I pulled out my copy of 'the cook's herb garden' tonight and got excited by all the basil ideas, so thought I'd post a few here. This is a great NZ book, I highly recommend it if you like growing and using herbs.
So if you have loads of basil you could
- fill an omelette with chopped basil, tomatoes, and grated cheese
- put in toasted cheese sandwiches (with dried or fresh toms too)
- add chopped to your regular bread dough (and dried tomatoes and/or olives too if you like)
- add lots of chopped basil to flavour sauteed courgettes and tomatoes
- make a basil butter for corn cobs, for sandwiches, for baked potatoes, for any boiled or steamed veges, add some garlic and make basil garlic bread
- look up a recipe for 'soupe au pistou' which is basically a vege soup with basil sauce served on the side
- make a 'salsa verde' sauce for noodles or meat using basil
Feel free to add your own ideas...
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Like Kiwiswiss, we make pesto, about a kilo of it so far and I'll have another burst this weekend.
We freeze it in iceblock moulds then tip into bags for the freezer.
The great advantage is that you can freeze it before it oxidises so what comes out midwinter for soups, pasta (fresh whole egg thanks to Flit and Snitch our 2 brown shavers) and pizzas is still freshly green.
We use basil in corn fritters, my daughter just loves them. 1 cup flour, 1 410g corn kernels, 1 385g creamed corn, 1/3 cup basil, 1/3 cup green onions, 2 eggs and add some parsley. We usually cook on the BBQ.
With the basil I freeze covered in some olive oil, then they are ready to use in the above recipe...
I make batches of basil pesto using 3 cloves of garlic with every couple of handfuls of basil, some olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice. If i have pinenuts i add those too. Then i freeze it in icecube trays and transfer into bags for use. If i haven't added pinenuts (or any other type of nut; cashew, macadamia, etc.) then i'll grind/chop them and add when i come to use the cubes.
Hi, hey thanks heaps for the ideas! We planted a lot of sweet basil around the base of our tomatoes and I have been wondering how to best use it. I'm going to make some bread today and will report back on how we find it. My daughter in law has deseeded green chillies and used that in bread with cheese (she subsituted the water with milk) and it was delicious! I'm new to the site and thank you for your ideas, cheers Pam
Last night I made some pesto, or rather it was an experiment and so I call it anti-pesto (sorry for the pun)
50g basil leaves only
50g watercress stems & leaves
2-3 cloves garlic
pinch salt
a decent handful roasted cashews (I used roasted & salted, so left out pinch salt)
80g parmesan, finely grated
150mL olive oil
Put all ingredients, except parmesan & oil into a blender and blend into a consistency you like (eg I like it coarse). Add some oil, to make it moister and easier to blend, if needed. Add parmesan & oil if using it straight away & mix. If storing it, put the pesto mixed with parmesan in a jar and use the rest of the oil to cover (ie preserve) it.
It can be kept in the fridge for up to 6 months like this, or frozen for a year. When defrosted, use it straight away, as it will discolour quickly.
Basil is wonderful preserved in olive oil. Tightly pack a jar of clean dry 9 not dried) basil leaves into a preserving jar and cover with olive oil. Store in a dark place and drizzle wonderful basil oil over your winter veg. the leaves can be added to soups and stews
Wow - I could have done with this last year
This is great - thank you Christy.
I am noticing that this site works well if you use the search engine to find recipes. For instance I typed in savoy recipe the other day and found what I was after, and now I can type in basil recipe and get this post.
Replies
We freeze it in iceblock moulds then tip into bags for the freezer.
The great advantage is that you can freeze it before it oxidises so what comes out midwinter for soups, pasta (fresh whole egg thanks to Flit and Snitch our 2 brown shavers) and pizzas is still freshly green.
With the basil I freeze covered in some olive oil, then they are ready to use in the above recipe...
50g basil leaves only
50g watercress stems & leaves
2-3 cloves garlic
pinch salt
a decent handful roasted cashews (I used roasted & salted, so left out pinch salt)
80g parmesan, finely grated
150mL olive oil
Put all ingredients, except parmesan & oil into a blender and blend into a consistency you like (eg I like it coarse). Add some oil, to make it moister and easier to blend, if needed. Add parmesan & oil if using it straight away & mix. If storing it, put the pesto mixed with parmesan in a jar and use the rest of the oil to cover (ie preserve) it.
It can be kept in the fridge for up to 6 months like this, or frozen for a year. When defrosted, use it straight away, as it will discolour quickly.
A successful experiment - it was excellent!!!
This is great - thank you Christy.
I am noticing that this site works well if you use the search engine to find recipes. For instance I typed in savoy recipe the other day and found what I was after, and now I can type in basil recipe and get this post.