how do you keep fresh herbs, fresh?

DefyGravity

Wed, Aug 13 2008, 1:34 pm

From http://www.slashfood.com/2007/.....erbs/

The easiest way is to pick the fresh herbs off the plant (or use the ones you have bought at the grocery store), lay them out on a cookie sheet and place it in the freezer for about an hour - this prevents them from clumping together or freezing into a block. Once they are frozen, put them in a freezer bag, and toss back into the freezer until you are ready to use them. Don't forget to label the bags, they all look the same when they are frozen, and you can't smell them to tell the difference.
The other method that I found works well is to dice them up into small pieces, fill each spot in an ice cube tray about 1/2 full with the herbs, then top with water and freeze. Once solid, toss them into a freezer bag and keep frozen. When you need to add some herbs to a soup, pasta dish, meat, whatever, simply take out a single cube and toss it into whatever you are cooking.

Unfortunately, some herbs freeze better than others. Do a little research before you start, or better yet just try a small batch and see what works for you.
Tags: freezing

DefyGravity

Wed, Aug 13 2008, 1:49 pm

I plan on putting my herb plants into pots and bringing them inside before it gets too cold out. I'm so spoiled by fresh herbs during the summer.

I should also try and freeze my herbs in case they don't survive the move.

golandiver

Sun, Oct 06 2013, 10:10 am

Oregano: The Italian chef Lydia Bastianich says that she prefers dried oregano to fresh. She uses the others fresh. Her technique is to cut sprigs of oregano the same size, rince them, strip a few leaves from the bottom of the sprigs, tie them together with a cloorful string and hang them to dry. I like to put a chip clip as a weight so that they are all straight. When they are dry you break off a sprig or two and rub the leaves off into your food, leaving the tough stem. It only takes a few minutes to prepare a lot of oregano and makes you look like a chef with herbs hanging in your kitchen.

Basil: Miami is too hot and humid to grow basil in the summer. I buy a plant and prune just below the growth nodes it in hopes that it will grow back with fertilizer. Then you place the cut sprigs in water in a clear glass vase, using the lower leaves for cooking. If there are leaves in the water, they might rot. Basil will last in a sunny window for weeks and should grow roots. Plant five or six together and you have new basil plants. I say five or six because all of our basil plants are done that way. In the mean time you have been using the larger leaves and the bottom ones in your cooking. They will root on the lower side of the growth nodes.