Basil Cubes: Preserving Summer’s Bounty

Wouldn’t be nice if nature doled stuff out in little bite-sized parcels? A couple carrots here, a sprig of dill there, plus an ear or two of corn for you to roast with your beer brat? But noooo, that’s not how it works. One minute you’ve got tumbleweeds rolling through your refrigerator, the next minute you’re watching YouTube how-tos on pickling, saucing, and dehydrating—just so you can clear up some space in your crisper for the squash and zucchini that’s out there rotting on the vine.

Last month, I wrote about what to do if you had a cilantro blowout in your herb garden (cilantro pesto! http://burtongirls.com/health-and-beauty/cilantro-pesto-fast-fresh-potently-delicious/). Now it’s time to talk about basil—that leafy herb whose deep fragrance can make the simplest cheese-and-tomato sandwich something else entirely.

Now, basil’s a little sensitive. It doesn’t stick around too long after you chop it and bring it inside, but if you try to nurse a plant in the ground for too long, it’ll just give you the finger and go to seed. Also, it’s not one of those herbs that dries very well. It’s definitely best when it’s fresh. So, when the basil’s bangin’—that’s the time to act!

Here’s an easy, quick way to preserve fresh basil’s voluptuous perfume:

1. Chop up a pile of the stuff and sprinkle it into ice-cube trays until they’re about half full.
2. Fill the trays with water.
3. Stick ’em in the freezer.
4. Use at will.

P.S. This treatment works well for lots of different herbs, so don’t be shy.

Cilantro Pesto: Fresh/Potently Delicious

I dropped a few seeds in a raised garden bed some months ago, and voila! More lettuce and greens than a girl could eat. However, the crown jewel of my tiny urban farm right now is cilantro. It’s going wild, but I know that it won’t last long. A couple hotter-than-average days and it’ll all go to seed, hence losing its flavor. That’s the thing about fresh herbs—they are as fabulous as they are fleeting.

I found this receipe on the Interweb (Sunsetmagazine.com)—and literally five minutes after getting all the ingredients together had a batch of über-fragrant pesto to slather on some rice noodles or a baguette with cream cheese or whathaveyou.

The great thing about this stuff is that it’s vegan and way cheaper than regular pesto (it uses peanuts instead of pricey pine nuts and red pepper flakes add zing instead of parmesan). And taste-wise—you guys, it’s brilliant.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cups coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 cup salted roasted peanuts

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot chili flakes

1/2 to 1 teaspoon chopped garlic

Salt and pepper

Preparation

In a food processor, whirl cilantro, peanuts, chili flakes, and garlic. (Or with a knife, mince cilantro, nuts, chili, and garlic.) Add salt and pepper to taste.