Verjuice. Green juice. The juice of tiny green, unripe, unfermented grapes, used for culinary purposes. Like lemon juice or vinegar, it is an acidulant, but it is much milder. Keeping verjuice in the bottle will have the same effect as for wine, although the acid flavour will not change. It is versatile and can be used effectively with fish, chicken or to cut fattier foods, or in vinaigrettes and dressings. It is widely used in Iran as a non-alcoholic alternative to wine.
Lovage. A large unwieldy herb. Pick the stems off the leaves, tie them and hang them to dry for about 3 days. When crisp, crumble the leaves and store. Good in hotpots. Lovage seeds are used mainly in Indian cooking, and are from a plant of the caraway family. The greenish-brown seeds are a little larger than celery seeds and have a strong aroma of rather coarse thyme. Oregano can be substituted.
