How To-sday - Making Rosemary Oil

Rosemary is a symbol of friendship, loyalty, and remembrance, which makes it a very special gift for a friend, especially those close to your heart.  This is a great housewarming gift but it must be kept in the refrigerator.  Although there are those that say this can be kept for up to 3 months.  I recommend keeping it only for 3 weeks. I've given you some recipes so you will have not trouble using it up!

You'll need:

• 1 cup fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 cup or so of good quality olive oil or grape seed oil
• A sterilized wide mouth pint jar

How to make it:

1. Let the fresh rosemary leaves wilt slightly, then strip from the stems and crush them with a rolling pin.
   
2. Then crush them with a rolling pin.
   
3. Put the leaves in a saucepan with oil and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
   
4. Remove from heat and pour into a canning jar or other heat resistant glass container and let cool to room temperature. Top off with any extra olive oil if needed.
   
5. Taste the oil and if the flavor is not strong enough repeat the process with fresh herbs.
6. If the flavor is strong enough you can strain the oil though a paper or muslin filter and press the herbs to extract all the liquid.
   
7. Pour in a sterilized bottle, seal, label and decorate.
   

Keep refrigerated. 

Use your Oil

Serve with sliced baguette for dipping. or use in these great recipes. It is great in an Italian dressing and used with vinegar as a beef marinade.  Experiment to discover other uses of the tasty oil. Rosemary is a good treatment for arthritis too, so put a few Tablespoons in a bath and soak.

 

Rosemary Bread

2 eggs

½ cup walnuts

¾ cup white wine or apple juice

Vegetable cooking spray

1 Tbls. lemon zest

¾ cup sugar

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup rosemary oil

¼ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly coat a loaf pan with vegetable cooking spray. Stir together flour, sugar, walnuts, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in bowl. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, wine, and rosemary oil, then stir into dry ingredients. Transfer the batter into pan and smooth the surface. Bake 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

10 to 20 small red skin or yukon gold potatoes

10 cloves garlic minced (we love garlic so feel free to use less)

2 tablespoons rosemary oil

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

salt

Scrub potatoes well, and toss into a baking dish with the garlic and the oil. Roll them around so they are well coated. Season generously with salt and pepper and sprinkle on the rosemary and vinegar. Roast in oven 450 degrees F for at least one hour until potatoes are golden and cooked through.

Harvest time How To on Air Drying Herbs

Herbs are tremendously useful in so many ways. So it is late summer now, your herb garden has been planted, watered, weeded, and you’ve watched the plants grow and thrive. Now it’s time to learn how to use those wonderful herbs and it requires only a little bit of work. The first step in using the results of your garden is to harvest them.

Harvesting an herb does not mean removing the entire plant, rather cutting or rimming 2/3 to 3/4 of the plants height. An herb’s essential oils can be dispersed by the wind and the heat, and on extremely wet days, fewer oils are produced by the plants. The best time to harvest your herbs is during mid to late summer, on a calm and dry morning. Harvest them right before the flowers open in the morning and just after the dew has dried from the leaves.  Yes i did say 2/3 to 3/4 they will grow back, I promise and they will be happier if you cut them often instead of waiting until October.

Using fresh herbs right out of your garden is a delight. Make sure to clean the herbs before using them fresh in recipes. To clean fresh herbs, fill a bowl with cool water and place the herbs in the bowl. For a larger quantity, use the cleaned kitchen sink. Add about two tablespoons of salt to the water. Any insects present on the herbs will be driven away by the salt in the water, without damaging the plant. Rinse carefully and allow them to air dry.  You can speed up this drying by  placing the herbs in a salad spinner.

Of course, herbs don’t have to be used at the time they are picked. They can be preserved for later use in three ways by: drying, freezing, or preserving them in salt, butter or vinegar.


I have posted ways to make and use butters and vinegar before, so I will let you look at those posts:



http://herbal-life-style.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-tues-day-making-herbal-vinegar.html

http://herbal-life-style.blogspot.com/2011/08/compound-herb-butters-summers-special.html


I will talk about some other drying methods in the coming weeks as well, but I thought I would start with the easiest -- air drying.  And I have some great photos from this year’s harvesting. This is a very simple way to preserve herbs. It works best with sturdy herbs like sage, lavender, thyme, savory, mints, rosemary and oregano.

Pick herbs in the morning, after dew has dried, but before the heat of the day sets in. Rinse them and pat them dry. Then, try one of these air-drying methods, all of which take about two to three weeks:

• Remove leaves from the bottom of the stem, and bunch four to six stems together loosely. Bundle with a rubber band or string and hang them, upside down, out of direct sunlight for two to three weeks.

• Spread the herbs out on a loosely on a window screen or woven basket tray and dry them flat.

• Put herbs into brown paper bags and loosely tie or fold over the top.  This is especially good for thyme and chives.

When the herbs crumble to the touch, you can pack the leaves into jars or seal them in plastic bags. Be careful not to crush them yet. Store them whole so that they’ll keep more of their flavorful oils. Keep them from direct sunlight so they’ll maintain their flavor for several months.

Steps to air drying:

Trim the stems until all the herbs in a bundle are about the same length. Place 4 to 6 stems together and bundle with a rubber band.  Some people like string, but since the stems shrink during the drying process, I am more fond of rubber bands which will contract and keep the herbs off the floor.

fresh savory and sage ready to be hung

I also like the fact that the last loop of the band can be placed over the hanging bar and back over the stems to serve as a hanger.  And when I want to remove the herbs.  I just tug on the bundle and the rubber band snaps off the hanging rod.

 

Rubber band looped over rod

 Place the herbs in a dry dark area out of direct sunlight. and give them 48 hours to two weeks to dry.

Quick and easy drying rack using paper tube wire hangers

Once the herbs pass the "crumble test," they are done and can be stored until you are ready to use them in a sealed jar or container.  I place bundles whole in glass jars or zip seal bags until i am ready to strip the stems into my still room jars for use in blends.

 

Savory crumbling perfectly

Sage perfectly dry

When I dry sage, I like the use the leaves with the best color to make rubbed sage.  So I will sort through the leave and separate out the leaves I like.  I crumble them in my hand to a coarse consistency.

Then I place them on a paper towel and using the balls of my fingers rub in gentle circles until I create a clumping powder.  

There are those who run sage leaves in a blender or grinder to make rubbed sage, but I think this lets too much essential oil escape and I prefer the hand method.  It does not take any longer and you have no extra cleanup!

rubbed sage ready for bottling