It is good to add fresh dill to almost any vegetable side dish, salad and soup. It gives dishes a unique aroma and whet the appetite. And it also contains a lot of vitamins and nutrients.
But there are times when dill is needed, but there is no fresh bunch in the refrigerator and there is no time to run to the store. And winter dill grown in greenhouses does not have that amazing summer aroma. Then the dill harvested from the summer helps out.
In this article, I want to share with you the features of harvesting dill for the winter. There are 3 main ways - drying, salting and freezing. Let's take a closer look at each of the methods.
Hope you find this information useful.
Step by step recipe:
Dill for harvesting is best harvested in spring or in the first half of summer. During this period, it contains the most vitamins, microelements and it is very aromatic.
For harvesting dill, you need to take not very young, but not the one that has already thrown out the umbrellas for flowering. It should be a deep, dark green color.
1. DIED DRYING
There are 3 main ways to prepare dill for the winter. The first way is to dry the dill.
Dill is dried in small bunches. They are tied with thread and hung. Dill must be dried in the shade. Dill is dried from one to two weeks. It depends on the air temperature and humidity.
Dried dill should not turn yellow. If it turns yellow, then the dill has not been dried properly and no nutrients have been preserved in it.
The dried dill must be removed and stored in a storage container. It can be a cardboard box, paper bag, glass jar, etc., as long as the dill does not get dusty.
2. FILLING DIED
The second way to prepare dill is salting.
Salting dill is very simple. First, rinse the dill in running water, put it on a towel and let it dry for 2-3 hours. Finely chop the dried dill.
For 1 kg of chopped dill, 1 kg of table salt is taken. Dill and salt must be grated, folded into clean dry jars and closed with a lid.
Salted dill is stored in a cold place - in the refrigerator or basement.
3. FREEZING DILL
And the third way to prepare dill for the winter is freezing.
I like this method the most. Dill remains fragrant, green, and all useful substances are preserved in it as much as possible.
As with salting, we free the dill from thick stems, leaving only fragrant leaves. Wash the dill, dry it on towels for several hours.
Finely chop the dried dill with a knife.
We put the chopped dill in a container in which it will be stored in the freezer.
This can be a regular plastic bag, food container, or a glass jar with a lid.
It is very convenient to freeze dill in bags. It is not necessary to put a lot of dill in the bag, but to form small sausages. It is very convenient to lay them out in the freezer. They don't take up much space.
When the dill is frozen, you can easily cut off the desired portion of the dill and add it to your soup or other dish.
If you will be using plastic containers for freezing dill, be sure to take those that are intended for freezing.
On the bottom of the containers, the temperature range is written at which they can be used.
If the container is not designed for freezing food, then it may simply burst.
Freezing dill in a bag and plastic container is very convenient, but there is one drawback. Both the bag and the container let the dill smell out. And all products that are stored in the freezer will also smell like dill.
Therefore, I prefer to freeze dill only in glass jars with a metal screw cap. Ordinary nylon caps also let the smell of dill through.
When we fill a glass jar with dill, we try to tamp it as best we can. Dill compresses well and saves space.
We cover the jar with a metal lid and, in this form, send it to the freezer for storage.
Dill harvested for the winter in all three ways is perfectly stored for a whole year until the next harvest.
Video recipe
The recipe is taken from my culinary site. gotovimop.com