Mint: Uses & Storage

[David Ross]

Gobs and gobs of chimmichurri with mint. Freeze it and you'll have a wonderful condiment for your lamb, pork, chicken and beef roasts and steaks.

[Yajna Patni]

If you have English ancestry, and I believe you do, you can put it in everything. It is good with potatoes, carrots and peas, it is delicious as tea, mint sauce, ice cream, and mojitos. I like it chopped in salad, in tabouli, on tomatoes with a little olive oil salt and lemon juice. um... almost everywhere. I do not know how to preserve it though.

[Kouign Aman]

Wash, puree, freeze in 1T icecubes or blobs. When frozen, put the frozen lumps in your preferred container for long term storage.

Add a lump when making lemonade.

I have to try that salad recipe. I have only a little mint, but an entire bottle of black vinegar that needs a purpose in life now that its job as a guest's reminder of home is done.

[Andrew Fenton]

How about a watermelon-mint-feta salad? I, too, have a mint forest in my backyard; I was planning to bring a bowl of that salad to a cookout this weekend.

[Beebs]

Mojitos and juleps. A lot of them.

[Katie Meadow]

Mint chutney? Uses a LOT of mint, and hardly worth the labor of cleaning the food processor in small quantities. Almost any Indian cookbook has a recipe for it, and there are plenty on line as well. Fantastic with Indian vegetable dishes or with lamb. I can't locate the recipe I used to make, but I always loved it with cauliflower or potato curries. Freezes well in modest sized portions.

[Jenni]

Agreed with mint chutney! Make it fresh every day and eat lots of it with everything!

[TeakettleSlim]

You can also make a mint-infused simple syrup and can it-- same basic procedure as for jams-- use at will for sweetening lemonade or other drinks, thin it out with fruit of your choice and turn it into a sorbet, etc.

[maggiethecat]

Thanks for all the terrific ideas, y'all. I'm for sure gonna make some mint chutney tonight. Eldereno: I've got outta control lemon balm too. Maybe we could extend this topic to include lemon balm ideas.

[Twyst]

My CSA is overloading me with mint and basil as well. Im going the mojito route with most of it

I made the lamb meatballs from Keller's Ad Hoc last night and they were delicious, so if you have that book give them a try, they are easy and fantastic and will help you get rid of a little more mint.

[teagal]

Float a sprig of mint or the lemon balm in a glass of ice water. Gives it a nice flavor.

[maggiethecat]

I made mint chutney tonight and I'm outta control excited that something so easy can be so whack your head awesome. I used this recipe:Try it.

[cookingofjoy]

This doesn't use quite as much mint as the chutney, but it's my favorite fruit salad. I swap out the cherries for strawberries since I'm not super keen on pitting.

[KatieLoeb]

Thanks for the mint chutney recipe. Will give that a whirl soon. Once you make the mint syrup you can make instant mojitos of whatever flavor you want. I made strawberry ones last weekend and they were delicious! Rum +mint syrup +fresh lime juice +fruit of your choice +a few ice cubes buzzed up in the blender and you're done. Best Big Girl Smoothies ever!

[Beebs]

There's a mint feature in our local paper today:

Minty!

I think couscous salad will be on the dinner list this weekend!

[SobaAddict70]

Use in pasta also.

I know it sounds really strange but the flavor combination of anchovies and mint is a winner in my book. Goes well with zucchini- (another perennial garden dilemma) and tomato-based sauces.

[Jen Rehm]

try adding a hand full of chopped mint sauteed greens like swiss chard, kale and spinach just before you pull them off the heat. It adds a whole new depth of flavor.

j

[Shalmanese]

Molly Steven's braising cookbook has a recipe for lamb shanks which are brined with a giant bunch of mint and then cooked with more mint.

[jedovaty]

Hi!

 

For future reference, does anyone have tips on how best to use fresh mint in baking?

 

In theory this sounded great: add bunch of finely chopped mint to a basic shortbread cookie dough.  Dip in a mint-chocolate glaze based on coconut milk.  The result tasted like an experiment gone wrong.

