Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 441 kcal | 125 kcal |
| Protein | 15.4 g | 4.4 g |
| Fat | 7.5 g | 2.1 g |
| saturated | 2.2 g | 0.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 59.5 g | 16.9 g |
| sugars | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fibre | 35.3 g | 10 g |
| Sodium | 88 mg | 25 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 650 g fresh marjoram sprigs
Instructions
- Do not strip marjoram. The leaves are tiny and slippery when wet, and picking them off by hand is twenty minutes you do not need to spend — the whole sprig goes on the tray, stem and all.
- Cut the sprigs in the morning once the dew has lifted, before the sun has had a chance to work on the plant. Warm sun costs the leaf the aromatic oil that is the whole reason for drying it.
- Rinse the sprigs briefly and shake them out over the sink, then leave them on a towel until nothing beads on the leaves. Marjoram catches very little water, and it dries off the surface in a few minutes.
- Lay the sprigs across a fine mesh insert in a loose, springy layer rather than packed flat. Air has to travel through them, and these sprigs are light enough for a fan to move about on an open tray.
- Dry at 40 °C for 6 hours. Nudge the tray at the halfway point and listen: finished marjoram rattles on its stems like something dry in a box.
- Take the trays out and leave them a few minutes before you handle the sprigs. Herbs always feel more finished while they are hot than they turn out to be once cool.
- Now strip them. Run a thumb and finger down each stem against the direction the leaves grow and they come away in one pass — this is the job that would have taken twenty minutes wet, and it takes seconds dry.
- Expect a little under a quarter of the fresh weight back, which is generous for a herb; a soft one like basil gives back about a twelfth. Keep the leaves whole for as long as you can and crush them into the pan instead of into the jar.
- Store in glass with the lid screwed down, in a cupboard rather than on the windowsill. Look for condensation after the first week — misted glass means some stem was still wet, and the jar goes back on the tray.
