Give me your recipe for fresh oregano...

I have a friend that grows a lot of herbs. He also trusts me to cook. That's great, but I honestly don't know what to do with his coming abundant oregano crop!

I do a little chicken rollatini thing in which oregano with tomato based sauce is quite nice, but I hate to be redundant. Short of A LOT of pizza, what am I to do with my newfound sorce of artisanlly grown oregano?

Adapt other recipes, of course!

Oregano should be able to stand-in for thyme or mint....

Pair oregano with cumin: then take it Mediterranean (with olives) or Mexican (with beans).

By the by, which strain is your artisanal friend growing?

[Robin Garr]

Short of A LOT of pizza, what am I to do with my newfound sorce of artisanlly grown oregano?

Here's another classic Italian chicken dish I wrote up a while back. I used dried, due to the season, but you're probably closer to the real thing with fresh and should be able to up the quantity a little with fresh, too.

Chicken Oreganata

I used a package of Eberly's chicken thighs for this quick recipe, but any chicken parts or combination will do. A remarkably simple yet flavorful dinner dish, it involves minimal setup and finishes in the oven while you do other things.

INGREDIENTS: (Serves two)

Four to six bone-in chicken thighs or your choice of chicken parts
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 or 2 garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Pepper

PROCEDURE:

1. About two hours before dinner, squeeze the lemon, discarding seeds, and mince the garlic fine. Put the chicken in a bowl and add the oregano, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice plus salt and pepper to your taste, mixing everything together until the chicken pieces are well coated. Leave to marinate for an hour or so.

2. Preheat your oven to 450F (230C). Put the chicken pieces with any remaining marinade (there shouldn't be much liquid) skin-side up in a lightly greased oven pan or casserole.

3. Roast for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is golden-brown and crunchy.

Alan, you probably already know this, but remember that the essential oils in fresh herbs are less concentrated than in dried. The general rule of thumb being that one teaspoon of dried = one tablespoon of fresh, which is three times the amount of whatever dried is called for.

So in Robin's recipe you would use 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh.

Rather than an oregano focussed dish, I tend to used it more regularly in smaller amount, alonside other herbs. I tend to find it pretty flexible.

[Jenise]

Fresh oregano ideas:

Use it liberally as a topping on a plain cheese pizza
Whiz a bunch of it with oil and vinegar, pour it over a stacked salad of tomato slices alternating with chevre cheese
Mix it with parsley, olive oil and garlic to make a Greek persillade for lamb chops or stuffing for a boneless rolled roast lamb
Mexican meatballs! Mix ground turkey with panko, an egg, garlic and cumin and poach them in chicken broth seasoned with tomato, ground red chiles and lots of your fresh oregano
Armandino Batali's meatloaf, "The Best Meat Loaf I've Ever Had Bar None"
Pesto--blend with a milder green like parsley or arugula, and serve with a fresh halibut steak or chicken breast
Marinate zucchini slices in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and oregano--serve it as a room temp side dish for fish or starter course salad
And as Jeff says, think "substitution"

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To Jeff:
Not sure, but I have a pretty rapidly growing box of it outside on my porch now. Is there a way to tell?

Robin:
That sounds like it's right up my alley.

Jenise:
Thanks for the multitude of suggestions. I'll let you know if I try any of them; I suspect I'll be making the meatballs soon and I've actually been in the mood for lamb for a while...

Duh. The little name tag thing is in the pot. It's Greek Oregano.

Greek Salad.

Make a marinade of minced onion, minced garlic, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, lemon juice, EVOO, oregano, parsley.

Make your favorite mix of diced/chopped veggies for the salad, which should include at the least: cucumber, red bell pepper, tomato and kalamatas. Also good are green peppers, red onion, white beans (e.g. gigante), fennel bulb or fennel fronds. After marinating for up to an hour, add feta cheese before serving. I like to put the salad onto whole lettuce leaves.