Preserving the Summer Bounty (Non-Canning methods)

Cafe Society
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I basically know about the typical process of canning, what I’m looking for are a few different ways to preserve some of the veggies and herbs that we now have in abundance for the winter months ahead.

Specifically:

1.) Red Bell Peppers. I’d love to know how to preserve them by making my own Roasted Red Peppers in olive oil.

2.) Cayenne Peppers. I’d love to know the best way to dry them.

3.) Basil and fresh leafy herbs. How best to dry/preserve them?

4.) Waxier, more thick and leathery-leaved herbs like Rosemary and Sage. Are they preserved the same way?

5.) Is there any way to preserve the flavor of fresh cilantro? I’ve tried a number of things with cilantro and it seems the flavor/aroma comes from something that is only present in fresh leaves.

6.) How can I make my own sun-dried tomatoes?

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I’ve had decent luck freezing fresh cilantro. Clean whole stalks/leaves, and make sure they are relatively dry before putting them in a ziplock bag, getting the air squeezed out (I always used a straw), and freezing them. If you leave them wet, they become a freezer-burned mess. If not, you do get a pretty good flavor.

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Here’s a link that talks about freezing basil. I had always been told that blanching is required.

I make pesto ice cubes; that is to say, I prepare a pesto sauce, then spoon it into ice cube trays. When frozen, I transfer the cubes to a freezer bag. I can then take one or two out when a recipe calls for pesto.

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In general…

You can dry chile peppers by hanging them on a string (just like the strings you see used as decorations). Use a large needle & strong thread. Run the thread through the chile stems, tie occasional knots to keep them spaced apart, when you get a good bunch on a string, either tie it off and add a loop for hanging, or tie them in a circle for hanging.

You can hang herbs to dry - tie them in small bunches by the stem end with thread/string and hang them up until dry.

You can also lay them out on a cookie sheet, wire rack, screen, or whatever else you have handy until they’re dry. Just keep them in a thin, single layer so they have plenty of air around them. They’ll dry faster on a rack or screen because they’ve got air all around.

You can do this will all kinds of herbs, the thicker ones just take longer to dry.

You can also freeze herbs rather than drying them. Lay them out on a sheet like you’re going to dry them, but put them in the freezer instead. Once they’re frozen, you can put them in a ziplock. This might work better if you strip the stems first - I haven’t messed with it much. We usually dry ours and store them still on the stem.

I assume that “sun-dried tomatoes” are the same thing as tomatoes dehydrated in the sun, just as you can do for any other fruit. Clean 'em up, slice 'em up fairly thin, put 'em on a screen in the sun and wait for 'em to dry. With tomatoes, I’d think you’d want to peel & seed them, or at least seed them. A cheesecloth or similar cover is good, to keep bugs off. You can use a dehydrator instead of sun - IME a dehydrator is faster. I’ve never done comparisons, so I don’t know if there’s any noticeable difference in taste.

We can’t get cilantro to grow, but I know that purchased dried cilantro is nasty.

I just recently tried roasted red peppers in oil - damn! I’d love to know how to make these yummy things.

Also “garlic oil”. I’ll have to look at it when I get home - it’s a locally made product that doesn’t seem to really have oil in it (low-cal, no-fat on the label) that’s incredibly yummy. It’s a worcestershire-shaped bottle with an asparagus stalk & garlic cloves floating in it.

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I realize this isn’t quite what you were looking for, re: roasted peppers in oil but this also sounds like a good way to use your peppers:

ROASTED RED PEPPER OIL
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained

DIRECTIONS:
Place the olive oil and roasted red peppers in a blender, and blend until almost smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer lined with a double thickness of cheese cloth. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 24 hours before serving.

We’ve got lots of peppers and I just got a food processor for my B-day so I will definitely try this one.

I recall also seeing a similar recipe using Basil and oil, and straining the mixture to take out the pieces left over. Made a beautiful green colored oil to use on breads and pastas…yum!!

Great ideas in this thread so far!

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I have small and medium size plum shaped tomatoes. A lot of them. With more on the way. I don’t know the names of them, but I can only eat so many before I become completely turned off by them.

