(festive music)
- Hi, I'm Jerry James Stone.
In today's video, I'm gonna talk to you about
how to freeze and preserve fresh herbs using olive oil.
It's a really great method.
I think that you will find it just as easy and fun as I do.
So let's get to it.
(festive music)
Okay, so preserving herbs in the freezer
is one of the simplest ways to preserve them,
much easier than drying them.
Like it's really, really easy,
and with just a few little steps,
having the prep on this side
makes it really great for when you get around to cooking
because then you don't have to deal with it at that point.
That's why I like using the oil method,
because you can just put fresh herbs in the freezer
on their stem as they are
and then freeze them and use them that way,
but then you still have to chop 'em,
and also they tend to brown.
They don't last as long as using the oil method.
What's great about this method is that
just how easy it fits into cooking, right?
So usually when you're making something savory,
you start off with a little bit of olive oil,
possibly some butter, saute your garlic,
saute your onions, add in the fresh herbs.
So what you do is you just take one of the freezer cubes
and just toss them in.
The oil melts. You're good to go.
You already have your fresh herbs in there.
It's perfect.
So this method works really, really well
for those tougher herbs,
and so things like rosemary, thyme.
It's really wonderful on those tougher, tougher herbs.
While you can do it with the softer herbs
like basil or cilantro or parsley, it's possible.
I just don't necessarily recommend it.
I'm not saying don't do it, but just keep in mind
that it works really well with those rougher, tougher herbs.
They're gonna hold up in the freezer in the oil.
In fact, one of the benefits of this method is actually
it will infuse the oil while it's freezing.
When it comes to the softer herbs,
you can have a little degradation,
so just keep that in mind.
It's still possible to use.
I just want you to know that, what you're getting into
if you decided to use those herbs too.
So how do you do it?
Well, here's what I like to do.
First, you want to wash those herbs
and get them all nice and dry.
And then you can prep them using a couple of my hacks.
So for like rosemary, I like to use my fork method
for de-stemming the rosemary, and then just chop it up,
give it a nice mince.
Say you're using something like oregano.
You can use the colander for that one
'cause the fork is too big for that,
so use the colander to pull those leaves off.
You can chop them up too.
And then, when you get to making your freezer cubes,
the part that's important
is to think about how you actually use that herb.
So I see a lot of blogs that say, hey,
throw a tablespoon of rosemary in oil.
Well, not a lot of recipes are gonna use a full tablespoon
of rosemary 'cause it's really pungent.
So it just depends on how you actually cook with it.
You could do different measurements.
You just want to make sure that you write on the bag
what those measurements are, so you know in the future.
So I would recommend maybe doing
a half-teaspoon measurement in some cubes,
maybe a teaspoon in some, maybe a tablespoon in others,
just depending on how you actually cook with those herbs.
Now, what I'm gonna do,
just to make it difficult on myself,
is probably no surprise to you guys.
I'm gonna put my herbs in these little wonderful
Wonder Woman ice cubes that I have.
They're not as easy to get the cubes out of,
but I like them, so, you know, that's just me.
You should just use whatever's easiest for you.
So chop up the herbs, put them in the ice cube trays,
put in the oil just to top it off,
and put it in the freezer.
Leave it in the freezer at least overnight
and then just remove them from the trays
and put them in plastic bags and just date them
and then mark what they are
if you did separate measurements.
So like I said, this is a great method
for keeping you cooking, right?
You do all the prep work on a lazy Sunday,
and then when you actually get around to cooking,
you have less to do and you have fresh herbs
for making all those delicious healthy meals
that you've been trying to make
and have lots of excuses not to cook for.
So now you have no excuse.
That's one less thing that you have to do.
Super, super simple.
Like I said, just make sure
that you get the measurements down.
If you're gonna do half-teaspoons, teaspoons, tablespoons,
mark those bags and date the bags so you know.
They'll last in the freezer this way for about a year.
Super simple.
If you liked this recipe, give me a thumbs-up.
If you like to cook like I do,
I release new videos every single week.
And hey, if there's something that you want to see,
just drop a comment below.
I'm always looking for inspiration.
I'll see you guys next time.
(festive music)