Mamta how do you dry the leaves?

And at what point do you pick the leaves?

Thanks.

Liza

Hello Liza

For drying leaves, I buy 10-12 bunches or a whole box of methi bunches from the shop, when they are selling them ?3 for 2 bunches? . Home grown ones are not always enough, unless you have grown a huge plot full, but you can, if you have surplus. I would cut them when they are about 8-9 inches tall and full of leaves.

1. The I wash them 2-3 times, in sink full of cold water. This removes any traces of dirt, one of the problems with shop bought dry methi leaves (Kasoori methi).

2. Then I allow leaves to drain in a colander or the sink drainer and then a towel.

3. When they are free of water, I put them on a tray and bring them in to pick bunches of leaves while I am watching T-V (watching T-V is not a requirement ;-)! I remove all main stalks and bad leaves. Shop bought ones can have too many dry stalks and ?bad? leaves. Stalks become like tough fibres when you cook them.

4. After this, I simply spread the leaves on a newspaper, in my VERY HOT conservatory, on table tops. My conservatory is my work room, not a place to sit. It is built like a kitchen, with many cupboards and plenty of tops to spread it around. You can leave them to dry on a floor in you hottest room. Outside is not good, because it collects dust and wind blows them away as they dry.

Good luck

Mamta

Brilliant - I will definitely give it a go, but one or two more questions:

how dry should they be before storing away?

do you store them in jars or pop into the freezer

shop bought is ground quite small - how do you achieve this - do you chop it up after drying?

many thanks.

Hello Liza

1. They should be 'bone dry', crumbling if pressed.

2. You can store them in any plastic/glass container saved from other ingredients (I never throw away any jar/bottle that cane be re-used).

3. No need to freeze. Once dry, they will last a couple of years easily. Shop ones can be a few years old.

4. Do not break them small, leaves look good in curries and other dishes. they break a little during cooking anyway, but no need to powder them at all. Shop ones are small, because they are probably dried in big mounds and handling breaks them. Usually, you can still see the leaves, albiet broken up.

I have just come in from the garden, sowing some methi, coriander, beet, mooli, mixed salad leaves etc. Tomatoes and Indian marrows are looking good, as are grapes. It is fun gardening, isn't it :-)?

Mamta

My garden is just a mower job at the moment... one day (behind the list of many many things that need doing around the house) I'll get around to the garden and build myself a little section for herbs (at the moment they are cunningly built into a shelf on the back of the fence (all in little plastic troughs)

Steve