At the beginning of June, this is what our basil plant looked like:
(Surrounded by pepper plants & beets)
This is now what we are dealing with:
And it is AMAZING!
The things you can do with basil are pretty much endless in my opinion.
Basil mayo, basil butter, basil infused olive oil, basil vinaigrette, basil pesto.. I mean that’s just the beginning!
I’ve actually started just eating the leaves plain. Is that odd?
I love harvesting it..the smell hits you right away. The bees also really enjoy basil. I don’t enjoy the bees so much, but I’m learning to work with them so that we may both have what we want.
On my trip to the Green City Market this morning, I picked up this loaf of Semolina boule with fennel seeds from Crumb Bakeshop.
Time for a tartine!!
Now what to go with my tartine… lets see… perhaps the abundance of basil shall be included! In an herb-mayo sort of form…
So I start with chopping my basil, chives and thyme, about 1/3 cup chopped.
Then I mix them with a few tablespoons of my Spectrum organic mayo and a tablespoon of olive oil and some sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Mayo, Done.
After slicing my bread I brush a little olive oil on each side and place the pieces on my Le Creuset cast iron skillet (I love the grill marks on my bread)
Top the bread with the herb mayo, two slices of tomato, sliced red onion, and a slice of bacon that I happened to have on hand from The Smoking Goose.
Add a sprinkle of gruyere cheese, and this goes under the broiler for five minutes. At the end, I garnished it with some fresh basil. Yum!!!
Source: citygardenlife.com (defunct blog)
