You can use them in cooking, Hank, or you can try drying them out and storing some too. If you've got that many, doesn't seem likely you'll be using a lot over time, so maybe bin some or ask the neighbours if they want any. You can use them in all sorts of things though - casseroles, bolognese sauce, stock, home made soups, stews, that sort of thing, though only one at a time...

Keep them in paper bags, not polythene.

Some herbs if you freeze will crumble while frozen, not sure anout bay
they are a staple ingredient in a bouquet garni used to flavour soups and stews
oh and pinned to a peeled onion with loves for savory white sauces

I doubt that bay would crumble when frozen Pam and Hank, this was not a silly question.

Hope it doesn't crumble when frozen - Hank, its important that you don't eat the bay leaf, or any fragments - they're sharp and aren't good for your digestive system, flavouring only, remove before serving.

Exactly!

Thanks guys, i was a bit worried about the replies but obviously I needn't have been.
I know exactly what to do with them now.

I've just remembered the very first time I had curry in an Indian restaurant a greta many years ago. There were these green leaves in it. Not being used to leaving anything on my plate I crunched through 3 before being told they shouldn't be eaten. A bit embarassed !

My spellcheckers on holiday....?

Lol Pam - hadn't noticed before you said.

Neither had I until I read it!

Oh dear, you obviously didn't suffer any ill effects then, Hank, you were lucky, they've been known to shred people's intestines. On the subject of Indian food, I try to always seek out the cardamom seeds in the rice, eugh, nothing worse than biting into one of those... though they are not dangerous.

Its coriander I dislike, for me it overwhelms everything....

I agree about cardamon Bamboo......I went to catering college ( I was 16 ....would have been the 1970's)
We put such things in a muslin bag, an easy way to use the bayleaves and bouquet garni......

I too find cardamon seeds pretty awful, but though I go to Indian restaurants regularly I've never noticed them for ages. Perhaps I'm losing my sense of taste as well as my memory which gets worse every day.

You'll be looking next time you go Hank ......just be careful of the whole chilli ?

Obviously a matter of taste; i love finding a cardamon pod in my food. Bay leaves are an essential for good old Lanacashire pea and ham soup.

Oh not in Leicestershire pea and ham!.....we add chunks of carrot, do you use a ham hock?

Bay leaves are lovely. Poached in the milk used for white sauce together with a sliver of onion and some pepper corns gives a lovely addition to the flavor.

Also the leaves you mention in the curry are curry leaves, they have a gorgeous scent when being cooked. Eating them is OK they are very soft.
Inaara

Thanks Inara, but what do I put the sauce on ? Tell me the exact recipe as I'm not much of a cook.
It'd be a shame to waste them

Hank - if you let them dry properly, they store in a closed container for years....

The white sauce Inara refers to is something people might put on chicken or add cheese to and stick over cauliflower - roughly a slightly heaped tablespoon of flour, an ounce of butter, throw the two together in a pan, keep stirring while it all melts (it's called a roux, it should look like breadcrumbs, if it doesn't add a bit more flour) and after 4 minutes of stirring and cooking, add about half a pint of milk, gradually, stirring or whisking as you do. Keep stirring until it thickens, is the basic recipe for white sauce - after that you can add what you like, maybe a couple of ounces of cheese and some mustard for cheese sauce, stirring all the while.

Often though, people cook the milk on its own, slowly, with things added, like an onion and bay leaf or whatever, then make the roux later and add the now flavoured milk.

I'd still be interested to know, Inaara, what you do with your white sauce though...

At cateting college I remember the onion stuck with bay and cloves was an onion cloutè...
used to flavour the milk for savory sauces to use over fish and chicken for example or even onion sauce with pork
sometimes half milk and half stock was used
an,onion cloute can flavour bread sauce too..
you heat the milk with it in then remove it before making the sauce...its making me hungry....

Not me, the mention of bread sauce is enough to put me off eating, I can't stand the stuff... for one thing its appearance, looks like something someone's already eaten...

Thanks B - not only a gardener but a top chef as well ! Thanks.

Just saw your second reply. I think I'll forget the idea for now, but save the bay leaves as you said.