Summer savoury, or Borsikafű

I think it is the posts on Voer about eating in Hungary that put me on the chicken paprikash route, that ended with a fragrant potful bubbling on the stove as I type. I have never been to Hungary, but did date a man whose Hungarian and otherwise outrageous father managed to cook, in his mid-80s, a very decent paprikash. It's a terribly easy thing to make, but no less delicious for it. And it was winning to see an old man, a bent misogynist, cooking for himself.

Recently, when looking up summer savoury's botanical name, I learned that is a favoured herb in that part of the world, featuring in Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian cooking.

To that end, I collected what remained today of my savoury plants, dried them in the oven on low, and stripped their seeds and leaves to keep as long as I can through a winter of cooking. I'm not much into dried herbs, but I fell in love with this one over the last season and can't wait to include it in another rub for pork ribs, for example.

Hard to photograph because of its small leaves and spread out stems. The seedling pictured above was a self-starter, and my other three plants were also self-sown.

Above, August; below, today.

The apartment smelled wonderfully optimistic while the herb was drying. Seeds below.

I harvested maybe half a cupful.

And a couple of teaspoons went into the paprikash.

Dinner in about an hour. Then if Vince feels like working on more pictures I can watch another episode of The Wire, to which I am addicted. I'm only on the second series, having discovered the first by accident some months ago. The writing and acting and (re)creation of specific Baltimore milieux are something of a revelation.