Saving basil

[cdh]

I went down to my garden yesterday with a pair of scissors and pruned my basil pretty aggressively. I brought the trimmings up to the kitchen, washed them, de-stemmed them, blanched them, and ran them through the food processor with a little bit of olive oil.

I poured the chopped leaves and oil into an ice cube tray and froze it into a bunch of cubes. I popped the cubes out of the tray and put them into a ziploc freezer bag and squeezed as much air out as I could.

Now I'd like any advice on how to make the cubes last longer and better in the freezer. My idea is that a layer of water ice surrounding the cubes would give them some protection from the ravages of a winter in the freezer... now the question is how to get it there?

Anybody have any good suggestions for enrobing a frozen cube of basil with water ice?

Any other ideas for protecting the cubes?

[Shalmanese]

Does basil not usually survive freezing for 3 months? It seems to me that if it's in a ziplock bag, its not going to pick up funky odours and it's not going to oxodise since it's in oil so what else can go wrong with it?

[cdh]

Well... I thought that funky freezer odors got absorbed into oils quicker than other things... judging by some duck fat that spent a year hidden behind other frozen things, fats do certainly absorb freezer funk. And ziploc bags are not proof against freezer funk, I've found. So I'm looking to build as many barricades between my basil and what's out there as possible.

[mrbigjas]

three words: foodsaver vacuum thingy

[fifi]

More likely, you are going to have basil flavored ice cream. The biggest problem with storing the herbs in oil is that they can diffuse to other foods, not the other way around. I use the half cup wide mouth mason jars. Nothing can diffuse in our out of the glass or metal lid. Being an oil base that doesn't get ice cube hard, it is even easy enough to spoon out what you need and put it back. And, if you want to use the whole half cup, the wide mouth allows you to easily plop it out.

Those jars are great for demi-glace also.

Since you already have cubes, just thaw them out and put the stuff in the jars. I wouldn't even think of immersing the cubes in water. How would you get one out without it being a real pain, not to mention a mess?

[KarenS]

Also, duck fat stored for a year is not a good idea. Fresh basil should be stored in fat (and for not more then 6 months). That is where dried herbs came from!

[tomweir]

I had good luck simply whizzing the leaves in a little olive oil and putting them in flat ziplocks (doubled). The basil-oil mix was essentially a solid sheet and I simply snapped off a chunk as I needed it.

I did use it all by November... so that would have been three months or so. It was great all the way, nice to get those aromas in late Autumn...

[HKDave]

I had good luck simply whizzing the leaves in a little olive oil and putting them in flat ziplocks (doubled).  The basil-oil mix was essentially a solid sheet and I simply snapped off a chunk as I needed it.

I've been doing it tomweir's way. For me, basil lasts at least 6 months this way. It's easy to use as needed, and I haven't had a problem with flavour transfer. If you're getting freezer funk, there may be another problem. Make sure it's cold enough in there (no more than 0 degrees F, or -18 C, use a thermometer rather than trusting the built-in one) and maybe check that you don't have any more duck fat 'science experiments' in the back!

If the basil's already frozen, I wouldn't thaw and re-freeze, because that seems to take something out of the flavour. Just put the cubes in a jar, wrapped in clingfilm if you don't want them to stick together.

[Ruth]

three words: foodsaver vacuum thingy

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That is the answer to so many problems that everyone who cooks should have one of these.

I too saved my basil chopped in olive oil last year and will be doing it again in a couple of weeks. I popped out the little cubes, vacuumed and froze them. They remained flavorful and emerald green until late Spring when the new crop began to arrive.