Give me your lovage recipes!

For the past few years, we've had a huge lovage plant growing in our garden. I am practically swimming in the stuff. Now, I've used some leaves in chicken soup (wonderful, by the way), and I've used it with green salads, tomatoes, and potato salad (another great use).

What else can I do with this thing? I've looked online, and I'm finding it difficult to sort through all the recipes to find something that looks interesting. A lot of places say use where you would use celery leaves, but I really don't find lovage to taste like celery. To me, it tastes a little bit like Maggi seasoning, an opinion the Germans seem to agree with, as they call the plant Maggikraut (or Liebstöckel, the more formal name I would assume). I also see the stalks can be used as straws for bloody marys, but that's more a gimmick than an actual recipe.

Anybody have good recipes that feature lovage?

Don't everyone answer all at once!

Well, I guess it's time for some experimentation.

We often freeze some of the tender leaves in water and then use the combo in making stock or in braising liquid for flavorful meats such as beef shanks. Once the flower spikes start showing, lovage becomes awfully strong. The strong leaves can be used sparingly in stock as a supplement or replacement for celery, which seems awfully expensive now.

Dill vinegar made with cider vinegar will have more complex flavor if you use a small amount of lovage seeds along with both dill seed and weed. We like this dill vinegar on sliced cucumber salad, potato salad or in an oil and vinegar dressing for cole slaw.

I knew a German wine scientist from Geisenheim who just simply made a thick, flavorful soup out of it. He'd go out in the garden, grab huge armsful of the stuff, chop it up with some green onion, plunk it into good chicken broth, and simmer away for a few minutes. It tasted a bit strange, but good, too. (He *might* have put a bit of garlic in it as well, but my memory isn't sure on that point...)

Geo

One of my favorite culinary works is Eugene Walter's Hints and Pinches: A Concise Compendium of Herbs, Spices, and Aromatics With Illustrative Recipes and Asides on Relishes, Chutneys, and Other Such Concerns. You can use the "search inside this book" feature at the Amazon link above to read his comments on lovage, but anyone who enjoys growing and cooking with herbs will want to own a copy.

Thanks for the rec, LAZ!

Another question, my lovage has quite a bitter aftertaste to it. Is this normal or should I chop it down and hope for younger leaves?

Can we start a lovage support group? I planted lovage from seed two years ago and now have three immense plants gracing my yard. If anyone needs lovage for a recipe, please PM me! I use the young stalks in chicken soup-- I love the vegetal flavor. I cannot bear to uproot and trash these plants so if anyone wants one, please let me know!

Cheers, Jen

Edited to add: Check out this lobster and lovage stew recipe from Epicurious:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... Stew-13418
and it uses more than a cup of chopped lovage!!!