Hello dear readers.  I’m so sorry to have abandoned you in recent weeks.  I have been dreadfully ill with an extreme stomach bug and the headache that accompanied it left me unable to look at a computer screen.  I am slowly recovering and slowly getting back to eating.  It takes a lot to put me off my food but I ate barely anything for over a week!

Anyhoo, you will remember that Scotherbs were kind enough to send me a whole heap of complimentary herbs – you can read all about it in my last blog post here.  Well I decided I wasn’t going to manage to use them all before they started to wilt, so I chopped up what I had left and froze them.  This is a great idea if you have a sudden glut of anything, especially if you freeze it in manageable portion sizes, so you can just defrost it as required.  Actually you don’t even need to defrost them if using in cooking – just chuck them in and allow them to melt – easy!

First up was the remaining basil and coriander.  I put a little water in the base of an icecube tray, packed in about a tablespoon of the chopped herbs, topped up with more water and froze.

This is the coriander ice cubes.  I love how they keep their colour this way and I’ll be able to just chuck one into a dish near the end of cooking to get that fresh herby zing.

I hadn’t used any of the oregano yet, so I got lots of oregano icecubes.  These will be great to chuck into a pasta sauce during cooking.

I also had some Lemon Thyme left but wanted to do something a little different with it.  I knew I would be most likey to use it with fish, so I made a herb butter and froze it too.

I simply chopped up the Lemon Thyme, mixed it with butter and then packed it into the icecube tray.  I have already used a few of these when baking fish.  I had some whole Lemon Sole, which I baked in a roasting tin with a glass of white wine and a Lemon Thyme butter cube popped on top of each fish.  I didn’t even defrost the butter cubes – what could be simpler?  After cooking, I poured the remaining buttery cooking liquor and the Lemon Thyme into a jug to serve as a sauce.  It was delicious poured over boiled new potatoes.

Vohn

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