Saturday, August 31, 2013

Basil Jelly???

What do you do when you have basil going bonkers outside??
Old picture, but you can see the basil hiding everything else. 
Don't get me wrong, we love the fresh basil, and are drying basil to put away for the winter, but we still have plenty so we decided to try making Basil Jelly. No, this not just me going "Let's make Jam out of everything" and no this is not me trying to justify what we have, but me trying to find more ways to use the basil.
Basil anyone??
First we took a ton of basil, and washed it all very well. Then we followed the directions on Sweet Domesticity. They were very easy to follow and she tends to have great ideas. In the end, we got 5 half pints. Enough to decide if we like it, not enough we are stuck with it if we don't. Daddy came up with the idea to try and make canned pesto yesterday. Now to find a recipe. Good thing no one here is afraid of work.
5 half pints of jelly

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad I'm not the only one with an overabundance of basil from the garden. I have been making a lot of pesto with it (I think we've had pesto 3 or 4 times) and have been giving a lot of fresh basil away. Most pesto recipes have pine nuts in them, but I never want to go out and buy them, so I just leave them out. I don't think it affects the taste of the pesto at all.

    *Twinkle*

    My basil pesto recipe (or what it would be if I actually followed recipes)
    3 cups fresh basil
    2-4 cloves of garlic
    1 cup olive oil
    3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
    salt and pepper to taste

    1. Combine basil, garlic and half the olive oil in a food processor or blender.
    2. If you are using it right away, add the rest of the oil and cheese and pulse until smooth. 3. Mix with pasta and enjoy!

    Sadly, you cannot can pesto because of its low acidity. It can be frozen, however, which is nice. To freeze it, follow step 1. Then, pour pesto into an air tight, freezable container and drizzle the rest of the oil on top. When you're ready to use the pesto, thaw it out and then mix in the cheese.

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    Replies
    1. We made Pesto the other day and it went well. I have to leave the nuts out for allergy reasons. Although we are hoping that we can use the pesto as an "Oops, we forgot to pull something for dinner insta meal." That is the hope anyway. Thanks for the recipe dear.

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