Preserving the Harvest: Basil

[Note: This idea is not originally from me.]

One of my annual summer dilemmas is how to preserve my herbs. I absolutely love fresh herbs. Saying "love" in this case, may be an understatement. 

I grew up in a household where my mom's seasoning skills stopped with salt and pepper. She had herbs, but every time I experimented with a new recipe and asked if we had ______________, you could expect the following response: "I do...but I've had them since we were married." (at that time, about 20 years!)

Let me just say that the perfect example of my initiation into the world of fresh herbs was the first time I tasted fresh parsley in a dish. I never understood why you added dried "grass" (aka parsley) into a recipe. It had no smell, no taste and just took up space on the shelf. With my first parsley pesto...the stars aligned and I was hooked.

I adore fresh herbs so much that I have attempted to grow basil, rosemary, cilantro, chives and parsley,  inside in the winter with varying degrees of success.There is always a corner of my summer garden exclusively dedicated to herbs.  There is truly nothing that compares to the fresh spring and summer herbs that go from garden to the table!

But...you can only use so much of a good thing at one time. And this year, with about 20 basil plants (cinnamon, lemon, thai, holy and the traditional Genovese) around the farm, I'm itching to find a better way of preserving the harvest.

I've dried basil in the past and it's an okay substitute, but it loses a lot of flavor in the drying process. I dry herbs by tying bundles and hanging them in my kitchen. It's a great conversation piece and last year, hanging over our dining room table from the chandelier above it, I have to confess, it looked pretty cool. Going back to basil though, drying just wasn't cutting it. (No pun intended!)

A couple of years ago, I read about chopping them, placing the pieces in an ice cube tray and covering them with olive oil. After freezing them, you are supposed to have little cubes of flavored oil to use in your recipes. The first time I did it, they came out beautifully. The second attempt, they were little oily globs of herbal goo. I had to completely pitch the second batch unless I wanted to just scoop them out as I used them. The first batch mocked me from their plastic baggie as I impatiently threw away the second batch.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when a friend said, "Oh, I just make little ice cubes of water and herbs with them and toss them in recipes whenever I need them." What?! It's a simple as switching out the oil for water? Why didn't I think of that? I saw the exact same thing somewhere "out there" (Facebook, Pinterest, who knows?) a few days later. 

So this isn't original with me and thanks for hanging through this explanation. I really just want you to know that we're all still learning together so don't be afraid to experiment. learn, grow and move on to the next thing.

In a few very easy steps, here's what you do:

1. Pick and wash your herbs (photo above)

2. Chop them in your food processor, with just a little water (I use purified water). Only use enough to keep the leaves from sticking to the sides of the food processor/chopper.

3. Scrape down the sides to make sure it is all chopped small. You can add a little more water, as needed to keep it from sticking.

4. Put a little spoonful in each cube and top off with enough water to fill the cube.

5. Freeze until solid.

That's it. Other than freezing, it's about 10 minutes from start to finish. I don't think I can contain my excitement about this revelation. I've already lost several pieces of basil this year because I dried them and they didn't turn out well. But now, we can look forward to pestos, teas, sauces and ice creams (yes, ice creams!) all winter long!