Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 395 kcal | 112 kcal |
| Protein | 9.9 g | 2.8 g |
| Fat | 17.8 g | 5 g |
| saturated | 8.4 g | 2.4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 20.5 g | 5.8 g |
| sugars | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fibre | 42.5 g | 12 g |
| Sodium | 78 mg | 22 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 rosemary sprigs
Instructions
- Know before you start that this needs chopping or grinding afterwards. A whole dried rosemary needle stays as sharp as a pine needle no matter how long it cooks, and that is the one thing people get wrong with it.
- Take the sprigs in the morning once the dew has gone and before the sun is high on the bush. A rosemary plant makes far more than anyone uses fresh, so cut generously.
- Rinse them and shake them off, then leave them on a towel for a few minutes. Rosemary sheds water more readily than a soft-leaved herb, and there will not be much to wait for.
- The needles stay on the stem. Rosemary is woody enough that the stem finishes at close to the rate the needles do, which is not true of any other herb here.
- Lay the sprigs loosely on a fine mesh insert rather than packing them down. Air has to get between them, and even a woody sprig is light enough to be moved about by the fan on an open tray.
- Dry at 40 °C for 6 hours. From halfway, test both parts: a needle should snap rather than bend, and the stem should break rather than fold.
- Leave the tray to cool for ten minutes before you do anything with it. Warm herb reads as drier than it is, and a jar filled hot mists over.
- Strip the needles and chop or grind them, or keep whole sprigs back for anything slow-cooked that you will lift out again. About a third of the fresh weight comes back to you.
- Keep it in glass with a tight lid, away from the light. The check is a week later: mist on the inside means some stem was still holding water, and it goes back on a tray.
