basil update

Well, now I know why they say to use ice cube trays! The basil does not easily fall out of the mini muffin tins, even though they were sprayed. An ice cube tray can be twisted. Oh well. I went on to plan B.

Using a butter knife, I slipped it down between the basil and the tin. They popped right out.  Though a couple broke. But that's okay.

I had the Tupperware waiting to receive the basil blocks. Then returned them to the freezer as soon as possible. My house is still hot/humid and I didn't want them to melt and stick. If your house has A/C you might want to take the time to put wax paper or parchment between the layers.

Gayle's basil revisited

Hi this is Gayle and I've hijacked Angels blog again. It's been quite a while. (Maybe last year this time when we canned.) At one point I had hoped to do food tours and farm markets and we never quite got to doing that together. But we may, and if we do, be assured that I'll write about it. Food just doesn't work in my walking blog!

Last time I talked about preserving a motherload of basil was back in 2009. The scenario is about the same. This time I received an email from my neighbor that said, we have extra basil, do you want some?

He arrived late this afternoon carrying two basil trees. It was a lot of basil. Once you pick it the clock starts ticking. It turns black in a New York minute and my house, like Angel's, has no air conditioning. So the spoiling window is even smaller.

Last time I picked the leaves, put them on cookie sheets and put them in plastic zip bags. I really didn't like how it thawed. It was all limpy and broken. So this time I decided to do a twist on the "put pesto in an ice cube tray" idea.

I washed it, and dried it between two towels. I still have not bought a salad spinner. It's days like this I really want one. (The picture is about half the leaves.)

Then I put it in the food processor, a bit at a time and chopped it.

In the meantime, I took my mini cupcake tins (I don't have extra ice cube trays) and sprayed them with olive oil. You could use something like Pam. I just put oil in a small spray bottle. Then you can have lots of oils and no chemicals. Yes, sometimes it does get clogged.

I used a teaspoon, and picked up a lump of ground basil, and used the other hand to guide it into the cookie tin.

Finally, I put it in the freezer to harden. When they are hard, I'll pop them out, put them in an airtight container and use as I want. A brick or two to make pesto. A brick in my sauce or a stew.

Should work great and I won't have to try and cut slippery basil.

Saving the neighbor's basil

Guest column from my good friend Gayle:

Yesterday my friend and neighbor Bob called. I'm cleaning out the garden, would you like Basil? My mama taught me never to turn down free food, so of course I said yes. He brought up an enormous tree of basil. I was up to my eyeballs with work, so I set my sister to cleaning it.

The phone rings again. Hi, me again. How about some Tarragon? Sure. He bring this huge tangled ball of tarragon. I then put both my sisters to work.

Now I was faced with 2 large colanders of tarragon, and a giant bowl of basil. Not to mention the dishpan full of "waste" for the compost bin. How the heck do I was and dry ll this. Time was ticking on the basil. It turns black in a New York minute. Cold stops the blackening, so I knew it had to go in the fridge dirty until I decided.

Normally when I was herbs I just dry them between cotton towels. I am too cheap to use paper towels, and I'm not gadget oriented so I never bought a salad spinner. Heck, I never even used one until my fund raiser last June. It was cool.

A salad spinner would be perfect for the job. I knew my neice has one and we were going to see "Julia and Julie" (at the Boyd. Old, lots of character, and only $6!) maybe she could come early and we could take the herbs for a ride in her spinner. She did. We did.

The entire process, with two working took five, maybe six minutes. My way would have taken at east an hour, if not more. It turns out that a salad spinner is not a gadget. It is a great thing. The herbs were drier than I could ever get them with towels, in seconds.

Now I didn't want to just throw them in a bag into the freezer. They still would have been a lump in December when I needed them. I needed something closer to individual. So I pulled out my cookie sheets, covered them with wax paper, and spread the tarragon out on two, and then the basil on two more. I stuck them in the deep freeze and went to the movies.

This morning I had to decide on packaging. I usually chose "tupperware". It stacks, it's easy to label and keeps my freezer organized. But for herbs I found zipper bags work best.

Herbs go from frozen to thawed in a very few minutes. Make sure your hands are clean, and the bags are open, labeled and ready to go before you start. Pull out one tray at a time and fill the bags, close them and put them right back in the freezer.

Then this winter, when you need fresh basil and they are charging $3.99 for two sprigs in the store. You've got "fresh" in the freezer. It can't be used for a garnish, but really, is garnish worth $3.99?