It’s the end of the growing season and your garden is starting to be put away – many of us end up with a glut of herbs and nothing to with them.
There are multiple options including dehydrating, freezing them (this may be easiest if freezing blocks of them surrounded by stock a la ice cubes), infusing them into booze or vinegar, making jellies and more. But my favorite use (as those who read last year) is Herbes Salees (‘salted herbs’):
This really couldn’t be easier (unless, like you, you use a lot of thyme and need to have hours to pull it from it’s stem):
- Clean and dry herbs.
- Chop them coarsely (or as fine as you want)
- Toss with liberal amounts of salt.
- Place in a clean jar (pack tightly) and store in fridge.
- Begin to consume after two weeks – will last a year or more (and will improve with time).
Use in place of salt when cooking.
You can use any herbs you wish – our 2012 version included:
- parsley
- a small bit of tarragon
- rosemary
- a small bit of basil
- multiple types of thyme
- multiple types of chives
- oregano
This is one of my all-time favorite preserves and allows us to add the taste of fresh herbs to everything we cook through the year…