- Tomatoes (all kinds)
- Onions
- Basil
- Potatoes (all kinds)
This week, I also want to share my basil storing "techniques:"
I personally have been having a heck of a time trying to figure out what to do with the mountains of basil Michael brings home. I decided to take matters into my own hands and have been breaking the leaves off of the stems and "drying" them on a baking sheet in our oven's warming tray on the lowest setting. If you do not have a warming tray, I would think you could set your oven on low (apprx. 200 degrees) to obtain the same effect. When the basil is dried out, I crumple the dried leaves over the baking tray and then scoop them into a mason jar for "fresh" dried basil (that is more fragrant -- and probably correspondingly tastier) than the bland dried basil from the grocery store.
Another pointer that I have heard, but admittedly have not used, is making pesto with the basil and then placing the pesto into ice cube trays and freezing them. Each pesto cube is good for one serving of pasta. (I will double-check with my Italiano capo on the serving size).
With both of these basil-saving techniques, my eyes light up at the sight of basil, basil and more basil!!
Based on the fact that all of the above veggies are generally outside the refrigerator section of the produce aisle, I will say they do not need to be refrigerated. I am positive onions and potatoes do not, however not completely sure about basil and tomatoes. I imagine no, but they stay longer if you do. Personally, I refrigerate it all because there's more free space in my fridge than my counters and cabinets! Ah, the beauty of city living :-)
ReplyDeleteMark has just installed a new pull-out mechanism in our drawer that allows us to store our onions and potatoes in a cooler, drier place than they were being stored before (ie on our window sill - literally the opposite of cool and dry!). It's awesome. Even though I come from the Judy Protas school of "refrigerate everything always", he has overruled me on that score and has convinced me that tomatoes last longer/ripen better (or something like that) on the counter! As for basil, we are inundated as well and simply can't keep up with it. I will definitely take the drying idea to heart and get going with our next batch! Fresh pesto it the best, we've definitely done that (by "we" I mean "he").
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