Basil: king of herbs
Basil and tomatoes are among those flavors that always go well together, like strawberries and cream, like chocolate and banana, like cinnamon and toast.
A bit of basil always brightens tomato, whether it is sprinkled with vinaigrette over sliced tomato and mozzarella cheese or added in the last minute of cooking to a simmering tomato sauce.
It’s an easy combination and an expected one.
But basil is known as the king of herbs for a reason: It goes so well with so many things. So I wanted to do something different. I wanted to use basil in recipes that do not call for tomato.
It isn’t hard to find such recipes. And that is good at this time of year because basil is abundant.
I began with a drink. Basil is closely related to mint — you can tell from the sharp-flavored, refreshing taste that they are close cousins — so I decided to make a basil version of the popular mint-based mojito.
I muddled a few fresh basil leaves with a bit of sugar and some lime juice in a cocktail shaker, bringing out all of the herb’s flavor. I added ice cubes and rum, shook it until it was cold and poured it out into eagerly awaiting glasses.
What makes this drink really sing are the glasses. I mixed together some basil and sugar in a food processor, moistened the rim of the glasses with lime juice and dipped them in the basil sugar. I did this, of course, before putting anything else in the glasses. The basil-sugared rim gave the drink a festively sweet complexity, and club soda to top it off kept the drink light and perfect for summer.
Next came the entree. Basil pairs well with eggplant so I looked for a suitable recipe. I found it in a stir fry, a spicy basil eggplant recipe that apparently comes from Thailand.
To be honest, I thought the recipe was too simple to be good. I was wrong. Although it is a snap to make, this is a fully realized dish with big flavor. The basil complements the eggplant, and two serrano peppers create just the right heat (feel free to adjust up or down to your liking). It has plenty of garlic, but just a splash of fish sauce and a smattering of sugar completes it.
The recipe calls for two Thai eggplants (they’re green and round), but I used one purple American eggplant instead. I even substituted the familiar sweet basil for the more peppery Thai basil specified in the recipe, and it all tasted great.
For a vegetarian or vegan version, you can easily use soy sauce instead of the fish sauce.
A basil-friendly vegetable dish was next on my list, and I made one that is ridiculously easy but also ridiculously good. It’s grilled corn on the cob with basil butter, and because the basil is in the butter, you could use the same preparation for any number of vegetable dishes or even pasta.
Naturally, I had to have a dessert. A recipe for a thin basil and vanilla custard caught my eye, and why wouldn’t it? Custard is one of the world’s great foods, an impeccable blend of cream, sugar and egg that comes together in a concoction even better than the sum of its parts.
Vanilla, which is also one of the world’s great flavors, can only make it better. And basil? That’s the genius of this dish. The basil flavor is subtle, playing against the vanilla in a way that is sheer magnificence.
Pour it over some fresh berries of the season, add a sprig of basil for color, and you’ve got a dessert so delicious you’ll want to skip the rest of the meal.