The Way We Herb

As soon as we get a warm sunny afternoon (seriously, any day now) I am going to plant my own fresh herb garden on our terrace (and you can be sure I'll post about it so I get credit when I do). But until then, I am stuck buying big bunches of herbs from the grocery store. And despite my intense, irrational love of parsley, even I have a hard time using it all up before it gets wilty and starts to rot.

What's a girl to do? Buy new bunches every few days? Fine, if you're made out of money. Switch to dried herbs? That should work if you recently had your taste buds amputated. Give up on herbs all together? Blasphemy!

Luckily for all of us, there are strategies that will help made those herbs last longer. Here's what you've gotta do:

1) Trim the stems and then untie the herbs. Submerge the herbs in cool water to rinse off any dirt, bugs or pesticides.

2) Run through a salad spinner to dry, or use paper towels to pat dry- make sure you remove as much of the moisture as possible- extra water will cause the herbs to deteriorate faster.

3. Put all of the herbs in a Ziplock™ bag lined with clean paper towels, and seal shut. Keep in the crisper drawer or toward the front of the fridge, so they don't get too cold. When you need them, just snip off some sprigs using clean kitchen shears.

This method is the same for all the great fresh herbs- parsley, basil, oregano, cilantro (that's coriander to you crazy Brits), or chervil. It's the next-freshest thing from straight from the garden.