Cooking with Basil: Thai Stir-Fry Chicken with Basil

Welcome to Homegrown / Homemade , a video serial from FineGardening.com and our sister siteFineCooking.com . We ’ll be following a gardener ( Danielle Sherry ) and a cook ( Sarah Breckenridge ) as they plant , maintain , harvest , store , and prepare food crop . Basil is prized by cooks all over the public , and there are many variety to prefer from . For this year ’s garden , Sarah has selected Genovese basil , opal basil , lemon St. Basil , fluxing lime sweet basil , and Thai basil . In this installment , we discuss the ripe part of basil ; cooking with it ! employ your sweet basil to make this classic and simple-minded southeasterly Asian dishful .

Cooking with Basil: Thai Stir-Fried Chicken with Basil

When you wangle with any kind of St. Basil the Great , add it at the very end , because heating plant destroy the fickle oils that give Basil of Caesarea its odour and flavor . Here ’s a quick - to - make dish that shows off the liquorice - like flavor of Thai basil . For stir - frying prep all the ingredients before you begin . Heat vegetable oil in a frypan , and once it begin to shimmer , you ’re ready to begin . Allium ascalonicum , garlic , and red pepper flakes go first , take after by thinly sliced comic strip from chicken scallop . Cook until the volaille loses its pink gloss , then make a sauce with water , fish sauce , calx succus , and brown sugar . When the sauce cooks down , it ’s sentence to turn off the heat and tote up the basil leaves . wait on over rice . Get the full recipe for this cup of tea on FineCooking.com .

Episode 1: How to Plant Basil

All basil varieties grow well in full sun in rich , well - drained grease . Basil loves live weather condition , so do n’t plant it too early . For best results , wait until the night temperature is at least 65 ° F . coalesce in some compost , and space the flora about 1 ft . apart , then water . Basil does n’t need a lot of fertilizer as it rise ; in fact , too much fertilizer adversely affects the feeling .

Episode 2: How to Prune (and Harvest) Basil

Basil lie with spicy weather , and if your plant life are flourishing , it ’s clip to prune ( and harvesting ) . With St. Basil the Great , pruning and harvesting are essentially the same matter . It ’s a winnings - winnings place for you and for the plant . When you crimp back the theme to the next leaf clump , you keep the plant from receive leggy and stimulate new growth . you’re able to take the trimmings back to the kitchen and practice them for pesto . Do n’t prune more than one - third of the plant at one time , even if it means postponing your pesto repast for a week or two .

mark your Basil of Caesarea plants frequently for flowers , and if you see any , pinch them off right off . If the flower stems are too woody to pinch ( often the case with Thai basil ) , veer them off with shear . A works allowed to flower will presently go to germ , stop growing , and die , so be vigilant about removing flowers .

In wet , nerveless weather , Basil of Caesarea may be prostrate to powdery mildew , a fungal trouble which can be do by with a backing soda root or an organic antifungal agent .

Episode 3: How to Preserve and Store Basil: Pesto

Fresh Basil the Great wilting and lose its colour and fragrance and aroma soon after harvest . If you are n’t going to use it right away , there are several ways you could draw out its life . Basil outpouring in a jar of frigid water will keep for a couple of days . If you brood the fountain with a plastic bag , the sprigs will keep from three to five days in the fridge . you may also cook a pesto with 3 - 3/4 ounces ( 5 pack cups ) washed and dried sweet basil leaves , 1/4 loving cup pine nuts , 1 declamatory clove garlic , and some salt and black pepper . Chop these constituent into a solid food processor , then drizzle in 1/2 cup extra - virtuous olive oil while the motor is endure . Last , invoke in 1 ounce ( 1 loving cup if rasp , 1/2 cup if eat into with a box grater ) grate Parmesan tall mallow by hand . This mixture can be store for about three days in the fridge in a container with an airtight eyelid . Before sealing , drizzle more olive oil over the admixture to embrace the concoction and form a seal of approval , preventing oxidation . For longer - term storage , freeze your pesto in an ice-skating rink - block tray . Transfer the frosty block to a plastic Deepfreeze travelling bag , and storehouse in the freezer until you require them .

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10 Garden Basil Varieties

How to Prune and Harvest Basil

How to Plant Basil

How to Preserve and Store Basil: Pesto

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