| 6/18/2007 |
HIGH & DRY
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Sometimes I'm a dork. I know. I know. Try and contain your astonishment.
I have a couple herb pots growing basil and oregano. The basil will get a lot of usage being picked fresh from the plant. The oregano I don't have a lot of recipes calling for it used fresh. So this requires drying.
If you are a fan of Good Eats you might recall an episode where Alton Brown dried his own herbs MacGuyver style but placing them in between a couple of air filter and strapping them to a box fan. Maybe it was just TV magic, but I believe he said in 24 hours the herbs were dried. Employing a similar method I snipped a few sprigs of my oregano, bundled them together and strapped them to the front of my floor fan. I presumed the reason for the air filters in AB's method was to stopped the soon-to-be dried leaves from being wind blown around the room. I took the chance without one.
Let the 24 hours begin!
I did notice a slightly herby scent in the apartment which was fine with me. Occasionally I'd put the fan on oscillate and watch the herbs dance around. (See above: Dork) I would check the dryness of the herbs every so often to find that they weren't dry at all. They were just as supple as when I first snipped them. Hrm...
Twenty-four hours goes by and the only leaves that dried were two very small ones that were right next to the fan itself. Clearly this would take forever using my method.
Retreating to the Internet and all it's wisdom I found a site that said you could microwave your herbs for minute intervals to dry them. Seemed reasonable. But be warned... this might result in the herbs catching fire which the Internet cautions is bad for your microwave.
Home-dried herbs... Appliance combustion... Hrm...
I tried it. I put a few sprigs in the between two paper towels and let them 'dry cook' for a minute. There was quite a bit of sizzling and crackling, but no flames. I checked them. They were certainly hot, but not what I would call 'dry'. Another minute... More sizzling and crackling. It definitely smelled like oregano in my apartment now. A little smoke after the second go around. Figuring this was a sign of bad things to come I would forego a third minute. I like my microwaves not on fire.
So I went back to the 'old fashioned method' of binding and hanging the herbs to dry. I'm sure I'll get a raised eyebrows from Mark when he sees my handiwork in the pantry.Labels: food, funny |
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I posted this @ 6/18/2007 09:10:00 AM.............Need a link?..........
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