I have a bay tree, and it's far too big. If I cut it back, I think I'll have around 40 pounds of bay leaves (and I'll still have a bay tree).
It seems like a waste to throw all those bay leaves away.
What can I do with lots of bay leaves? Are there any good recipes that use lots of bay leaves?
A nice thing to do is simply give them away. Last year someone dropped of a big pile of small branches of bay leaves at our child's school, with a "free" sign. You could do something similiar, maybe using your community email list or whatever depending on your personal circumstances. You may have many neighbors who have never experienced how amazing fresh bay leaves can be, and you might even end up with some interesting gifts in return!
Macerate them in Everclear or midrange vodka for a week or so, then add sweetener and dilute to ~40% ABV. This makes a decent digestif, similar in spirit (no pun intended) to Chartreuse. Or mix in a small amount of fresh thyme, lemon balm, lemon verbena, etc, to make it a little more Provencale.
We picked up a bottle of 'Laurus 48' while in Italy a few years ago, and bay laurel is definitely the dominant herb, so this is not just a French idea. I might be able to dig up a recipe...
Maybe a donation to the local food bank? Herbs and spices and such are not cheap, and I bet there will be plenty of people who would appreciate them.
Dry the leaves and bundle with cinnamon sticks or other aromatics and make homemade potpourri/culinary gifts for the holidays. What cook wouldn't want a jar full of bay leaves?
I've seen a youtube video of people making smoked cheese with bay leaves. They took an empty charcoal grill, put a metal bowl of ice in it (to keep the overall temperature down), and then lit a big pile of dry bay leaves at the bottom with a torch.
Seems like a tasty idea, if you've got the bay leaves to spare.
Store them and use them to make stock, in soups, as flavors for sauces, and so on.
Batter and fry the leaf, add as a garnish to a dessert. (You eat by just biting the batter off of the leaf.)
That or make a wreath.
Mark Bittman has a recipe for a baked fish with potatoes and bay leaves that uses a lot of bay leaves. It's pretty good. Here's the page out of his cookbook (which is worth buying!): The Minimalist Cooks Dinner, p. 98.
Recently I stumbled upon a recipe for pata (Filipino pig's feet) that calls for tons of bay Substituting CHICKEN thighs for the pig's feet made a most incredible dish (Substitute dried lily flower for banana leaf. Lily flower sold at Asian markets.) you may need to triple recipe. Visit http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/paksiw-na-pata-a-la-marketman.
