Save the Basil!
April 27th 2010 02:18
I love Basil. It’s a beautiful fragrant herb and typically features in my kitchen. It’s unfortunate I don’t have a balcony, window ledge or garden to grow some – as it’s quite an expensive herb. A small-ish bunch is at least $4! I usually don’t end up using all of it and it pains me to throw it away after a couple of days – doesn’t last too long sitting in the *vase*.
I cruised through the Internet checking to see if it was at all possible to store basil. Came across a couple of suggestions, and lo and behold came up with this solution – which works better for me.
An easy way to store Basil
What you need:
Clean and Dry freezer containers
Basil
Good extra virgin olive oil
What to do:
1…Lightly wash/rinse the basil that you want to store. Then pluck leaves.
2…Pat dry with a kitchen paper-towel and place in bowl – or you can spin dry in a salad spinner. Pour some good olive oil on the leaves and mix through – making sure that each leaf is saturated.
3…Put some olive oil in the freezer container. Then place a serve (enough for cooking one meal) into the container. You can top up with more olive oil too if you wish – but I’ve found that saturating the leaves first with olive oil is sufficient; more economical.
There you have it, beautiful basil in the freezer ready for use any time. An added bonus is the lovely basil infused oil you’ll get. Mmm, I can already smell (and taste) it!
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Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
You can also do this to many herbs and you can chop them up and put in the dishes frozen.
Mum got me onto that.
Cool post!! I like the oil idea!!
Comment by Helen Randell
Rough Cooking
I finely chop basil leaves and freeze in icecube trays with a little water. They are great to chuck frozen into a sauce and you get a great flavour.
I use this technique for coriander leaves as well - wonderful for curries!
Comment by signals
The Health Fanatic
The Natural Order
Media Piranha
Arrogant News
The Dope Chronicles
Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Food Slate
Yep, I do occasionally freeze some up (as is). It's fine if you use it without defrosting.
Hi Helen, yes...that's another great method. I like doing that with parsley and coriander.
Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Food Slate