The Perfumed Garden

Walking through the Los Angeles garden grown by gardening writer and cookbook author Carol Saville is an adventure in taste and smell. True French sorrel has amazing acidic bite. An allspice plant yields spicy leaves that Saville uses with roast pork or applesauce. Here in the hills off Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Saville has cultivated a gardening cook’s paradise. And from this garden has come a new reference and cookbook, “Exotic Herbs” (Henry Holt, $35), full of herbal lore and history, botanical information, gardening instructions, culinary advice and recipes.

What is exotic? It wasn’t too long ago that cilantro was almost unknown to the average American cook, that Italian parsley had to be grown from seeds (if you could find them) and that only avid gardeners knew about cucumber-flavored burnet. Today, these herbs are so commonplace that they don’t rate an entry in Saville’s book. Exotic, then, to Saville is not only the nonindigenous, but the herbs that are currently considered unfamiliar or unusual or having special culinary assets not widely known.

The 60 plants that made the cut range from the unfamiliar anise hyssop, rice paddy herb, samphire and silene to aromatics that are becoming well known in multiethnic communities, among them epazote, kaffir (Asian) lime, curry leaf and lemon grass.

Rosemary sneaked in thanks to Golden Rain and Majorca Pink cultivars. Oregano appears only as Cuban or Mexican oregano. And cilantro gives way to culantro (saw leaf herb) and papaloquelite, both of which have cilantro-like flavor.

The only way basil made the book was in the guise of lesser-known varieties such as African blue basil, which is a hybrid of opal basil and African camphor basil, and clove-flavored East Indian basil, which grows so tall it is also called tree basil.

Another herb that once was “exotic” but now is too common for inclusion is lemon verbena. “I see that chefs use it so much now in desserts,” Saville says. Other herbs were eliminated because there simply wasn’t space.

Saville, who has lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade, grew all of the 60 herbs in her book and makes sure that other gardeners can as well. “Everything in the book can be purchased as seed or plant,” she says. And she has listed sources for each.

“To gardeners, some of the herbs won’t be exotic,” she says. “But to the general public they will be.”

All of the herbs in the book are intended for use in cooking. Sweet violets, for example, make a refreshing spring salad, and superb pink dianthus flowers add a heady scent to sorbets or syrup. A single leaf of Cleveland sage, she says, is enough to flavor an entire chicken.

It was important to Saville that the recipes have broad appeal. “I didn’t want to put [the herbs] in my garden just so I could cook a particular ethnic cuisine,” she says. “I wanted to incorporate them into my repertoire of recipes.”

So she puts African blue basil into vinegar, uses East Indian basil to pep up baked apples, combines Golden Rain rosemary with true French sorrel in vichyssoise, flavors honey with Vietnamese balm and adds papaloquelite to duck tacos. Samphire joins African valerian, silene and other herbs, greens and flowers in a summer salad, and anise hyssop contributes subtle flavor to a rich ice cream.

It’s even possible to grow the saffron crocus and harvest enough of the precious stigmas to flavor a dish or two. (The process, however, is laborious, Saville warns, probably best left to the dedicated.)

Some of Saville’s plants, as she says matter-of-factly, “just smell rank. Then their character changes in cooking.” Rau ram, common in Vietnamese markets, is one of these. “If you try the rau ram salad [a recipe in the book], it’s just lovely, “ she says. “It’s one of the herbs that does, indeed, change character.”

Houttuynia, an herb popular in Southeast Asia, “smells almost like meat, it’s so strong,” she says. It has been included in the book, but without a recipe. Aussie Sweetie basil, on the other hand, is tangy and clove-like, a delight to sniff. It gets a mention in the book, but not a chapter.

Fragrance and flavor aren’t the only attributes of herbal ingredients. Admiring the orange-burgundy flower on a tall galangal plant, Saville says, “Is that beautiful, or what?”

With the book done and the garden just about the way she wants it, Saville is about to start all over in a new climate and new terrain. She is moving to Albany, in the Bay Area. Many cuttings and potted plants will go with her, but the bulk of the garden will remain for the next occupant.

