Monday, June 13, 2011

Ways to use basil?

Blogging out of baking order again and this isn't even a baking post but a call for savory recipes that use basil.  My basil plants are thriving, thriving and doing more thriving.  Not that I don't love making pesto out of them but at some point I will be pesto'd out.  Last night I harvested some basil, chopped it up and added it to the topping of a whole wheat pizza.  Yum.

Tonight I harvested some more basil and did a quick stir fry with shrimp.  There isn't even a recipe for this - I just browned some minced garlic in a little olive oil, stir fried with shrimp and basil, added a little egg for scramble and brown rice plus a dash of soy sauce - voila, dinner.  That's about the level of my fledgling cooking skills so if you have any recipes for easy, preferably protein-focused dishes that use up basil, please share!


On another note entirely, I finally figured out how to make brown rice in my rice cooker.  Like any good Asian, I own a rice cooker.  It makes perfect white rice.  But whenever I've tried making brown rice in it, the brown rice is always still hard little pebbles of grain when the rice cooker says it's "done" and turns itself off.  A trick my mom taught me is to soak the brown rice for several hours first then cook it in the rice cooker, 2 to 1 (2 parts water to 1 part brown rice).  I tried it and it worked perfectly.  Brown rice is healthier, has more fiber and you get full on a lesser amount than with white rice.  I may never eat white rice again.

3 comments:

  1. I love brown rice. We switched about a year ago from white and love it!

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  2. Make a BLT, just replace all or part of the lettuce with basil. Wow! We love it.
    Your shrimp and brown rice looks excellent. i have had good luck cooking brown rice in my very inexpensive rice cooker. I do add about 3/4 cup more water.
    This is a fun recipe I created, it does use pesto but it is a little different.
    http://cgharris.blogspot.com/2010/07/simply-delicious-pesto-pasta.html
    Have a great day.

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  3. Cindy, thanks for the link to your pesto recipe - looks delicious! I'm not one for veggies so I'd skip the zucchini but I'm onboard with the pesto part :).

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