Homemade Maggi seasoning: How to use bountiful lovage harvest

Maggi is a popular seasoning worldwide. Our cuisine uses it for soups, sauces, meats, and salad dressings. You can easily buy it in the store, but it's worth making it yourself if you have lovage. A bit of work and no preservatives in the ingredients.

Homemade Maggi means fewer preservatives in your food. It contains no artificial ingredients or excessive salt. It’s just healthier and more natural.

Now is the best time to harvest lovage and make homemade Maggi seasoning. In early summer, this herb is the most aromatic. If your garden has been bountiful with lovage, cut nice, long sprigs, and get rid of the hard parts. You only need a few more ingredients to prepare Maggi. We have two recipes for this seasoning. One is very simple, and the other requires a bit more work, but its aroma is unforgettable. Both seasonings will last for the entire winter. The first has the consistency of a thick paste, and the other - a liquid. They provide the taste and aroma of fresh lovage leaves.

Ingredients:

• A large bunch of lovage leaves
• Non-iodised rock salt to taste
• Oil, for example, rapeseed oil

Preparation Method:

1. Finely chop the lovage leaves, blend them in a blender, and add salt. There should be enough salt to give the maggi a distinct taste.
2. Next, add a bit of oil and blend again. The consistency should be quite thick.
3. Transfer the prepared mixture to a jar, pressing it down to avoid air bubbles.
4. Pour oil over the surface of the mixture. The fat should cover the entire surface of the pressed maggi.
5. Store this maggi in a dark, cool place, in the fridge or cellar. Each time you use Maggi, add more oil to the jar.

Ingredients:

• 450 to 600 grams of garden lovage
• About 140 grams of parsley
• 2 medium dried porcini or bolete mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons non-iodised rock salt
• 8 tablespoons white sugar
• 6 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1.5 litres of water

Preparation Method:

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the lovage and parsley. Discard wilted or damaged leaves. Cut the greens with stems into approximately 2.5 to 3 cm pieces.
2. Place chopped lovage and parsley in a large pot. Pour in 2 litres of water, add 2 dried mushrooms, and add 2 tablespoons of non-iodised rock salt. Set the pot on low heat and simmer the broth for about 40 minutes.
3. About 10 minutes before finishing the broth, prepare the caramel.
4. On a pan with a thick bottom, heat the sugar over low heat until it melts. Stir with a heat-resistant silicone spatula or wooden spoon until the liquid thickens and becomes amber-coloured, which takes a few minutes.
5. Add about 120 ml (half a cup) of hot lovage broth to the hot caramel and stir until combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the pot with the simmering lovage, parsley, and mushroom broth. Add 6 tablespoons of soy sauce, stir, and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
7. After cooking, strain the broth through a fine sieve, pour the homemade lovage maggi into small bottles, seal them, and let them cool.
8. Homemade lovage maggi can be pasteurised. Pour the hot Maggi into clean, sterilised bottles or jars, immediately seal them, and place them in a pot with hot water so the water reaches 3/4 of their height. Sterilise bottles or jars of about 150-200 ml capacity for about 8-10 minutes after the water simmer slightly.