Growing herbs is a great way to integrate flavor to your dishes, and gives your home a bright and beautiful feel. But plants do not last forever, and there comes a time when you have to harvest the plant to obtain all the leaves, flowers, and seed you can, and dispose of the plant. The problem now, what do you do with all that you harvested? There are a couple different techniques you can use to storing fresh herbs to ensure their quality and appeal, or integrate them with other ingredients to create wonderful dishes. Humans have been storing food for a very long time, and herbs are especially easy to store. Our ancestors use to dry their herbs for the winter, or infuse them in oils and vinegars to preserve their integrity and freshness. Today, we mainly use drying as a means of storing fresh herbs.
Freezing and Storing
Dried herbs whether home made or store bought, should be stored in airtight dark glass or pottery jars. If using glass to store your sprigs, the container should be placed in the kitchen cabinet out of direct sunlight to maintain quality and freshness. Light and exposure to the air, environment, and moisture will make it deteriorate more quickly and take away from the flavors. So it is very important to keep your dried herbs in a well-sealed container in a dark place.
Storing fresh herbs can be kept by freezing them. This will help extent the life and flavor of the herb, especially herbs like fennel, parsley, dill and basil. If choosing to freeze your herbs, store them in small quantities, about 2-3 tablespoons, in a freezer bag after you have cleaned them. You can either freeze single herbs alone, or mix your favorite combinations of herbs and freeze them together. Always be sure to label your bags clearly so there is no confusion to which herbs you are using. If you like the freezing method, you could make herb ice-cubes. This might sound strange, but I promise you it is a great way to keep them fresh, and they will already we cut and in good serving sizes for use. First finely chop the desired herbs of your choice. Fill each ice-cube compartment half-way with the chopped sprigs, and then top off with water. Place the tray in the freezer and let freeze. Once they are frozen, you can take them out and place them into a plastic labeled bag to free up the ice-cube tray for more. Then when you need cilantro or parsley to your dish, grab one or two or more cubes from the appropriate bag, and throw them into your dish. This is very easy to store and even easier to use to create your dishes. Basil is a great herb to be stored like this. Simply use a food processor or blender to blend up the basil leaves, and a few tablespoons of fresh lemon, some cloves of garlic, and just enough olive oil to cover the ingredients. Blend the ingredients together well. Transfer the mixture to the ice-cube tray and freeze. You could also choose storing fresh herbs in a air-tight glass jar in the refrigerator.
Oil and Vinegar Infusion
Oil infused with herbs can tremendously add flavor to any recipe that calls for regular oil. Integrating and storing fresh herbs through infusion, is a great way to have them ready to use to create great dishes. To make herb-infused vinegars, start by bruising some of the herbs slightly, wither with a muddler or your hands. Taking the slightly bruised clippings and placing them into a clean glass jar and pour warmed vinegar over them. For best flavors, try using sherry vinegars or high quality wine, but many people will use light-colored vinegars so they can see the plant and it can be an attractive kitchen staple. Do not store and make in aluminum or metal containers, because the acidic vinegar will reach with the metal causing a toxic metallic taste. Leave the bottle to infuse over 3 weeks slightly shaking daily to mix the concoction. After the 3 week mark, taste the vinegar. If the mixture is too weak, discard the infused the plant and add fresh new ones and leave another week or two. When the mixture is to your liking, strain the vinegar to remove the old used clippings. Or you can transfer the mix into a decorative bottle and add new sprigs and place for everyone to see in your kitchen. Again, do not use any metals as this will change the look, color, and taste of the oil. Plastic caps are okay to use. Some flavorful combinations you should try are red wine vinegar with garlic and rosemary, cider vinegar with applemint, and whit wine vinegar with thyme and tarragon.
If you like cooking with infused oils, the process for herb-infused oil is the same. When choosing which oils to use, try to use less strong flavored ones like sunflower or safflower because the herb taste will be more prominent. But in my personal opinion olive oil is the ONLY way to go when making herb-infused oils. It has a stronger flavor, but most herbs accent and go really well with the olive oil flavor. You can even use garlic to infuse! When making a garlic herb oil, I find it best to remove the garlic after a couple of days. This is because the garlic is very potent, and will overpower the oil and other herbs infused.