A Quick Dry for Fresh Herbs

It's supposed to freeze hard tonight, so I just zipped out to my garden to snip a few last stems of thyme. I know I can cover my herbs and I probably will, but in case I forget I wanted to grab that last little bit of summer. I seem to use a lot of thyme in my cooking and my baking, and the thyme from the garden seems to have a rich flavor that cannot be matched with grocery-store thyme. It flavors everything from hamburger and turkey soups, meatloaf and fish, to fried apples & onions and lavender-thyme shortbread.

I have tried growing a few herbs indoors for culinary snipping during the winter months, but either the light is too low in our little log farmhouse, or I have a black thumb when it comes to house plants. The herbs never make it to December.

A long time ago I discovered the quick and easy beauty of drying herbs in my microwave. It works best with small handfuls of herbs so I dry them periodically throughout the growing season rather than all at once - bigger batches end up drying in the oven. One of the things I really like about microwave drying is that the color of the herbs is retained as well as the flavor and the bright green reminds me of the fresh herbs I pick from the summer garden.

Here's how to dry fresh herbs in the microwave:

Try to dry the herbs soon after picking to retain the most color and flavor. If necessary, rinse and refrigerate the leaves on the stems for a few hours till you can get to them. You will need:

Plain white or natural paper towels or a clean pure linen or cotton
Microwave
Storage jars such as canning jars or a bowl and reclosable plastic bags

1. Pick a handful or two of fresh herbs. Rinse them and pat dry.
2. Smaller-leaved herbs such as thyme can be dried right on the stem. Larger leaves such as mint dry better if they are removed from the stem first and placed in a single layer on the towel. Rosemary leaves can be dried on the stems and removed later.
3. Make sure the herbs are placed in a single layer - or as close to that as you can manage - and cover with another towel or fold the fabric over the top of the herbs. Place the packet in the microwave.
4. Microwave it for approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute on high, watching the packet carefully. Check the herbs for dryness and remove any dry pieces to a bowl or open canning jar; you might need to place the remaining leaves or heavier herbs onto another paper towel and microwave them again for 20-45 seconds. You may need to repeat that again, depending on the dryness of the herbs.
5. *** When drying herbs past the first time in the microwave, be especially careful about the amount of time they are heated. Rosemary oil seems to flash suddenly and you might have a little bonfire in your microwave if you're not careful. This is experience speaking... I'm just saying....

6. Stir them with your fingers when they have cooled and re-microwave for 10-20 seconds if the leaves/stems feel cool or damp.
7. As the herbs feel dry, remove them from the towel or cloth and place them in a bowl or canning jar and allow them to sit at room temperature for a few hours to a day before capping tightly in a jar or plastic bag.
8. Store in a dark, cool, dry place such as an spice drawer or pantry cupboard.
9. Enjoy them!!

Let me know if you'd like a recipe or two using the thyme I dried today.