Mexican Mint Marigold (tagetes Lucida)

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

"Mexican mint marigold has a lot to offer.  It thrives in the hot,
humid South, where many herbs languish; its small, bright flowers
blossom in fall when other herbs have played out for the season; its
licorice-anise flavor is a successful stand-in for French tarragon;
and it looks good in the garden.  "This paragon, native to the
mountains of Mexico and Guatemala, is a  neat, upright bush some 3 feet
tall with narrow, sharply toothed dark  green leaves.  Its scent
recalls that of tarragon more than it does  the pungent aroma of its
familiar bedding-plant cousins, so-called  French and African
marigolds.  In fall, if the growing season is long  enough, the tips of
the stems bear clusters of 3/8-inch golden yellow  flowers.  "Cloud
plant, as this herb is known in Mexico, was first documented  there in
the sixteenth century by Spanish explorers. According to  legend, the
ancient Aztec chieftains used a powder made from the  aromatic leaves
of mint marigold to calm the hapless victims of  sacrificial rituals.
The leaves have also been used medicinally in  folk remedies for
malaria, colic, and colds; a poultice of the leaves  is a traditional
treatment for rattlesnake bite."  "Beside cloud plant, Mexican mint
marigold has many other aliases,  most alluding to its fragrance: sweet
mace, Mexican or winter  tarragon, sweet or mint-scented marigold, root
beer plant, Mexican  marigold mint, and yerba anis.  Its Latin generic
name, Tagetes,  probably comes from Tages, an Etruscan deity said to be
the grandson  of Jupiter. A boy with the wisdom of an old man who
sprang from the  ground (or perhaps was plowed up), he taught the
Etruscans the art of  soothsaying. The specific name, lucida, means
'bright' or 'shining',  probably referring to the bright yellow-gold
flowers.  "T. lucida is closely related to both ordinary garden
marigolds and  the citrus-scented signet marigolds (T. tenuifolia). The
latter are  prized by herb gardeners as potpourri material as well as
for their  ornamental value. They are all native to the New World,
unlike pot  marigold (Calendula officinalis), the herb referred to as
'marigold'  by Gerard, Culpeper, and other great herbalists.  In the
Kitchen -  "Chop the fresh leaves and use them to season chicken and
tossed green  salads, or brew them into a sweet, anise-flavored tea.
The dried  leaves retain their fragrance well if kept in a sealed glass
container and protected from extreme heat and bright light..."  "In the
humid South, where French tarragon is difficult to grow, mint  marigold
is a fine culinary substitute. The flavor is almost  indistinguishable
from that of tarragon, but because mint marigold  breaks down more
quickly when heated, it's best if added at the end  of cooking. In
salads, vinegars, oils, or quick-cooking recipes,  substitute it for
tarragon in equal proportions.  Crafts -  "Mint marigold's dried leaves
add fragrance to potpourris and sachets.  Harvest the long stems just
before frost when they are tipped with  yellow-gold flowers. While
they're still green and pliable, weave them  together in groups of six
or nine as you would braid hair, then tie  the two ends of each group
together to form a circle. Dried leaves  can be removed as needed for
cooking.  If the wreaths are made small  and interwoven with other
herbs, they can be tossed whole into a soup  or stew as a bouquet
garni.  "The flowers add long-lasting color to dried arrangements and
bouquets. They are attractive combined with sweet Annie, broom, and
goldenrod in harvest centerpieces, or bundle the stems with
natural-colored raffia for fragrant hang-ups that add a warm ambiance
to any room. For a change of pace and scale, clip the stems short and
make miniature bouquets in tiny vases.  As with other marigolds,
Mexican mint marigold looks good and lasts well in fresh flower
arrangements as well."  Excerpted from Diane Morey Sitton's "An Herb to
Know" column in "The  Herb Companion."  April/May 1993, Vol. 5, No. 4.
Pp. 20-21. Posted by  Cathy Harned.  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster
collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

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