Infusing and lifting out

Aromatics give up most of what they have to a hot liquid within a few minutes. The leaf, the root and the stalk are only the delivery vehicle. Once the flavour is in the butter or the broth, the plant material has done its work and can go in the bin, which is exactly what this diet needs, because chopped herbs and pieces of spice are the part the leaflet this book follows restricts.

The rule

Use aromatics whole or in large pieces you can find again. A bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, three coins of ginger, a bruised stalk of lemongrass. Never chopped, never grated into the pan, never a leaf small enough to lose.

How to do it well

Give the aromatic warmth and time rather than heat and speed. Sage in foaming butter needs a minute over a medium heat, not a scorching pan. Ginger in a congee sits in the pot for an hour and comes out spent and pale. Bay in a passata sauce wants a slow simmer with the lid off. Fat and liquid both carry flavour, so a sprig in butter works as well as a sprig in stock.

Count what goes in. Say it aloud if you are tired. Then count what comes out.

The cue

Taste the liquid, not the aromatic. When a spoonful of the broth tastes clearly of ginger with the lid off the pan, it is done. Overcooked herbs tip from fragrant to bitter and stewed, so lift them out at the point where the smell fills the kitchen rather than waiting for the pieces to disintegrate. Once they disintegrate you cannot retrieve them.

Common mistakes

Using dried chopped herbs, which cannot be lifted out at all. Letting a bay leaf break up in a sauce that then gets blended. Leaving a vanilla pod's scraped seeds in for a reader who has been told to avoid seeds of any kind. Grating ginger instead of slicing it. If an aromatic has fallen apart, pass the whole dish through a sieve and start counting again.