Pattypan's Pantry Projects - Long Keeping Mint Sauce, Mint Vinegar and Mint Butter

During the summer months I love to grow fresh herbs and then put them up in various formats.  One of the yearly makes for me is making the most of the mint harvest.  OH is mad about mint sauce and eats it with everything therefore I make as much as I can for the pantry shelf.  It is lovely to have something on the pantry shelf that you have grown and then turned into a shelf preserve.  It tastes good too.  If you grow your own mint and it takes over then the long keeping mint sauce, mint vinegar and mint butter are all good ways of using up this precious herb which can be a bit of a thug.

Long Keeping Mint Sauce

First of all you need to cut a good couple of bunches of your mint out of the garden.  Wash the mint and then dry with a tea towel.  Take the leaves off the stem until all the mint leaves have been removed.  You only need to use the mint leaves for these preserves but you can set aside the mint stalks and let them dry out and use them in kindling bundles for lighting a fire either in the house or a fire pit.  Anyway I digress. At this point you can either chop with a knife, a Mezzaluna, an electric herb chopper, your food processor so that all the mint is chopped up finely.  Have at least a couple of jars sterilized by normal preserving methods, i.e. baby sterilizing tablets and hot water, a hot oven, dishwasher, saucepan on the stove.  However you do this you need clean jars with vinegar proof lids..

Decant the chopped mint into the jar or jars three quarters full and then add previously boiled vinegar which has been cooled down.  Top up the jar to the top.  The mint needs covering with vinegar at all times.  I  boil the vinegar as it can form a mother in a jar (the scoby that produces the vinegar) and this just makes sure that you have the mint and the vinegar.  I normally start out with about a pint of vinegar.  Sometimes this is too much and another not enough so just have to prepare more if required.  Seal the jars with vinegar proof covers.  This will keep on a pantry shelf for at least a year.  You can use malt vinegar, but more often or not I use white wine vinegar.

Now that you have made the mint sauce you need to make some mint vinegar to thin out the preserved mint leaves. I make this as I find it a bit nicer than just malt vinegar - however malt vinegar, or white wine vinegar can be used.  I will tell you how to present the vinegar for use at the table at the end.

Mint Vinegar

Take a large glass jar with a vinegar proof lid.  Make sure it is sterilized.  Then take a bottle of your chosen vinegar I have used white wine vinegar.  You need to boil this then leave to cool.  Decant it into your sterilized jar and then add a small bunch of mint leaves.  Make sure that these are submerged in the vinegar and add extra vinegar should this be required.  Leave to steep for a couple of weeks.  Then take out the mint leaves and strain the vinegar through fine muslin.  Decant into suitable bottles with suitable vinegar proof closures. 

To use the Preserved Mint Sauce

Take a couple of teaspoons of the chopped mint and decant into a small container or an egg-cup is ideal.  Add half a teaspoon of sugar.  Now add a little vinegar filling the egg cup to about half way.   Stir and put to one side  (I usually do this about an hour before serving up).  Use to add piquancy to roast lamb.  You can also serve up like this using fresh mint if you have access to it.

Mint Butter

Take a block of butter and let it come to room temperature.  Whilst the butter is coming to temperature take some fresh mint (a small bunch) and wash it  Dry with a tea towel and then take the leaves off of the stem.  Chop the mint finely either with a knife on a board, in a herb chopper, with a Mezzaluna or a food processor until finely chopped. 

Take the butter once acclimatized and with a fork mash the butter up in a small bowl.  Add the mint and then disperse this equally through the butter.  Put in the fridge to harden. Once this is done, place the butter out of a bowl onto some baking parchment or greaseproof paper and form a rough oblong about 4 inch maximum long and about an inch and a half wide.  Keeping the butter in the greaseproof roll the butter until it forms a log.  You can keep the butter wrapped in greaseproof as a roll; however wrap in a bag and store in a freezer. Just chop off in slices when you need to use it.  Alternatively you can cut into slices or store in individual ice cube trays and just decant however many tubs you require for a serving.

Goes well with steak and with new potatoes and also with Asparagus and fish.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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