Fresh Bay Leaves

My neighbor carefully tends to a very pretty potted tree all year on their front stoop.  Recently, the doorbell rang, and there was neighbor holding out a freshly snipped branch of bay laurel full of delightfully fragrant leaves.

Now, I don't know about you, but I almost always associate bay leaves with one of those "is it really in there?" herbs that I reach for and throw into a tomato sauce or steamed rice last minute.  However, now I was confronted with, "What do I do with so many fresh bay leaves?"

This meal was literally like a food challenge as I used whatever was in the house.  The photos don't do it justice, and I do realize that it could use a little more color, but the taste was superb, and, quite literally featured the bay leaf, leaving it the only herb used in the dish.

I started off by searing off salted, peppered, and lemon zested hormone- and anti-biotic free pork chops for about 5 min per side, removing from the pan, and setting aside (making sure to keep them covered to stay moist).  To the pan with the pork drippings and EVOO, I added a shallot, 2 garlic cloves, hot pepper flakes, and about 16-20 of the fresh bay leaves, allowed this to soften up and then added two medium-small eggplants diced as well as the juice half a lemon.  As the eggplant softened, about 1-2 cups of chicken stock was added, covered, and allowed to simmer until the eggplant was completely soft and beginning to break apart.  About half of the eggplant (no bay leaves) was removed, and pureed with the immersion blender to make a thick, ragu-style sauce base, and returned to the pan.  The pork chops were returned and nested into the sauce along with about 1/3 C of julienned sun-dried tomatoes.  This was all served on top of whole wheat organic pasta that was tossed with 1 clove freshly microplaned garlic, zest of half of the lemon used for juice previously, 1 can of organic Great Northern beans, 1 can of quartered Artichoke hearts (Trader Joe's), salt and pepper.

I ended up cutting the pork into bite size pieces, and mixing this with the eggplant bay-leaf ragu into the pasta.  Fresh bay leaves imparted a lovely almost citrus-fruity herbal flavor to the dish, and it was definitely worth featuring the bay leaf itself.

Moral of of the story:  fresh bay leaves are delicious!