By Perry Washburn
Basil is one of my favorites. Kathie grows tons of it, in her brief summer. I grow it in pots on my deck. David T undoubtedly has better access to fresh basil than those of us snowbound. But we here in snowy Iowa just had a wonderful, tasty week, thanks to some fresh basil.
I get annoyed at basil prices. $3.99 for a few nasty looking leaves? Well, I HAVE done it.
But this week was our friend Vickie's birthday. I decided, late in the day, on Thai. And happened to be near my fav Asian grocery. THAT is where to look for basil. I ask the woman in the back for some. She goes into the cooler, bags me up a gallon bag full for a buck or 2, and I am in business.
Fried rice. It stopped the meal, lots of ooohhs and aaahhs. Just chop up a bunch (as little as, say, 3-4 tablespoons for a batch made from a 4 cups of cooked rice. More won't hurt!). Put it in just before serving. As Aida says: this tastes so FRESH!
The fried rice I made last week was simple. Rice, sesame oil, fish sauce, soy, Asian broccoli, and basil. This "deluxe" version is one I use for cooking classes. Both are GREAT.
Fried Rice with Chicken and Basil
4 cups cooked white rice, refrigerated several hours or overnight
3 Tbs sesame oil
1 egg, beaten with 2 Tbs water
1 lb diced chicken thighs
3 green onions, chopped (including the green)
3 Tbs chopped garlic
2 Tbs chopped ginger
¼ cup red bell pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbs fish sauce
2 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 cup basil, coarsely chopped (Thai basil if you can get it)
1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped (omit if you worry about tastebud overload)
In a wok or non-stick skillet, fry the egg in a bit of the oil. Cut into pieces, or chop, and set aside. Add remaining oil to skillet. Add the garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and chicken, and fry until the chicken is just tender. Add the rice, breaking up any lumps, then the green onions, egg, fish and soy sauces. Stir, and heat through. Add the basil and cilantro, stir well and serve.
End note:
Friday night, our traditional pizza night, brought the basil out again. A simple sweet tomato sauce, some diced leftover chicken, a healthy covering of loosely chopped basil leaves and a thin coating of mozzarella. WOW!
Head to your local Asian grocery, if you have one. They know basil. What a winter treat!
4 comments:
No Asian grocery stores Up North. We are taking a road trip to Ann Arbor next weekend to hit up Costco and Trader Joe's; I think we'll have to add an Asian grocery store to our list.
I have an AeroGarden with herbs growing wonderfully. So all winter long, we have two kinds of fresh basil, dill, mint, parsley, chives, and thyme. I just ordered my seeds for the garden, 3 different kinds this summer.
Happily, we finally found a small baggie filled with dried basil that has been lost since September when I packaged the basil jars for both of you for Christmas.
And if you have extra basil from that gallon bag full, chop it, put it in ice cube trays, freeze, then pop out the frozen basil cubes and drop in a freezer bag. This frozen basil stays a brilliant green and is excellent in sauces and for Thai curry dishes. Ahhh, basil.
Just the basil in the trays, or are you talking water, too?
Cover the basil with water. Depending on how well you pack the chopped basil into the trays, you will use either a little or a lot of water. The basil flavored water is nice in whatever you use the cubes in but I try to pack the basil in as tightly as I can. Just as dried basil won't work as a basil garnish, this method won't either, but the color and texture is really nice when cooked.
I did try the basil cubes recently to make a 'fresh' pesto. Won't do that again. Way too watery. I do make a lot of pesto in the summer and also freeze them in cubes like this (no water, of course).
For us, a quick dinner might be a Thai chicken curry and using these basil cubes instead of the ratty looking $3.99 bunches from the grocery store makes a much nicer curry.
You can use the herb cube method for almost any leftover herb. As summer wanes, I freeze at least 8 ice cube trays full of basil and when I pull them out in the middle of winter to drop in a sauce, it's a summer memory!
We had this dish tonight: there we no leftovers and I was hoping for some for lunch tomorrow. Very tasty!
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