pan drippings, then replace the paper. Vegetables of choice may be baked in the same dish as the chicken. Baste again after another 30 minutes. During the last 20 minutes of cooking, remove the paper and cover the breast with the bacon rashers.

Tarragon Mustard
1 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup tarragon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh tarragon or 1 1/2 tablespoons dried

Whisk or put in blender the first four ingredients. Add olive oil in a slow stream and blend well. Stir in tarragon. Excellent with
cold fish, seafood, chicken, beef, and eggs, in egg salad, chicken salad, and tuna salad.

And I grow my tarragon in a concrete bessa block surrounded by other herbs and plants under my passionfruit vine. Doing wonderfully for years, cut it back and use it and in autumn will die down to nothing and in spring will shoot all over the place.

The Aztecs would use the smoke to inebriate their prisoners before sacrificing them with heart removal.

~William

I have emphasised French Tarragon as this is the one used for cooking. There is a Russian Tarragon which is often simply labelled as 'Tarragon' leading to the belief that this is the French Tarragon. I was in a nursery this weekend and they had pots labelled simply 'Tarragon' and it was the Russian Tarragon. Taste a leaf and if it has a strong taste of aniseed that will be the French; also the Russian Tarragon is more upright than the French.

As far as seeds are concerned, French tarragon rarely sets seed so that packets labelled as such will probably be Russian.

You can also get tarragon by mail-order from Austral Herbs (www.australherbs.com.au) or Marshall's Herbs (www.herbsalive.com.au).

My mexican tarragon set seed last year so I have some seeds if you would like some. Its currently in the process of setting seed again. Its an insane plant, ive neglected it completely and it just keeps growing stronger and larger. It gets these very pretty sunshine yellow flowers before it sets seed.

I also have french tarragon, which i planted a few months back. Its still alive and its grown a little bit, but I can see already that its not going to be as hardy as my mexican tarragon.

Anyhow, let me know if you would like some of the mexican tarragon seeds.

- Katrina

http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/artdracanculus.htm

The stuff started like a weed and has *absolutely* no flavor or smell what so ever. I am totally disappointed by the lack of anything interesting in it....

I guess now, I will have to pull it all up and find some of the "Genuine Article"

Thanks all

John

A great way to use up zucchini:

Zucchini Soup

3 med Zucchini
1 onion
1 potato
4 chicken stock cubes
4 cups water
1 teaspoon dried tarragon

lightly fry zucchini and onoin in a little oil. Add rest of ingredients. Cook for 30 minutes. Blend in mixer.

Reheat - garnish with cream and chopped chives.

mudlark

~cathy

Is that true? Is it a tender plant? Will it come back in Zone 6?

PS It so old but I still just get such a kick out of sitting here and talking to folks on the other side of the planet. WOW!