Hey, salut it's Alex.
So I'm a big, big fan of using herbs while cooking. Once you start using them,
there's no turning back.
Problem is it can be a bit tricky sometimes to get your hands on the fresh stuff.
And that is where dry herbs come into play.
Recently I got this in the mail and
today we're going to fill up the first six drawers
First idea is to go and get those dried herbs at your regular big supermarket.
Trust me, It is not always the most efficient solution.
First, it's usually quite expensive.
Second, they don't have so much choice.
And the third they don't have the best freshness.
Unlike of course, ethnic grocery store.
Oh oui
Thyme, bay leaf, oregano,
savory, sage, rosemary.
These are the essential six dried herbs you should have in your pantry.
Alex, Alex, Alex, it can't possibly be right.
Where is basil, where is parsley, where is mint?
Parsley is missing.
He knows nothing.
There is no mistake here. I did everything on purpose.
I don't think that any of those watery, you know
Fresh, tender, fragile herbs should be dried classically the oven way.
If you ever had basil and dried basil the loss of flavour is tremendous.
Coming up.
To dry herbs you need to get the water out.
And this is the science moment.
No wait, there is more coming.
Problem is that it also extracting lots of the flavour from it because it's done by heating the leaf.
So a very simple but super efficient way to get flavor from dry herbs
is to pick up the one that have the less water content initially.
That's why I mainly choose herbs coming from Mediterranean regions.
Because of hotter climates, they are used to the heat and the sun,
and so their drying process doesn't damage them that much.
It's tasting time.
I mean smelling times.
Thyme is always fresh,
citrusy, a bit lemony,
A bit pungent as well.
Food pairing.
Also a cool trick is to encrust those dried leaves within the crust of any savory pie.
It's a game changer.
Bay leaf.
To fully appreciate bay leaf, you have to crush it.
It smells a bit cinnamony, menthol, cola, eucalyptus.
For me, bay leaves always smell a bit like
Christmas on their own.
Food pairing.
A cool trick is to drop the leaf when you're boiling pasta or rice.
Oregano.
That is a strong smell probably a bit more
pizza
pungent, a bit more
Pizza
PIZZA
PI- and of course we can use these strengths and just pair that beautiful oregano with
powerful flavour.
Food pairing.
Good thing to do with dried oregano is just to drop a few pinches
In a bottle of olive oil and to let it infuse along with a bit of chili.
Best homemade pizza oil.
Next, rosemary.
Super powerful. It has that fresh, but also very woody aromas.
We usually don't eat the leaves you just infuse the dish with it.
Food pairing.
A bit like bay leaves as well,
Rosemary is brilliant in dessert like apricot and rosemary jam.
And now, sage.
The smell is quite warm and round,
The taste is a bit more pungent than pecan.
A good thing to do with dried sage is just to infuse it in hot butter.
Food pairing.
To be honest, I only use sage in savory recipes
But if you guys know any sweet recipe that would use sage
Let me know in the comments.
And the last dried herb of my selection is savory.
Savory has this very pungent and super peppery taste.
In fact in the past, it was used sometimes as a replacement for pepper.
Food pairing.
Green fava beans soup with bacon and savory. That's a good one.
I need to put everything here into airproof, waterproof, opaque containers.
For that I'm going to be using the best solution ever which is
Ziploc bags.
800 grams of product here.
I guess I'm ready to set this up somewhere.
The problem is
Okay, that's it. I hope you enjoyed this video, and if you did then
Please give it a like thumbs up and share that over all your social media.
You know how it works spread it like butter.
Please do consider using dried herbs within your cooking.
They are useful, inexpensive, and also they bring so much complexity.
So of course my selection of herbs is very personal.
So would you fancy a herb that is not sadly within this video?
Then please share that in the comments down below.
Last people, click subscribe because I make new videos every week,
and it's always always about the food.
It's not always about the recipe. You need to get smarter in the kitchen in order to cook better.
Take care stay curious. Bye bye, salut.