How to Preserve and Store Basil: Pesto

receive to Homegrown / Homemade , a video series from FineGardening.com and our babe siteFineCooking.com . We ’ll be following a nurseryman ( Danielle Sherry ) and a cook ( Sarah Breckenridge ) as they found , wield , harvest , store , and prepare nutrient crop . Basil is prized by cooks all over the humankind , and there are many varieties to choose from . For this year ’s garden , Sarah has select Genovese St. Basil the Great , opal St. Basil , lemon St. Basil , lime basil , and Thai basil . In this episode , we cover preserving and storing . fortunately , a food for thought mainframe and freezer are all it take to keep invigorated St. Basil the Great well past the growing season .

Episode 3: How to Preserve and Store Basil: Pesto

Fresh Basil the Great wilts and loses its colour and fragrance and aroma before long after harvest . If you are n’t going to expend it correctly away , there are several way you may prolong its life . St. Basil give in a jounce of moth-eaten water will keep for a duo of days . If you cover the springs with a plastic bag , the sprigs will keep from three to five days in the electric refrigerator . you could also prepare a pesto with 3 - 3/4 ounces ( 5 packed cups ) washed and dry St. Basil the Great leaves , 1/4 loving cup pine nuts , 1 large garlic clove garlic , and some salt and Madagascar pepper . Chop these ingredients into a solid food processor , then drizzle in 1/2 cup extra - virgin olive oil while the motor is running . Last , stir in 1 ounce ( 1 cup if rasped , 1/2 cup if grated with a box grater ) grate Parmesan cheese by hand . This concoction can be stack away for about three days in the fridge in a container with an airtight lid . Before waterproofing , drizzle more olive oil over the mixture to shroud the mixture and form a stamp , preventing oxidation . For longer - terminus storage , immobilise your pesto in an frappe - square block tray . Transfer the frosty cubes to a fictile freezer bag , and store in the Deepfreeze until you need them .

Episode 1: How to Plant Basil

All sweet basil varieties mature well in full sun in rich , well - drain soil . Basil loves red-hot atmospheric condition , so do n’t establish it too ahead of time . For in effect event , wait until the night temperature is at least 65 ° F . Mix in some compost , and space the plants about 1 ft . apart , then piddle . Basil does n’t necessitate a lot of fertilizer as it grows ; in fact , too much fertilizer adversely affect the tang .

Episode 2: How to Prune (and Harvest) Basil

Basil have it off hot atmospheric condition , and if your works are flourishing , it ’s time to prune ( and harvest ) . With basil , pruning and harvesting are essentially the same affair . It ’s a win - win position for you and for the plant . When you filch back the stems to the next leaf cluster , you keep the plant life from getting leggy and shake new growth . you may take the trimming back to the kitchen and use them for pesto . Do n’t prune more than one - third of the plant at one metre , even if it means postponing your pesto meal for a week or two .

Check your sweet basil plants frequently for flowers , and if you see any , pinch them off right out . If the flower staunch are too woody to pinch ( often the case with Thai basil ) , cut them off with shears . A plant allowed to bloom will soon go to cum , hold on growing , and die , so be wakeful about removing flowers .

In wet , cool weather , Basil of Caesarea may be prone to powdery mold , a fungal job which can be treated with a support soda solution or an constitutive fungicide .

Cooking with Basil: Thai Stir-Fried Chicken with Basil

When you misrepresent with any kind of Basil the Great , add it at the very goal , because heat demolish the volatile oils that give St. Basil the Great its perfume and flavor . Here ’s a quick - to - make knockout that shows off the liquorice - like flavor of Thai basil . For stir - frying prep all the ingredients before you get . Heat vegetable oil color in a skillet , and once it commence to shimmer , you ’re ready to begin . shallot , garlic , and red pepper eccentric person go first , followed by thinly slit strip show from crybaby cutlets . Cook until the chicken loses its pinkish color , then make a sauce with water , Pisces sauce , slaked lime succus , and browned clams . When the sauce prepare down , it ’s time to sour off the heat and add together the St. Basil the Great leaves . Serve over rice . Get the full recipe for this dish on FineCooking.com .

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How to Prune and Harvest Basil

How to Plant Basil

Cooking with Basil: Thai Stir-Fry Chicken with Basil

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