dillyicious: home drying fresh dill in the microwave in 4 minutes

All too often, I reach into the vegetable drawer for that lovely bunch of fresh dill, pull out the plastic bag, and find a mushy, blackened slime fit for only the compost heap. Finally, finally, my timing was right, and I was able to stash several tablespoons full of freshly dried dill in my herb tin. And it took perhaps a half an hour, start to finish.

Here's how:

Remove your bunch of dill, and pinch off only the brightly colored, clean stems.

From the stems, pinch off only the wavy, delicate fronds, leaving the stems behind.

Place a paper towel on a large plate, and arrange the dill on top of the paper towel. Place another paper towel on top of the dill fronds.

As I have a ten year old microwave, you'll have to experiment with timing. The dill fronds took four minutes to dry in my ancient microwave.

Remove the top paper towel, and let sit for a few minutes.

Crumble the dill between your fingers - if it isn't totally dry, try another minute or two.

Let the dill completely dry, and crumble until fine, discarding the little twigs.

Place in an air-tight tin or bottle. As you see above, the dill I got from the health food store is quite faded, while the home dried is bright green.

Use for any number of recipes, from french potato salad, to leek and potato soup, to one pot chicken and vegetables, or simply stirred into creme fraiche with salt and pepper for a dip.