Can someone please post a simple, basic preservation method. Even if there’s a way to jazz them up a bit, I’d appreciate that, too.

Thanks.

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I have a dehydrator like this one. It kicks ass. (Shop around, though – I paid $50 for mine at London Bugs, and can’t imagine how anyone has the gall to ask $200USD+ for one.)

I love it, love it, love it. I’m sure if you’re more Martha than me, you can get more benefit out of it. I mainly use it to make “soup mix” from garden produce that would otherwise go to waste. Peppers, carrots and celery get diced and thrown in one cannister. Onions and hot peppers are dried seperately, and on the back porch, thank-you-very-much. Basil, rosemary, thyme, mint – they all dry very quickly. (Low temps for these or you lose flavour.)

A lot of the local shops offer big ol’ $1 bags of fruits and veggies that are less-than-pristine. (Bruised or broken.) I regularly snap these up and dry 'em for later use. Let me tell you, those $1 bags of apples (which would be useless without the dehydrator, unless you were making pie) provide more than a dollar’s worth of goodness. It’s not just the convenience of having dried apple chunks for snacking and making apple-and-cinnamon oatmeal – on an apple-drying day, the whole house smells like the most wonderful place on earth. Better than potpourri any day.

The only time I was ever disappointed was when I tried to make fruit leather with with fresh strawberries. (And pear.) I followed a recipe I got off the 'net, and the result was a bit too funky for me. I’m not sure that I like fruit leather, anyway. The commercial stuff seems nasty to me. I guess I thought that home-made fruit-leather would suck less, somehow. :smiley:

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A few years ago a friend made pesto butter. Unsalted butter, fresh basil food processor. when fully mixed, reform into usable portions and freeze, then when you want a little Pesto, there it is. Yummy.
I’ll check back in a bit. I have some books from Yankee Magazine about old fashion ways to preserve stuff.

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They were easier to find than I thought they might be. We have three “Forgotten Art of Making Old Fashioned …” Books

  1. Jellies, Jams Preserves, Conserves, Marmalades, Butters, Honeys and Leathers

  2. Pickles, Relishes, Chutneys, Sauces, Catsups, Mincemeats, Beverages and Syrups

3.Growing, Gardening Cooking and preserving Herbs

The last one even has recipes for making cosmetics, soaps, dyes, candles polishes, and cleansers.

You said no canning but freezing? Here’s:

“Grandmother’s Red Pepper Relish”
24 sweet red peppers, seeded (8 cups)
7 medium sized onions
3 Cups vinegar
3 cups sugar
2 Tbs pickling salt
Cut the peppers and onions in half, lengthwise and grind them, reserving the juices
In a saucepan combine the all the ingredients, including the vegetable juice. Simmer 30 minutes stirring frequently. Either process in sterile jars for 10 minutes or freeze in small containers.

Casey1505 Jazzing up… Do you like Pico de Gallo?

Chop about 3 cups of tomatoes, & 3 cups onion
to about the size of Chex cereal
1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped (add more if you like, we use a lot)
1 tsps salt add more if necessary to taste
the juice of one lime
one (more or less) serano peper diced very fine.
Toss together, let stand for for two to three hours in refrigerator, to mingle the flavors. toss again serve with chips , a bottle of Dos equis XX beer with a wedge of lime in the neck.
( I have a great recipe for guacamole too.) :cool:

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I routinely freeze red bell peppers. Every now and then, they’re cheap, so I buy several. I cut them up into short strips. I put them in zippy sandwich bags, flattened out to one layer deep. It works out to roughly one pepper to one bag. I put all the bags into a bigger freezer bag to prevent freezer burn and aroma leakage.

I just froze a dozen banana peppers from my garden yesterday.

Fresh herbs can be frozen on a tray, then dumped into a bag.

Coarse chopped tomatoes freeze nicely in zippy bags.

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I second the basil --> pesto -> ice cube trays suggestion.

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Make herbed vinegars… Oil is another possibility but there is a poular belief that it can lead to botchulism, so I will not endorse that but rather refer you to this [URL=http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbsOils.htm]site.

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