Curry plant ✦

Hélichryse italienne (immortelle)

What it is

Nothing in the curry plant is related to curry: the smell comes from its own resins, and the shrub was harvested in Corsica and the Balkans for the immortelle oil distilled from its flowers long before any cook touched it. Its dried flower heads keep their yellow for years, which is what everlasting means.

In the kitchen

Treat it as a bay leaf that must not stay: infuse a sprig in the fat or the simmering liquid, then lift it out within about ten minutes. The chewed leaf is bitter and faintly medicinal, so it never reaches the plate.

Goes with

Lamb Potato Egg Cream Tomato Olive oil

In season alongside

Fir honeydew honey Labrador tea Lavender flowers Lovage Marjoram Oregano

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