Purple Basil

[*crikey*mate*]

Has anyone ever used it to make Pesto?

Was it any good? Did you make any adjustments to your recipe?

[julie-in-oz2]

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@*crikey*mate* wrote:

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@julie-in-oz2 wrote:

Just saw that you bought the plants.

Anyone seen it in the stores?

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I bought it at Masters which is sort of like a Bunnings.

but there is some on eBay atm too

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Thanks Mate, we have masters here, will take a look.

[nevillesdaughter]

Crikey I make pesto all the time. I grow every different type of basil I can - sweet, greek, purple etc, and use them all together. I also prefer to use cashews instead of pine nuts. In something like pesto which has so many strong flavours - parmesan, nuts, olive oil - any subleties of different basils get lost I think. Besides which, I personally think the purple basil isn't much different from the sweet and if you wait a little while the plant usually reverts to green anyway.

Just my thoughts,

Marina.

[*crikey*mate*]

Thanks marina.

I was thinking of using it purple though for the colour contrast. Thought it might look good on an amuse bouche platter or something, a quenelle of the green one, a purple one and egg plant caviar.

Dunno, will have to see where it goes.

I deep fry the green leaves to make a basil chip garnish for one recipe, and they come out flourescent green and look amazing. Deep fried the purple Basil leaf just before and it just looks like I burned it.

In your experiences, does the purple one hold its colour in the prosessing or does it change? Will it change overnight with oxidization once it is cut/ground/mixed with stuff?

[nevillesdaughter]

Crikey I've never used the purple one on it's own - always mixed with other green leaves - and the mix still came out the lovely bright green but overnight turns to the darker olive green. I personally don't care about the colour because I am always too busy smearing it over everything I can find and delicately stuffing it up my face.

Happy cooking,

Marina.

[kopenhagen5]

3 of my faves to cook with are Basil, Tarragon and bay leaves.

Tomato salad with bocconcini, red onion, pine nuts, fresh basil, cracked pepper and homemade french dressing.  Yummmmm.

Most don't know there are 3 main types of Tarragon.  French, Russian and Mexican. The French is considered the better.

[*crikey*mate*]

I bought some tarragon yesterday too Kopes, but don't know what type it is and didn't know there were different types! The label just says tarragon LOL

Your tomato salad sounds great!

I am aquiring the taste for boccici though, but I learned how to make it a few months back, so am having a bit of fun experimenting from time to time and adding different flavours etc to it

i thought about a bay leaf plant, but they grow into massive trees LOL, so will just continue to buy them for now

[*crikey*mate*]

is your french dressing creamy and thus white in appearance or a vinaigrette, Kopes?

[*crikey*mate*]

I use the green leaves of shallot onions to make an amazing looking flourescent green oil. Looks smashing drizzled over salmon mousses etc and a great contrast on other dishes with balsamic reduction/

[imastawka]

 crikey, my daughter bought me a bay tree 15 years ago.  It's still in the same pot.

 It is only about 60cms high, but has plenty of leaves. I have even grown more from

  cuttings for other people.

 If you keep it off the ground, it will not root and become a huge tree and by taking

 the leaves it gets bushier   : - )

[nevillesdaughter]

I planted a 6 inch high bay tree about 15 years ago and it's now about 8 metres high - friends cut off  quite big branches (and try to tell me they are helping with the pruning), to take home to hang up and dry.

As an aside, my first overseas trip was to Greece by myself  when I was 18, and somebody pointed out a beautiful avenue of giant, ancient trees and explained to me that they were bay trees. I remained polite and tried to sound impressed but in my head I was thinking "Big whoop". Oh callow youth.....

Marina.