I tend to think of sage as a wintery herb – probably because of its prominence in turkey, gravy and stuffing – and rarely use it in my summer cooking, but I have such and abundance in the garden right now, I set out to find out what to do about all this sage.

A few general points to start …

• good with citrus
• good with fatty foods; aids digestion
• sage tea can be used medicinally for sore throats, coughs and to strengthen lungs
• works well with other herbs such as rosemary, thyme
• fresh sage is less bitter than dried sage, both have a strong flavour and should be used sparingly.
• better cooked than raw
• freezing sage intensifies flavour

Preserving
Drying
I emptied out my spice rack last week, with the intention of a thorough cleaning and replacing of all the herbs that had been there for who knows how long, so it seemed appropriate that my first sage mission was drying.

I decided to test the effectiveness of my dehydrator vs. microwave. The dehydrator took less than one hour, but the results were less than successful … the sage turned an awful gray colour that, while smelling and tasting just fine, looked like …uh zombie brains, yeah that’s it … ZOMBIE brains! The microwave turned out fresh, perfect, green looking sage in under two minutes. (Thanks Cristyn & Xan!!!) The other advantage of the nuker is that you don’t have sort the leaves like I did for the dehydrator (the small ones fall through the cracks in the tray)

Note to self: ~40 g fresh sage, fills container perfectly.

Freezing
I’ve seen lots of suggestions to freeze sage leaves. No chopping/water/icecube trays, just freeze whole fresh leaves. I’ve also tried this, with the hope that whole leaves can be plucked from the freezer for use in potato gnocchi (more on that later)

Other
Fridge? One other suggestion I found was to put leaves better layers of salt and keep them in the fridge. This apparently can keep leaves fresh for months. Sorry folks … not trying this one – not enough room in my fridge for container of a sage

Vinegar? I could make sage vinegar, but by husband is a devote vinegar-hater, so much that I have to sneak it into even his favourite salad dressing, so I just can’t be bothered.

Herb butter? My plan for today is to make some herb butter logs for the freezer. I can use them with fresh bread/rolls during the winter or to top vegetables.

Garlic Sage – 1/2c butter, 1 tbsp chopped sage, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 salt (or not)

Herb & Shallot – 1/2 cup, 1 minced shallot, 2 tsp minced sage, 2 tsp minced rosemary

Oil? Pour oil over fresh leaves, and store in fridge up to 3 weeks. Use oil for flavouring

Recipes
Deep Fried Sage Leaves – I have to admit that I thought this was crazy … until I tried it! Sage is really yummy fried … not your everyday recipe for sure, but everyone should try it once.

Potato Gnocchi with Sage Butter – probably the best way I think of to use sage, yep better than turkey & stuffing even! Homemade pasta(it’s easy, you can do it) with browned butter and crunchy whole sage leaves … mmmmm.

Apricot & Sage Cookies – haven’t tried this yet, but will.

Herbed Vegetables – (recipe scribble on a piece of paper, not sure what the source was?) Julienne 2 zucchini, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 yellow pepper. Saute in oil until tender, add 1 minced clove of garlic, 4 julienne sage leaves. Cook just until garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste.

Sage Drizzle for Vegetables – whisk 2 Tbsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 tsp dried sage, salt and pepper. Microwave 30 seconds. Pour over steamed vegetables.

Photos
1. Hod of fresh picked thyme
2. Thyme leaves; half of this batch was dried in the dehydrator, half in microwave. Another 40 g was frozen.
3. Results from the dehydrator, very gray in colour.
4. Results from the microwave, nice and green.
5. Just enough to fill my herb jar!