The 97th episode of Good Eats was all about fresh herbs, how to use them, and how to preserve them. Growing fresh herbs in the garden is one of my favorite things, as I love being able to spontaneously clip what I need for a summer salad or cocktail. What are Alton’s favorite herbs? He listed his top 10 in the episode: chives, mint, thyme, dill, rosemary, oregano, basil, tarragon, sage, and parsley. Personally, I’d put cilantro on my top 10 list, but that’s just me.
To store fresh herbs in the kitchen, Alton recommends that you lay them out on paper towels, spritz them with some water, roll them up, and then roll them again in plastic wrap. He maintains that the crisper drawer is too cold for herbs, so you should actually store them in the top of the refrigerator. To store long-stemmed herbs like cilantro or parsley, cut an inch or so off of their stems and stand them in fresh water in the refrigerator.
When fresh herb season is coming to a close, you can always dry your surplus. To do this, dip the herbs in boiling water for five seconds and then plunge them into ice water. Run the herbs through a salad spinner and lay them between two new furnace filters. Strap the furnace filters to a box fan and let them dry for 12 hours. Flip the filters over and let the second side of the herbs dry for an additional 12 hours. Once the herbs are dry, rub them between your hands to easily remove the leaves from the stems.
Finally, if you prefer to freeze herbs for later use, you can portion them out and freeze them as ice cubes. After a quick thaw, your herbs are ready to use. In addition to all of his herb tips, Alton did also include two herb recipes in this episode, the first of which is for tarragon chive vinegar.
Tarragon Chive Vinegar
To make Alton’s tarragon chive vinegar, begin by putting 1 t of household bleach in two quarts of water. Swirl 12 sprigs each of fresh tarragon and fresh chives in the bleach water for about five seconds, and then move them to a large bowl of clean water to rinse. The bleach is used to kill any spores that could be on your fresh herbs.
While your herbs rinse in the clean water, heat 6 C of white wine vinegar to 190 degrees in a saucepan.
Place your clean herbs in a lidded container and pour the hot vinegar over them. Place the lid on the container and let it sit in a cool room for two weeks.
After two weeks, repeat the bleach water/rinse process with 12 sprigs each of fresh chives and tarragon.
Divide the fresh herbs among glass bottles, and pour the vinegar through a cheesecloth-lined funnel over the fresh herbs; discard the original steeping herbs.
Vinegar strained and poured over fresh herbs in bottles.
Store the vinegar in the refrigerator for five-six months or at room temperature for five-six weeks. Though this vinegar takes a couple weeks to steep, it is super easy and looks really pretty in the bottle. Hello, gift idea! So far, we have used this vinegar on salads and vegetables and we really like it. I would not be able to identify the flavor of chives in this vinegar, as tarragon is the predominant flavor. I was nervous that the tarragon flavor would be too intense, but the vinegar is actually very well-balanced and adds only a subtle tarragon flavor. This is a fun, easy project and you could certainly try it with other fresh herbs.
Parsley Salad
The other recipe in this episode is for a parsley salad. Alton seems to feel that parsley is a very underappreciated herb that is often viewed only as a garnish. Here, though, Alton makes parsley the star. For the salad dressing, whisk in a bowl 2 T lemon juice, 2 T lemon zest, 1 t honey, a pinch of Kosher salt, 2 t of toasted sesame oil, and 6 T walnut oil.
Fold four ounces of cleaned/sorted parsley leaves into the dressing, along with 3 T toasted sesame seeds.
Let the salad sit for 30 minutes before serving. Since only two of us were eating this salad, I made half a recipe, which gave us each a proper side salad portion.
Bowl of parsley salad.
I liked this salad more than I thought I would. Parsley leaves are a little tougher/chewier than other greens, but the texture really did not bother me. I found the dressing to be an amazing compliment to the parsley flavor. The dressing had quite a lemony punch, but also had roasted and nutty flavors from the oils. If you, too, are biased against parsley, give this recipe a go. This recipe truly did make me realize that parsley has more uses than I give it credit for. Plus, this finally gives a way to use up that last half-bunch of parsley (does anyone ever actually finish a full bunch of parsley before it spoils?), rather than throwing it in the trash.
Allison Cooks Alton's Good Eats 