 

The shortbread cookies were actually okay, except that we used earthbalance sticks instead of butter (dairy allergy in family).  The mint flavor wasn't overly strong while eating the cookie, and instead had a generic herbal-leaf flavor to it.  As consumption concludes, there's a bit of mint in the background.  I'm not sure using more would have been helpful.

 

The glaze was made by simmering a lot of hand-crushed mint in coconut milk, then pouring this through a strainer over dark chocolate, and as it melted, add a half-plop of corn syrup for added gloss.  The aroma of mint simmering in coconut milk is surprisingly awful.

 

Hmmm.  Thanks for any ideas

[KennethT]

Interesting... I guess that's a reason why I've never seen coconut milk and mint together anywhere in SE Asia that I've visited - especially in places where both coconut milk and mint use are common.  I've always thought that the best use of mint would be to steep it in something like a tea - like you did in the coconut milk.  But I don't know if I'd crush it next time - mint oxidizes really quickly and the by product is not pleasant.  Maybe try it again but without crushing it?  Also, I don't know if I'd simmer it either.  Get the liquid hot, take it off the heat, then add the mint and let it infuse as the mixture cools.

[Jim D.]

26 minutes ago, jedovaty said:

The mint flavor wasn't overly strong while eating the cookie, and instead had a generic herbal-leaf flavor to it.  As consumption concludes, there's a bit of mint in the background.  I'm not sure using more would have been helpful.

 

 

I've had the same experience.  Cooked mint is not a pleasant experience.  Peter Greweling has a lemon mint recipe that calls for using fresh mint and heating it with cream.  The mint is intended to be left in the finished ganache.  I found that I had to use more mint than called for to get any sort of mint flavor at all, and it still is muted.  This is not a bad thing when another flavor (in this case, lemon) is present, and it all ends up being delicious.  If you want a stronger, truer mint flavor, then you might look at mint oil.

[pastrygirl]

44 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

If you want a stronger, truer mint flavor, then you might look at mint oil.

 

+1

 

I don't really like fresh mint cooked into things, but I like pure peppermint oil as a flavor.  Bonus, you can add a few drops to chocolate and temper it to have a solid coating rather than a soft glaze (if you want the cookies to stay crisp or keep longer)

 

But if you want to continue experimenting with fresh mint, I'd try making a mint sugar to go in the cookie dough by combining whole leaves with sugar and letting them sit for a day until the essential oil is sucked out and flavors the sugar.  Maybe a cold infusion for the coconut milk as well, mix and chill together overnight then strain and add to chocolate.  Heating can change volatile flavors.

[teonzo]

Beware there are many mint varieties, so the flavor strength and how it changes with heat depends on this.

For the cookies, I would say the best thing is to grind the mint leaves (put them whole) with enough sugar in a spice grinder.

For the infusion, I have zero experience about using mint with cocnonut. I would avoid crushing mint leaves that are going in a hot infusion. You can add them whole and leave them in infusion for some time, or you can add them whole, wait for 1 minute, then blitz with an immersion blender and strain. If you want to coat the cookies in chocolate then you can make an infusion of mint leaves in cocoa butter, then add it to the chocolate.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[shain]

I find cooked mint quite awful. Anything longer or hotter than a steep in hot water (as in making a tisana) will develop unpleasant flavor. I used mint to flavor basbousa and other cakes by steeping it in sugar syrup and dousing the baked cakes. But even briefly stipped, it doesn't taste like raw mint, rather like mint tea. Dried mint is often used for cooking in middle eastern, african and other cuisines. Usually added towards the end of cooking, it does not develop the same unpleasant notes.

[jedovaty]

Thank you all very much for your feedback, this has been very educational!!

 

I wonder what would happen if mint were steeped in oil, whether cold or fried like a chili oil or sage in butter.  But after experiencing the ripe aroma of mint simmering in coconut milk, not sure I'm going to take this any further.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  👨‍🔬