Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Cilantro cupcakes?? Sous-titre: Cleaning out the fridge before vacay



Summer means fresh produce and fragrant fresh herbs. But it also means planning when shopping because I don't want to over buy and then have things rot in my fridge if I go away for several days.

From my next several posts you will see that I am taking an Ontario tour to see my friends and family. What that means is that my man friend will have to fend for himself in terms of meals. I tried to pump him full of vegetables before I left, but didn't get the chance to use all the yummy veggies that I bought from Russo's (a great family-owned and operated market in Watertown). Knowing that all the remaining vegetables would be left to increase the ethylene concentration in my fridge and thus begin the decomposition process, I thought I would experiment with freezing herbs!

Doing a quick google search gave me varying opinions on the tastiness of frozen cilantro. Many people said that it works well but others said that the herb is best served fresh and gets black and yucky if frozen. Seeing as the cilantro left in my fridge would be going to waste anyway, I thought I'd give it a shot and deal with the consequences later. I figured it couldn't be terrible because most sources said that the frozen cilantro would be mushy but could be used in sauces. This sounded not unlike the Recaito, which is a Goya product, that I've added to many stewy type meals.

Here is my cilantro washed and happy on the chopping board prior to pulverization.



I put the herbs in a bowl, snipped coarsely with my kitchen shears. Then I added the juice of a fresh lime, some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then, the mixture went into a silicone mini cupcake tray that I purchased at my beloved store, Target! Popped them in the freezer and when I get back from my Canadian holiday I'll let you know how it turns out!

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