Herbs

 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…………