Herbs
May 21, 2013
We had such a fabulous recipe goup at Neicy’s new home. Looking out the windows from her sun room in
to the back yard where a quaint little Gazebo sits. How serene...
We had a good variety of herbs that included garlic, oregano , mint, basil, thyme, and lavender! By using herbs, we were all able to reduce
the use salt. All the dishes were
delicious and satisfying.
Sister Burke spoke about the wide uses of the herb, Lavender. She recollected a story of a doctor that was
very proud of her education. This doctor
was traveling on an airplane with her infant daughter, who cried
uncontrollably. A “hippie” looking woman
came up to her and asked if she could rub some lavender oil on the baby’s
head to calm her. The doctor thought,
how ridiculous, and that it would never work.
She had no other options, so she allowed this hippie to do so. Within minutes, the baby calmed down. The woman also rubbed some oil on the back of
the doctor’s neck, and almost immediately, her tension headache was relieved.
Lavender can also be used to bake with, as you will find below a
recipe for lavender cake!
Refreshing Mint, Cucumber, Lemon, Lime, Water
Made by Neicy Frandsen
Add sliced cumber, lemon, lime, and mint to water. Refrigerate until infused. (all day)Add ice.
Basil Hummus Recipe
(from
simplyrecipes.com)
Made by Annie Goates
Ingredients
1/4 cup pine nuts (or
pecans or walnuts)
2 cups sweet basil leaves, packed
3 cloves garlic, smashed then minced
2 15-ounce cans garbanzo
beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained*
1/4 cup olive oil
Up to 1/4 cup water
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt
Several dashes Tabasco
1 teaspoon tomato paste (or
1 roma tomato)
* Several readers have
asked about instructions using dry garbanzo beans instead of canned. I estimate
that you will need about 1 1/4 cup of dried beans to make enough beans for this
recipe. Soak them overnight in a pot covered by a couple inches of water. The
next day, drain the water and add fresh water, again covering the beans by a
couple inches. You might want to put a couple garlic cloves in the water for
flavor. Bring to a simmer, and simmer on low heat for several hours, until the
beans are tender but still whole. Remove any foam that bubbles to the surface
during the cooking. Drain the beans and proceed with the recipe.
Method
1 Heat the pine nuts in a
small skillet on medium high heat. Stir them when they start to brown. When
most of them have lightly browned, remove them from the pan into a bowl to
cool. (Reserve a few pine nuts for garnish.)
2 In the bowl of a food
processor, place the basil leaves and the garlic. Pulse until finely
chopped. Add the rinsed and drained garbanzo beans, most of the pine nuts,
olive oil, lemon juice, salt, tomato paste, and a few dashes of Tabasco. Pulse
several times, for several seconds each time, until the hummus is smooth. Add
more Tabasco and salt or lemon juice to taste. Add water to the point of
desired consistency.
To serve, place in a bowl
and drizzle a little olive oil over it. Sprinkle with a few toasted pine nuts.
Serve with pita wedges, crackers, or rustic bread.
Yield: Makes about 3 cups of
hummus.
Herbed Skillet Vegetable
Made by Julia Ventura
Ingredients
2 tablespoons
cornstarch
1 (14 ounce) can
Chicken Broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/8 teaspoon ground
black pepper
12 small new
potatoes, cut into quarters
2 medium carrots,
cut into 1 inch pieces
2 stalks celery, cut
into 2 inch pieces
Directions
1.
Mix cornstarch and
1/4 cup broth.
2.
Mix remaining broth,
thyme, pepper, potatoes, carrots and celery in skillet. Heat to a boil. Cover
and cook over low heat 20 minutes or until tender.
3.
Add cornstarch
mixture. Cook and stir until mixture boils and thickens.
Tomato, Basil, Pasta
Made by Amy Noble
Ingredients
2 pints of grape tomatoes any color (the more colorful the better)
5 cloves of garlic minced
Bunch of Basil chopped
¾ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 box of linguine pasta
Gruyere, Asiago, Romano cheese (actually can be any tasty hard
cheese) grated
Directions
1.
Add garlic and basil to olive oil in a
bowl.
2.
Let herbs infuse while cutting tomatoes into halves or fourth
3.
Add to herbs and oil, let marinate and infuse 1 hour
4.
Cook pasta according to direction
5.
Add hot pasta to herb, tomato, oil. Toss
6.
Grate in your cheeses. Toss.
7.
Let infuse until served.
Crunchy Herbed
Chicken Breast
Made by Vickie Burke
Ingredients
2/3 cup panko
½ cup grated parmesan
½ cup grated Romano
1 Tbsp minced fresh oregano
1 Tbsp minced fresh basil
2 tsp minced fresh parsley
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ cup all purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 boneless, skinless, chicken breast
Directions
1.
In a shallow bowl, mix the first nine ingredients. Place flour and eggs in separate shallow
bowls. Dip both sides of chicken in the
flour, eggs, then crumb mixture, patting to help coating adhere.
2.
Place on a greased baking sheet.
Spritz tops with cooking spray.
Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until a thermometer reads 170.
Chocolate Mint Cake
Made by Vickie Burke/Keri Silva
Ingredients
9 Tbsp unsalted butter
5 ½ oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces
Handful of finely chopped mint
6 large eggs separated
Pinch of salt
½ cup superfine sugar
1 ½ cup ground almonds
1 lb soft berries
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Whipped cream to serve
Directions
1.
Preheat oven to 340. Grease
8 in spring form cake tin; line base
with baking paper.
2.
Melt butter and chocolate in heatproof medium bowl over saucepan of
just simmering water, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat; cool slightly.
Stir in mint leaves.
3.
In med bowl, whisk egg whites with pinch of salt until soft peaks
form. Gradually add sugar, whisking well
after each addition until just dissolved.
4.
Beat egg yolks in large bowl, and stir through ground almonds. Pour in cooled chocolate mixture; mix well. Using metal spoon, fold in 2 large spoonful
of egg white to lighten mixture, then carefully and quickly fold in the
remainder. Do not overwork.
5.
Pour mixture into prepared tin.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes until cake if well risen and just firm to the
touch. Cool in tin 15 minutes before turning out onto wire rack. Cake will sink slightly.
6.
Decorate cooled cake with fresh berries; dust with sifted
confectioner’s sugar. Serve with whipped
cream.
Lavender Cake
Made by Vickie Burke/Ana Burke
Recipe coming soon…………
