Dill is probably one of the few spicy plants that fits almost any dish. It is put in a salad, main dishes, and no soup is complete without this aromatic herb.
Dill is abundant in summer, but in winter it is very lacking on the dinner table! But hostesses find a way out. They dill salted, dried and frozen.
Dill can be frozen in several ways. Which one is better, each housewife decides independently, because each of these methods has its advantages.
Several ways to freeze dill for the winter
Before proceeding to freeze dill, you need to know a few rules:
- Dill intended for freezing should be fresh, juicy, without yellowness and obvious signs of damage, both mechanical and due to the activity of insects.
- For frosting, only young dill is used, which still has thin stems and no flower stalks, because otherwise, the dill will smell of cumin and will be similar to the one used for canning.
- Dill, like any other greens, must be grown in an ecologically clean area.
And now it's about how to freeze.
Method 1
- Fresh dill stalks are sorted out, removing yellowed and withered leaves.
- Dill cut the bottom coarse parts of the stems without greens.
- Greens are washed under running water and spread on a cotton towel to dry. From above greens get wet with a paper towel. Also, greens can be put in a dry clean jar (as a bouquet) and leave for some time. Then the upper part of the beam will dry out well, and drops of water from the stems will roll into the jar.
- The well-dried greens are crushed and left to stand still for a while for the final drying, as the released juice from the slices again moisturizes the dill. Greenery should be kind of fluffed so that it dries out faster, but at the same time preventing it from fading.
- Prepare small plastic bags or plastic containers. It is desirable that they were of such a volume that they fit the amount of greenery at a time of use. This will give you the opportunity to not get the same bag several times from the freezer.
- In the packages fold the chopped dill - very loose, not priminaya. Knotted or closed and put in the freezer for pre-freezing.
- When the dill is frozen, if possible, all the air is released from the bags, lightly pressing the bag down with the hand, tied up again and put into the freezer.
- If plastic containers are used for freezing, then chopped and dried greens are laid loose in a container, closed and immediately put into the freezer.
Such dill will be stored for a very long time. In the process of cooking it is enough to take one bag of greens and add at the very end of cooking.
Method 2
Some hostesses freeze whole green dill - sprigs.
- For this, the dill twigs are washed and dried as in the first embodiment.
- Then divided into small bundles (at one time).
- Well-dried dill stalks are put, without crushing, into sachets, which are then folded with a straw (along the stalks), simultaneously releasing air from the bag.
- Clean in freezer for freezing.
Before using such dill, it needs to be defrosted slightly - in just a few minutes - and cut as intended by prescription. Such a dill is taken out of the freezer just before use, as if it is out of the freezer for a long time, it becomes watery and loses its healthy and palatable qualities.
Method 3
Dill can be frozen in ice cubes.
- Dill washed, shake off excess water.
- For freezing in ice cubes, only gentle leaves of dill are used, since thickened stems occupy a lot of space in the ice freezing cells. Therefore, the leaves are cut off, and the bare stems are dried. After all, they can also be completely frozen, and then used to flavor soups and broths. These branches are placed during cooking meat or fish, and then removed.
- Dill slices are very finely cut and tightly folded into ice-freezing tins, leaving little room for water.
- Dill pour cold water.
- Dough slices are placed in the freezer for freezing. Such ice cubes with dill can be left directly in the molds, or after the final freezing, you can take them out of the molds, put them in a plastic bag (preferably two) and tie them well so that the flavor of the dill does not evaporate.
These dill cubes are very convenient to use for flavoring dishes. Cubes, without defrosting, add at the very end of cooking.
Method 4
By the same principle, you can freeze the herbs with butter.
- Washed dill is free from stalks.
- Then the dill is ground.
- Mix with melted butter.
- Spread into small plastic containers, for example, from under the yogurt, and freeze.
But such dill cannot be stored for a long time, and therefore it should be used in the very first place. For example, for making sauce.
All these methods help to preserve all the nutritional and beneficial properties in frozen greens, as well as its original flavor.