It won’t be easy for her to leave her garden behind. Many of the herbs were planted from seed or ordered from specialty nurseries in 3-inch pots. And the garden has played a large role in her work. The book’s cover photo was taken by Saville’s frequent collaborator in what Saville calls “the back 40” of her 1/3-acre property, as were many of the other photos in the book.

Still, she’s looking forward to sowing new terrain. Saville says she has been “reading, studying and cooking with herbs for more than 25 years” but always finds new territory to explore. Recently, for instance, she heard of a plant that is said to turn rice purple if a few leaves are added to the cooking water; she’s yet to try it. And there are many other herbs that didn’t get into her latest book--enough certainly to produce a second book.

“I think there is more of an interest [in herbs] now even than two years ago,” she says. One day there may, indeed, be a sequel.

ROSELLE RUM FIZZ

Dried roselle calyxes, a hibiscus, are sold in Mexican markets as jamaica. For a nonalcoholic drink, replace the rum with additional ginger ale. The optional pineapple sage may be bought in some farmers markets but is mostly found in home gardens. Other herbs--mint, for instance--may be used as garnish.

1 cup dried roselle calyxes

2 tablespoons grated ginger root

4 1/2 cups water

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup light rum

1 cup ginger ale

Pineapple sage sprigs for garnish, optional

Place roselle and ginger in stainless steel bowl. Boil 3 1/2 cups water and pour over roselle mixture. Cover bowl and let steep 4 hours.

Bring remaining 1 cup water and brown sugar to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove pan from heat and allow syrup to cool.

Strain roselle mixture through fine mesh sieve into pitcher. Gradually add cooled sugar syrup to desired sweetness. Add rum and ginger ale. Fill 6 glasses with ice cubes and pour in liquid. Garnish each glass with pineapple sage sprig if available.

6 servings. Each 1-cup serving:

237 calories; 23 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 39 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0 gram fiber.

SPICY BEANS WITH MEXICAN HERBS (VEGETARIAN)

Epazote plants are widely available at nurseries. If you can’t find Cuban oregano, substitute regular oregano.

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 large red onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 red bell peppers, diced

1 to 2 jalapen~os, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

2 teaspoons cumin

1 small sprig epazote

Sea salt

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained

1 (15-ounce) can white beans, drained

1 tablespoon chopped Cuban oregano

Shredded Jack or Cheddar cheese, optional

Heat peanut oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, bell peppers and jalapen~os. Saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, cumin, epazote and salt to taste. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Add black and white beans and oregano and cook over low heat about 10 minutes. Remove epazote sprig. Divide beans among 4 warmed bowls. Sprinkle with cheese if desired.

4 main-dish servings. Each serving, without cheese:

419 calories; 409 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 67 grams carbohydrates; 23 grams protein; 6.38 grams fiber.

ANISE HYSSOP ICE CREAM

This recipe originated with Ron Zimmerman, proprietor of the Herbfarm in Fall City, Wash. Carole Saville likes to serve it with fraises des bois or strawberries and a mint-flavored sauce. If you don’t have access to anise hyssop, try mint or other herbs.

1 1/2 cups half and half

2 2/3 cups heavy whipping cream

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

20 anise hyssop leaves, minced

5 egg yolks

Combine half and half, cream and sugar in saucepan. Bring to slow boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add anise hyssop. Reduce heat to lowest setting and allow mixture to steep to desired strength of flavor, 25 to 40 minutes.

Whip egg yolks with whisk or fork until creamy. Slowly add small amount warm cream mixture to egg yolks, stirring constantly. When half of cream mixture has been added, pour yolk mixture into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Strain mixture and discard leaves. Pour into metal bowl and cool on bed of ice.

Freeze chilled mixture in ice cream maker according manufacturer’s instructions. Or place in bowl and freeze in freezer. Remove from freezer, chop in food processor and return to freezer until firmly frozen.

1 quart. Each 1/2-cup serving:

459 calories; 54 mg sodium; 296 mg cholesterol; 38 grams fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 0.04 gram fiber.