Parsley, the family vegetable

Still life with parsley, green glass bottle, and beaded flowers. Watercolor, approx 6" x 6". April 3, 2016.

J. and I have often joked that I should have carried some parsley in my wedding bouquet, it's that ubiquitous and important in our family cooking. We are never without a large bunch or two in our fridge, waiting to be turned into taboulleh or added to rice pilaf, meat dishes, fish, a soup or stew, or just eaten sprig by sprig. Mint and parsley are the essential herbs for Middle Eastern cuisine. So I wasn't surprised when, visiting our niece last weekend, we saw a bouquet of parsley as part of the still life arrangement on her dining room table. During the weekend, parsley made its way into a tray of kibbeh, and kibbeh-yogurt soup the next night, as well as being an essential ingredient in our niece's recently-invented house pesto, which doesn't use either garlic or basil, but instead, freshly-chopped parsley, mint, cilantro, and pine nuts, seasoned with olive oil and sweet lemon: it was a fabulous hors-d'oeuvre served with goat cheese and French bread.

The painting/drawing, however, was not only a chance to suggest the frilly leaves of parsley, but to explore green in its various shades and textures. I've drawn that glass bottle and the beaded flowers before, but this one was more successful. The washes of color went onto the page first, and then the lines, which I tried to keep as economical as possible. I'd like to try it again as a pure watercolor, but unfortunately we're back in Montreal, having left snowy New England behind. It's still cold here, but the light says "spring," and pretty soon there will be a pot of parsley growing on our terrace, ready to be snipped for supper.

Comments

[Andrea Murphy]

Years ago a colleague, a Lebanese-Canadian, said she didn't want to get married because, as she put it, "All my mother does all day is chop parsley."

[Beth]

I love that!

My own mother-in-law loved to cook but also, at times, resented it. I'm glad she was willing to do it though - both for the great meals she made us and for the recipes I learned from her. Mostly only by watching, though, she never let us help much in her tiny, cluttered kitchens, and she never wrote down the recipes. As a member of the next generation, I'm neither expected nor willing to do those labor-intensive recipes regularly, but I'm glad I know how. This weekend was a learning time for our niece, who had always wanted to know how to make kibbeh, starting with twice-ground lamb and beef from a good butcher. I'm afraid we usually buy it at Adonis now, but it felt good to make it from scratch - and the result was so delicious!

[Hattie]

Good reminder to me to pick up bunches of parsley and mint and the market tomorrow!

[Duchesse]

One of my childhood memories is my mother sending me to the garden to cut sprigs of parsley, but being very "American, she used it mainly for garnish. It was not till I was in a more cosmopolitan college atmosphere that I discovered parsley as a flavour.

I love the idea of a bouquet of herbs and wildflowers.

[Julia Yeates]

I am the same with mint and coriander, essential for tissanes and curries :)

[Rabbi Rachel Barenblat]

Beautiful!

[Mary McPhee]

It's been a long time since I visited your blog as Code Name Nora. It's beautiful and your art is really wonderful. It reminds me just a tiny bit of my daughter's. She's at Kate McPhee Studio (through Google). I'm still writing as you may see on my blog (very amateurish and neglected but I just made a post. Yes, I must confess I have a motive for commenting.).

[Beth]

So good to hear from you, Mary, and to know you're writing. I'll go over to your blog this afternoon!

[Marly Youmans]

The pesto variation sounds good. I'll have to mention it to my man, the Cook of all cooks...

Like your green exploration--I do think that green looks best in many hues. As Mother Nature does it.