Sometimes Fresh…Sometimes Dry…But Always Sweet
Have you ever tried using fresh herbs in your cooking? A fresh herb is very different from the same herb dried. Herbs are edible plants. Most of the flavor is found in the leaves of the plant. In our world of cooking dinners, herbs are used fresh or dried, to enhance flavor in food. But since the beginning of time, herbs have been found to be of never ending benefit. Herbs are good for humans. That is much too big a subject for us, that’s for sure. So we are sticking to what we know, herbs we use to make dinner.
It seems most people are more familiar with using dried herbs than fresh in cooking. Most likely, you buy your dried herbs in a glass or plastic bottle in the spice isle. So do we. But, variety is the spice of life! (pun intended) There is a fresh world out there to be discovered. And the best discovery we have had in the fresh world, is BASIL. Basil is the herb most commonly used in Ricky’s recipes, so that is the one we are going to write about. But basic information about basil will apply to most herbs, certainly the most commonly used ones.
AND WITHOUT FURTHER ADIEU: MEET BASIL, OUR FAVORITE HERB
The star of this show is the fresh green sprig of basil, cut fresh from my basil plant. The smell of freshly cut basil is like a burst of fresh air. Growing a basil plant is worth the effort just for the aroma when you cut off a sprig. We talk a lot more about growing herbs, in Back Porch Herb Garden. The dish on the upper left corner has dried basil, purchased in a bottle. The dish on the upper right corner has basil leaves, homegrown, I have dried. We will talk more about drying herbs in another discussion. But for now, we are going to focus on cooking with fresh and dried herbs; when and why. Dried herbs verses fresh herbs; each has its merits.
Dried herbs have a lot more concentration of flavor than fresh. Here is why. As all the water evaporates while it has been drying, the oil is left behind in the dried leaf. The flavor is in the oil. The now dried leaf, has an entirely different appearance and flavor. Dried herbs are perfect to use in dishes that are going to be cooking for a while. As the herb slowly rehydrates in the cooking liquid, it plumps up and releases its concentrated oil into the cooking liquid. In that process the oil is offering flavor to any other ingredient which is absorbing the liquid. Therefore, the longer your dish cooks, the more flavor is infused. If you are using a dried herb in a marinade or a dish you will be cooking for a short period of time, grind up the herb in your hand before adding it. You will be able to smell the herb as you do this. It brings the oils on the inside, out. This crushing of the herb makes the leaves smaller so they are quicker to re-hydrate, and the oils, now released, will start flavoring the dish much quicker.
Fresh herbs have a much more subtle taste; a fresh taste. Fresh herbs add a light, fragrant lift to a dish. The flavor delivered in fresh herbs diffuses quickly. All you need to do is tear up a leaf to prove that.
Basil and tomato is a classic pairing of herb and fresh produce. The combo is hard to beat. It’s a taste treat delight. Tearing up a few fresh basil leaves and sprinkling them over tomatoes really changes the game.
This is Ricky’s TOMATO SALAD. For this picture we used heirloom tomatoes that we bought at a local farmer’s market. What a feast for the eyes! You can wow the crowd with this one! It couldn’t be easier to make, yet the flavor packs a wallop. Fresh basil is one of the reasons for all that flavor.
Caprese salad is a classic, made with fresh sliced tomato, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella cheese, and drizzled with olive oil. This three ingredient match up of basil, tomato and mozzarella has recently become a very popular flavor profile for many dishes.
Classic Italian Caprese salad. Ricky made this when garden fresh tomatoes and fresh basil were in season and abundant. All that is left to do is drizzle some olive oil over the top, add salt and pepper and savor the goodness of summer on a plate!
