How to make a Bouquet Garni (and How to Use It!) : Paris Vlog #8

One thing that has become a staple in my kitchen -- both at culinary school and at home -- is a bouquet garni.

It's basically just a bundle of herbs that adds wonderful flavoring to SO MANY dishes! Throw it in with your soup, stew, stock, rice, roasted vegetables ... the list is endless.

It's a classic staple of French cooking, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to hop on the bouquet garni train.

All you need is a green leek leaf (which you would've otherwise likely throw away), some bay leaves, and a few sprigs of thyme. Watch the video to see how you wrap these all together.

Note: You always REMOVE the bouquet garni before serving whatever dish you're working on. It's there to infuse the flavors, NOT to eat.

In this video, I give the example of using it to make really delicious rice. All you need for that is to coat the bottom of a pan (an oven-proof pan!) with butter or oil, then add the rice (however much you want, really), and half of an onion, chopped.

Then one and a half times the volume of the rice to the liquid -- which can be either chicken stock or water. Then add some salt, and the bouquet garni. Cover with parchment paper and pop it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius (0r 350 degrees Fahrenheit). Remove the bouquet garni and fluff up the rice with a fork, and there you go!

Tip: To make it extra yummy, put some chunks of room-temperature butter under the parchment paper as soon as you take it out of the oven, and let it melt and work its magic on the rice for several minutes, then take off the parchment paper, remove the bouquet garni, fluff, and serve.

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Produced, filmed, edited and hosted by Katie Quinn