Preserving Herbs: How to Freeze Parsley

November 09, 2011 The Provident Princess 0 Comments

Garden Fresh Parsley
Today I'm going to show you how to freeze herbs. 

One of my neighbors gave me a ton of parsley from their garden. I love fresh parsley but it doesn't keep that long. Maybe a week in a glass of water.

Being able to freeze herbs is a wonderful way to preserve them before they go bad but still be able to add a fresh herb taste to your meals. You just grab an ice cube and pop it in your food and all the water around it melts leaving the parsley in pieces.

Freezing parsley is so easy. This method can be applied to any herb you want to preserve like basil, oregano etc.

Directions:

First, wash your parsley.

Dry the herbs. I use a salad spinner. It pulls all the water off the leaves without bruising them.

Meanwhile, bring some water to boil.


Next, separate the leaves from the stems. 



Chop the herbs. This is how they are going to be once you add them to your recipes so make sure you chop them in pieces small enough to eat.

Grab an ice cube tray and fill it with the herbs.

Next, pour the boiling water over the herbs. The boiling water will blanch the herbs helping them to retain their best color and flavor. It also helps keep the parsley from developing a slightly bitter taste which herbs will do if they are just frozen without being blanched. 

Stick trays in the freezer and freeze. Freezing herbs in ice cubes is the best way to prevent them from getting freezer burn.

Once hard, transfer them to a freezer-safe plastic bag. Then whenever a recipe calls for fresh parsley just take one of these suckers out, throw it in and voila! Fresh parsley taste without the hassle of trying to always have fresh herbs on hand.

Tips:
  • 1 ice cube of herbs equals about 1 Tablespoon.
  • The ratio of fresh herbs to dried herbs is 3:1 
  • Freezing herbs in ice cubes is the best method but there are other ways: 
Dry Freeze

Once your parsley is washed and dried off completely, separate the leaves from the stems and spread them on a cookie sheet. Put that in the freezer.

Once they are frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe plastic bag and store. When needed, take a pinch of leaves out and use as recipe directs. 
Pros: less effort and steps than above.
Cons: might develop a slightly bitter taste although I haven't ever really noticed.

The Fastest Method: 

This is the way my host mom in Germany did it and it is by far the fastest and easiest. Once your parsley is washed and completely dried off, stack a bunch (stems and all) in a paper towel and roll once until the parsley is covered but there is still paper towel left.

Grab another bunch and roll again. You can see that I did 3 bunches in this paper towel. It is just a way to separate them a little better instead of freezing in a huge chunk.


Place in a freezer-safe plastic bag and freeze. When needed, reach inside and rip off as much as you need and toss the stems in the garbage. 
Pros: Less work upfront. A great method if you need to preserve a lot of herbs at once.
Cons: May develop the slightly bitter taste although I've never noticed. You also have to put in the work to separate the leaves and stems later while you're in the middle of cooking.





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How to Dehydrate Mushrooms

November 07, 2011 The Provident Princess 0 Comments

Dehydrating vegetables is such a great way to use up extra food. Dehydrated food loses 75-90 percent of its moisture making it a very effective way to store a large volume without needing too much room.  And drying mushrooms is one of the best vegetables to dehydrate because they keep their flavors so well.

You can dehydrate things using your oven. But with the cost of energy as high as it is, I don't think it's very economical to dry them like that.

On the other hand, dehydrators are very energy efficient and are an easy way to dehydrate big batches of food any time. Dried mushrooms can be used almost anywhere fresh ones are called for, except perhaps salads. But even then dried mushrooms would taste good crumbled up and sprinkled on top for a little crunch.

Mushrooms are so easy to dry. So when my local store had them on sale, I stocked up.

Directions:
To start, DO NOT wash your mushrooms. You can wipe them off gently with a paper towel, but washing them whether for dehydrating or cooking is a no no. It will make them rubbery. Once they are dehydrated and you want to use them, you can wash them then.

OK, now that we got that out of the way, let's get back to the mushrooms.

Slice your mushroom about 1/4 inch thick. I bought the pre-sliced ones because I thought it would save time but I found out that there were quite a few I needed to slice smaller anyway.


Lay your sliced mushrooms on one of the trays of your dehydrate. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat until all of your trays or full or you run out of mushrooms. Turn on your dehydrator and let mushrooms dry for about a day. Mine were done after about 14 hours. I put my trays in after dinner, rotated them before I went to sleep and dried them overnight. They were done when I woke up.

Look how much they shrink down. You can tell your mushrooms are done when they are brittle and snap easily between two fingers.
Place in an airtight container. If you have oxygen absorbers your could put one in with it. You don't have to put them in a bottle but they won't get broken this way. This quart jar holds the mushrooms from two 8 oz. containers of fresh mushrooms.

Store these in a cool, dark place for 6-12 months. You could also extend the life of your mushrooms by freezing them from this point.

To Use:
Wash, then add to recipes that will be cooked for at least 20 minutes. Otherwise, soak in liquid (hot water, broth or wine for added flavor) for an hour or 2 before using. 

Tip:
You can also eat these plain like chips. For more flavor, sprinkle with seasoned salt before drying. They have a really nice crunch and earthy flavor which your kids will love.

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