Pesto is another classic use of fresh basil. You do not use pesto in a dish that is going to cook for a while. Pesto is used to add a bright, fresh, flavorful taste. When basil is in season, watch for it being sold in large bunches in your produce section, or better yet, your local farmers market or farm stand. When you get it home, put the basil in a vase or class of water, so you can savor the aroma. The bright green leaves are a pretty addition to your kitchen, even in a jelly jar. Or you can wrap the stems in dampened paper towel and put the whole bunch in a small plastic bag, leaving a little of the bag left unsealed so air can circulate keeping it from mildewing. Put it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Whether the basil is in water or in the refrigerator, the leaves are like cut flowers and will stay fresh for quite some time if you supply them moisture. During that time you can pick the leaves off when you want to use them. When the basil leaves have wilted, but not browned, preserve them. Don’t waste unused fresh herbs. One way to preserve herbs is to dry them, but you can also freeze them.
You can preserve the fresh basil taste by making frozen cubes of olive oil and chopped fresh basil leaves. Ricky told me his Aunt Dot made her fresh basil cubes with salt pork. Ricky’s parents were old world Italians, and his family is chock full of unbelievable cooks. But in my mind, all are second to Ricky’s mother, Tess. I couldn’t get my fill of her cooking, especially her Italian gravy with meatballs and sausages. That was a thorn in the side of Maureen and Ricky’s baby sister, Karen. She used to get pretty pissed off that she had to have gravy and pasta, again, just because I was there. And Karen wasn’t silent in her objection. She had no problem loudly reminding her mother and I of her feelings on the subject, at the dinner table. But Tess liked nothing more than feeding someone their favorite meal, and as long as she kept it coming, Karen’s tantrums weren’t sending me home! Pass the parmesan cheese please. ? Ricky comes by his cooking skills naturally. Now, getting back to the subject at hand; since I have never used salt pork to make the cubes, I am going to stick with showing you how to make them with olive oil.
Start by picking the basil leaves from the stem and put them on a cutting board. Don’t worry about using some of the stem. The whole plant is edible. Pour some olive oil in a cup or small bowl. Start with about a half cup or so. You can add oil later if you need to. The amount of oil used will depend on how much basil you are cutting. The cut basil leaves should be just barely submerged in olive oil before they get put in the ice cube tray. That way you get the biggest bang for the buck in fresh basil flavor, per cube.
The tool on the left side of the cutting board is made to cut herbs. The roller that you see is a series of blades. I am not one to buy gadgets, I am happy to stick with my trusty knife, but my mother was. She referred to her kitchen gadgets as her “handy dandies” and this is one of them.
Whether you have a gadget or use a knife, chop the basil leaves into fairly small pieces. Put the chopped leaves in olive oil. The cut basil should be submerged in oil.
Add more oil as you need it. Better to have too little oil than too much. If you have a lot more oil than basil, you have to use more cubes to get the fresh basil flavor, which in turn adds more olive oil. Your dish may not need that extra olive oil.
Spoon the oil and basil mix into an ice cube tray
Here is how the cubes will look before you put them in the freezer. Add water to any cube slots that are empty if you don’t have enough basil/oil mix to fill the whole tray.
This is what the cubes will look like when they are frozen. Now they are ready to pop out of the tray and store in the freezer.
The oil basil cubes are out of the tray and ready to put in a freezer bag to store until I want to use them. As you can see, they are defrosting quickly. I put them in the bowl only to take the picture. Otherwise I would have just transferred them to the freezer bag.
When you want to add fresh basil taste to a sauce, soup or stew, just toss a couple of cubes in before the end of the cook time. Thawed, you can use them in a salad too.
When you have put the frozen cubes in the freezer bag, you should get as much air out of the bag as possible. I have a cheap, easy way to “vacuum pack” things for the freezer. I close the bag almost shut, but leave a small space open for a bendy straw, which I use to suck the air out of the bag until it has collapsed around the item being frozen. Then I take the straw out and quickly seal up that little opening, letting as little air in as possible. It works! Use bags marked as freezer bags. They do a lot better at holding back freezer burn than a plastic storage bag.
If you are really in a pinch for time and the basil leaves are wilting, put the whole, fresh, leaves in a freezer bag, flatten all the air out, freeze them and pull out the leaves as you need them when cooking. They will often clump together, but breaking off a piece is just as good as using a leaf. They freeze very well and they can be stored this way for a long time.
Are you beginning to see why we are so fond of basil? Fresh, beautiful, delicious, fragrant, versatile, economical; what’s not to love?