Preserving Aromatic Herbs

My basil plant developed a problem, and I'm not even so sure what it was, unfortunately. Not the red spider mites, and not other plant illnesses I know of. Anyway, I was forced to cut quite a few of the stems right off, and I didn't want to dry the healthy leaves out, because the whole point of keeping fresh basil is to have, you know, fresh basil.

Throwing the healthy leaves out was also not an option, of course, so I made pesto with some of them, but there were more than I needed for that, so I decided to preserve them in this really nifty way I know: by making frozen oil-cubes.

This is a really great way of preserving fresh, aromatic herbs for a long time without much complication. You just chop the herbs up, place them in portions in an ice cube tray, and pour oil over them. Take a moment to let the herbs soak up the oil, and put the tray in the freezer. When it freezes over, you've got yourself wonderful little capsules of fresh aroma for whenever you decide to unfreeze them, which gives you a way longer shelf life than a regular oil infusion would have. This is also a great way to make fancy ice cubes with herbs such as mint or lemonbalm.

Fresh herbs can also be frozen as they are, without the oil, but they will lose much more moisture and develop ice crystals on the surface. Which is not a problem when you plan on adding them to soups, but not so great when you want them in your pasta sauce. As with all cooking techniques, it's best to know them and choose between them when appropriate.