Instructions
I’ve been having the same dream night after night recently, well more of a nightmare really.
I’m lying on a brown velour couch curled up in the foetal position facing the back, but somehow I’m seeing myself from behind. It’s as if I’m a third party watching my own life. For a moment at least.
So far, so good. And it’s not the ugly couch that gives me night chills. I’m suddenly aware of my mortality, and I’m caught in limbo waiting to die. It’s the strangest feeling, as if my life is explicitly temporary, yet I can’t see how or why it might end.
My mate Sam reckons it’s just because of the grey hairs appearing in random places on my body. He may well be right, but it’s really unsettling.
Guess I’ll have to buy a couple of bunches of thyme on the way home from work and pop them under my pillow.
You see, in the Middle Ages thyme was believed to be a preventative of nightmares. It was also claimed to give courage and clarity. I’m no soothsayer, but if a common garden herb did all that, don’t you reckon modern medicine might have caught on?
Actually, medicine did catch on. The principal chemical in thyme is thymol, a well-documented powerful antibiotic used in modern-day mouthwash, tinea treatment and even as an inhalant for bronchitis.
But as we all know, thyme is much more valuable in the pot. It is an earthy and profound flavour used throughout Mediterranean cuisines. From za’atar to herbes de Provence, thyme imparts a slightly citrusy and gently floral perfume to food.
The stalks of thyme are every woody, so you need to be careful how you use them. If I have some very fresh thyme with pliable stalks, I’ll chop them sticks and all. But if the thyme is drier (or if it’s winter and I have older growth thyme) I’ll pick the leaves and use them alone.
To be honest, thyme is a magnificent herb, and my equal favourite, along with marjoram. I can console myself with the thought that my only true nightmare is that one day I might run out of it!
Sausage-stuffed lamb saddle with thyme crushed peas and crispy bacon