Gill Meller
LATIN NAME
Anthriscus cerefolium
SEASONALITY
All year round
MORE RECIPES
Barley and raw mushroom salad; Lamb’s lettuce salad with poached egg and croûtons; Pike with leeks and chervil sauce
This is a lovely, delicate herb. Its flavour, somewhere between parsley and tarragon, has a fractional bitterness, like that found in young carrot tops or celery leaf. But overall, it’s incredibly mild. It’s a herb for eating fresh and raw – the leaves whole or chopped. In late spring, serve it with crisp radishes, lemon and goat’s cheese. In summer, scatter it generously over oysters and enjoy with aged smoky chorizo and cold white wine. Late autumn calls for torn handfuls of chervil turned through roast pheasant and apples. And in winter, it is excellent with buttery Brussels sprouts and soft roast garlic.
Chervil is a wonderful herb to use in soups made with fish or a light chicken stock because it complements their often delicate nature. Try it in a creamy chicken soup with young carrots and fresh peas. Alternatively, purée fistfuls of freshly picked leaves in a classic leek and potato soup and finish with some flakes of poached fish and a tangle of whole chervil leaves.
The herb’s aniseedy note picks out the earthy qualities of the more subtle wild mushrooms, such as chanterelles or ceps. Fry them with butter and salt before scattering with chervil and shaking over a few drops of good cider vinegar. If you want to gild the lily, a poached egg makes a lovely addition to this autumn salad.
Chervil is a hardy annual plant from the carrot family and it can be grown and harvested throughout the year. It’s simple to produce at home, from seed. In spring, when it’s cooler, sow the seed liberally indoors, into plug trays, or lengths of guttering filled with seed compost. When the plant looks robust, it can be planted out into a herb garden or window box. Through the summer months, you can sow chervil seed directly into rich moist soil.
Regular picking will prevent the plant bolting too quickly and running to seed. That said, I do like using the fragile, pretty white flowers in cooking. They look great in salads or scattered over puddings, adding a subtle floral flavour.
SQUID WITH CHERVIL AND BLOOD ORANGE
Aniseedy chervil and aromatic orange are superb with squid – and this is a great treatment for small cuttlefish too. Should you miss the early spring blood orange season, ordinary oranges or clementines work just as well. Serves 2 as a light meal
400g cleaned squid, cut into 1cm strips or rings, tentacles halved
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
2 blood oranges
1 bunch of chervil (about 20g), coarser stalks removed
Sea salt and black pepper
Extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil, to finish
Place the squid pieces, including the tentacles, in a bowl with the garlic, chilli flakes and oil. Turn the squid to coat in the mixture and then set aside while you prepare the oranges.
Take a little slice off the top and base of one orange. Stand it on a board and use a sharp knife to cut away all the peel and pith, leaving you with a skinless fruit. Working over a bowl, slice out the orange segments from between their membranes and drop them into the bowl. Squeeze any juice from the orange membranes into the bowl too. Repeat with the other orange.
Heat a medium-large frying pan over a high heat. When hot, add the squid in an even layer. Season well with salt and pepper and cook for 2–3 minutes, until opaque and just coloured in places, tossing regularly.
Transfer the squid to a warm serving platter and scatter over the orange segments (holding back the juice). Add the chervil to the orange juice and turn it over gently, then scatter it over the squid. Trickle generously with extra virgin oil and season with salt and pepper. Serve with warm bread, if you like.