Sorry - still busy and even more so with the Olympics now on the telly! Have had loads of things at work to accomplish and home has been a whirlwind of activity which I cannot discuss just yet but soon! Nothing bad just cautious before I say it is a fait accompli.
So I have lately been finding herbs reduced - parsley, lemon thyme, lemon grass stalks, coriander. As I've said before I go in spurts of something all the time then never. I know weird! So what to do with them and those lovely big bunches of them?
Well I did a bit of a test on them as the one I had gotten I couldn't use all of the parsley I got reduced so chopped it up and put into a small baggie I had from home - they are half the size of a sandwich bag - so cute and great for those little some thing's that are too big for a container or larger baggie. Froze the parsley and used in a sauce a few weeks later.
Verdict? Not a lot of difference in taste (it had lost a bit of it's punch but not enough that I didn't know it was parsley by it's taste) and excellent for when you want a bit of something to add to that sauce. Now I've tried a few different ones and thought I'd report back what ones seems to freeze well. Coriander, parsley, lemon grass stalks (for those lovely doodle noodles as I call them!), and lemon thyme so far all have worked out quite well. Chiles not so great and mint really did lose it's zing (not my words as I hate it but J loves it and he could hardly taste it in the final product).
I know I've seen all these fresh herbs in the freezer section and I must admit that I looked at them but they stayed there for the price they wanted. And I've never understood the garlic thing - it's really not that hard to peel and it is nothing like the 'real' thing. So why bother?
I have thought of trying to capture the flavour in an ice cube tray but that will have to wait until I have a bigger freeze - cannot spare the room for that at the moment. Unlike American fridges, British ones are in a whole other class!
And when I say reduced herbs - I'm talking less than 25p for a huge bunch of corriander or parsley - otherwise it's not worth my time. I'm keen to try others but obviously only when found reduced so it's a wait and see but hope this is useful.
Next posting will be the bed - sorry - haven't as yet downloaded the pictures from the camera nor the ones from the Olympic torch that went past my work a few weeks ago. Saw the opening ceremonies and really liked it.
