Guess what happens tomorrow??? I start back to school!!!! TOMORROW! Do you believe it? August 1st! There is still July in this week, it's still summer! But because I do start back tomorrow, I've switched into fall mode. The idea of putting back my herbs to use this winter has begun. One of the things I plan to do with my cooking this fall and winter is to cook more simply. The idea of little meat, fish, or poultry, some grains, some veggies, a little seasoning, dinner. Beautiful. Not so much recipes as much as cooking, does that make sense? I get so inspired by watching Jamie Oliver in his Cooking at Home Show. His recipes are almost just ideas, concepts, fresh ingredients, with some lovely herbs a toss of olive oil, salt and pepper. I love it. So, anyway, to make a long story short (I know, too late), I wanted to make some herbal vinegars. Vinegars to be used to simply drizzle over cooked meats or veggies.
One of my favorite preserving books is The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving: Over 300 Recipes to Use Year-Round
. What I love about this book is that it is indeed small-batch. This is important because I am not one to sit in the kitchen canning 20 pounds of tomatoes. I did that once, and it's probably not ever going to happen again. Plus this book has good ideas for vinegars and oils and syrups and other useful condiments. One of the vinegars that sounded intriguing to me was the Honey Herb Vinegar. This sounded interesting, plus I had all the ingredients all ready, which is always a plus!
Honey Herb Vinegar
Makes 2 cups
2 cups red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
½ cup fresh thyme or basil (I used thyme)
Bring the vinegar to a boil and stir in the honey, until it dissolves.
Crush or bruise the herbs (I used a muddler, such fun). Place herbs in a clean jar, and pour the vinegar over them. Cover and steep for 2 weeks or longer, tasting every so often. (She says in a sunny location, but I decided to just store it in my pantry).
When the flavor is how you want it, strain vinegar and pour into a clean jar with a tight fitting lid. Store the vinegar in the refrigerator.
Now, this has only been steeping a week, so I can't give a complete review of the finished product. But I have to say the little taste that I had today was really good. I imagine that you could use this similar to how you would use a good balsamic vinegar. This will be my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, created by Kalyn's Kitchen , and hosted this week by Kelly from Sounding My Barbaric Gulp!
Grace says
well this is super interesting. honey. thyme. (definitely thyme.) vinegar. yeah, yeah, it just might work! 🙂
meanwhile, have fun at school! i hope to never return--twenty years of some sort of organized education is enough for me. 🙂
dmbolus says
I love it. I am a huge fan of honey, herbs, and red wine vinegar. I am going to be making the red wine vinegar next but already have plans for herbs (Mexican tarragon) and the white wine vinegar I have made at home this season. Thank you for the the comments and this post. Truly delightful.
Paula says
Hope you have a great first day back at school, and best wishes to you with some of the student challenges you mentioned in a post back in the Spring.
This vinegar sounds so good. I've never tasted an herb vinegar, and now I'm intrigued.
Hope you are able to keep posting once school resumes. Daily. 🙂 I look forward to all your recipes, and your occasional sewing projects!
Neen says
Oh man, school so soon?? You're school district must have gotten out in April to be starting to early! I like the idea of cooking simply, with the seasons. I find that I do that reasonably well when there isn't this abundance of everything, like now. I'll be intrigued to see how you use your new honey herb vinegar, because I never have any imagination for when or how to use stuff like that.
JennDZ - The Leftover Queen says
YUM! I love herbed vinegars - this looks great and would be delicious with your salads that we all need to eat more of!
Sorry about the school thing. I wouldn't be happy either!
noble pig says
School? What? Your scaring me that summer is gone, I feel it has barely started.
This looks wonderful too, great idea.
Mary Coleman says
Ok, this has got to stop. I just bought that book last weekend. I suppose I should tell you that I also bought some of those cute little salad servers from your previous post last spring when we were in Florida.
Totally separated at birth.
Kalyn says
That's horrible to have to go back to school on August 1. Is this year round school? My first day back is August 18 and I'm dreading it.
Love the idea of making your own herb vinegar. I bet it's delicious.
Marjie says
Lord love a duck! School tomorrow? Outrageous! Let our friend Pam stay home! She needs more time to create wonderful herbed vinegars and such things!