Tuesday 23 April 2013

Preserving Lemongrass in Brine

Lemongrass, fresh and sweetly scented

Perfect for Stir fries, Curries and Jam.

Preserving Lemongrass

Where I live in the mid north coast of New South Wales lemon grass is a constant. 
It grows all year round, healthily and in abundance.  
Like a good extended family, it expands, grows and multiplies.  

 I notice our gorgeous Himalayan cat Chloe loves to chew the sharp grass edges, cleaning her teeth with a citrus flavour.  Lemongrass does have a unique scent which is appealing to animals as well as to us.

 

While we are lucky to have it growing abundantly, it can be handy at times, especially when you have limited time to prepare dinner, to have a jar of lemongrass already chopped in the fridge.

This is a simple and effective way to preserve the lemongrass.

Remove the green stems and only keep the white part of the lemongrass as this contains all of the flavour.
Roughly chop into 3cm lengths.


Then place into a food processor or blender and blend until finely chopped.



Place the lemongrass into a sterilised jar whilst the jar is still hot.
(To sterilise a jar place in the oven when cold and heat oven to 150 celsius, turn off and let sit 10 minutes.)


Make a brine with1 cup boiling water, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Mix all together and pour over the lemongrass making sure it is all covered with the liquid.

 

Seal, cool, then store in the fridge until required.



Use in curries, stir fries or savoury jams as required.

Buon appetito, please let me know if you found this post useful.  Cheers Merryn

5 comments:

  1. We love lemongrass here although it can get up to $2 a single stick! Clearly I'm living in the wrong part of the world! :P

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    1. You can grow it in a pot on your balcony, a big pot so it can multiply ... yes lemongrass is aromatic and gorgeous. $4 per bunch should be sufficient but you pay a premium for fruit and vegetables in the city :D

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  2. Hello, thank you for your helpful tip. Can you please tell me how long they keep for?

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  3. I just got 2 huge bunches of lemongrass for $2.10 USD (2.74 Australian). I'm going to brine half as stalks as opposed to paste and dry the other half. For the brine, I will add organic citric acid. It will act as a natural preservative (to extend shelf-life) and keep the lemongrass "lemony."

    Btw...Chloe is lovely!!!She looks like my Himalayan, Bubbles!

    Thanks!!!

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  4. Thanks so much for this recipe. Have wanted to do this for ages and couldn't find a recipe. Will definitely try this & when I have time will have a look at more on your site. Am an old Novocastrian now living in Adelaide. Funnily enough I keep a Bee Hive too.

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