OFF THE SHELF
Merry with a little lamb: Remember the rosemary

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Rosemary marries happily with lamb as well as other roasted meats, eggs and some fish and it's very nice worked into the dough of rough breads such as those used for pizza or focaccia.

However, caution must be used here: Rosemary is extremely pungent and can overwhelm other flavors, and the texture of the tapered, silvery leaves is quite tough and chewy. The herb, a member of the mint family, has a piney, resinous quality.

So employ fresh rosemary with caution and chop it very, very fine. A teaspoon of fresh chopped rosemary goes a long way. You can use lots of roughly chopped rosemary in herbed oil and vinegar marinades; then discard the marinade and scrape away any large pieces before grilling meat, vegetables or fish.

This pungent herb grows very well in parts of Hawai'i that are dry and not too rainy or humid. The plant can deal with poor soil and even salt, but if you live in a rainy area, it won't do well. It will happily grow in pots if the climate is right. If your home environment is suitable, there are a wide variety of rosemary types, ranging from trailing ground covers to upright bushes. The one we eat is Rosmarinus officinalus, and it can be propagated from seeds or cuttings.

If you do grow rosemary, an interesting way to impart rosemary flavor to grilled foods is to burn cuttings in your grill and to use the woody twigs as skewers for shish-kabobs.