Please, anyone with recipes, hints or information on the week's central ingredient, please post. I really want this to be interactive and a community affair. Let's get this party started:
Basil
The leaves are usually dried and used for medicinal, culinary and cosmetic purposes, as well as the essential oil, yet the seeds or roots are rarely used. The leaves are added to salads and are used to flavor tomato based dishes, pasta and vegetables. Basil is and has been used in many different capacities.
Internal Uses:
Basil has been an herbal remedy, used for ages to treat diseases of
- the brain
- heart
- lungs
- bladder
- reviving vitality (when infused as a tea)
- colds and influenza
- poor digestion
- nausea
- abdominal cramps
- gastro-enteritis
- migraine
- insomnia
- when your spirits are low
- anxiety
- exhaustion
External Uses:
- The leaves are dried and used as a snuff to combat headaches and colds.
- It is also used for acne, loss of smell, insect bites and stings, snakebite and skin irritations.
- Cosmetically, basil is used as the main ingredient for an aromatic body rub, which tones the skin.
- An infusion of basil in wine is also used on the skin to close enlarged pores.
Basil Cooking Tips:
Basil is the ultimate complement to tomatoes and it also pairs well with onions, garlic, and olives. Basil stimulates the appetite (I wonder if I could live on Basil alone????) and helps curb flatulence, perhaps another reason why it works so well with garlic. Basil tea is said to help with dysentery, nausea, and stomach distress due to gas.
Basil Leaves are the prime part of the plant. Small stems are okay, but thicker stems and stalks should be discarded because they tend to be bitter. The stems and large veins also contain compounds that will cause pesto to turn brown and dark. Although pinching back the flowers will encourage more leaf growth, the creamy-white flowers are edible.
Most other herbs tend to overpower basil's flavor and aroma, but Oregano, Rosemary and Sage work well with Basil. Important: For the most intense flavor, basil should be added at the end of the cooking process. Prolonged heat will cause basil's volatile oils to dissipate.
Ground with garlic and olive oil into a paste, basil is a prime ingredient in pistou, a Mediterranian specialty. In Italy, pine nuts and sometimes grated hard cheese are added to the paste to become Pesto. Pesto may easily be frozen, but if you plan on freezing it, leave out the cheese.
Pesto is most often served with pasta. To help eliminate Enzyme type reactions between basil and flour (which may cause an unappetizing brown color to the pasta), when serving pesto with pasta, add a squeeze of lemon juice to the pasta cooking water to help keep the pasta from turning dark.
Basil is a perfect candidate as a flavor for infused oils, but does not work as well with vinegar for long-term.
You will never get full flavor when using dried basil, so keep this in mind when substituting dried for fresh. However, if you find yourself in a pinch (pardon the pun) and without fresh basil, use 1/3 the amount of dried basil substituted for fresh. One tablespoon of fresh chopped basil equals 1 teaspoon dried. When substituting fresh basil for dried, triple the amount. One-half ounce of fresh basil leaves equals 1 cup chopped fresh basil.
Please visit the below website for some healthy, summer recipes for a wonderful Summer Herb that is abundant this time of year.
I myself have an herb garden and I plan on making some Pesto so I can enjoy the 'bounty of summer' all winter long!
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_summer_recipes
Litina
MEDITERRANEAN CHICKEN AND COUSCOUS (Weight Watcher Recipe_
ReplyDelete1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/4 cups uncooked couscous
1 large sweet red pepper cut into 1 inch pieces (I cut strips)
1/2 cup sliced green onions (approximately 2 large)
1 /2 tsp garlic powder
12 oz cooked chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp dried basil or oregano
Bring broth to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the couscous. Cover and remove from the heat. Let stand 5 minutes.
While couscous cooks, combine red pepper and green onions in a bow. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and microwave on High for 4 minutes until vegetables are crisp-tender. Drain and sprinkle with garlic powder.
Fluff couscous with a fork. Add couscous, chicken, vinegar and basil to the cooked vegetables. Toss well. Cover with the plastic wrap and microwave on High for 1 – 2 minutes or until heated. Toss again and serve immediately.
5 servings, 5 POINTS each
The vinegar sounds strange, but it gives a nice Middle Eastern tang to the dish. Otherwise it would be pretty bland.
If you aren’t familiar with couscous, it’s a tiny pasta from the Middle East that cooks up very quickly like instant rice. Be sure to add enough liquid to cause it to swell up to its full size.