THE GARDEN HERB OF GOOD AND EVIL

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basil, Basilisk, Decameron, Food, Italian cuisine, Nicholas Culpeper, pesto, postaweek2011

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I’m in the storm’s path, on alert and ready. Evacuations are underway. A few neighbors go to the packy to lay in some gin. Others board windows and fill bathtubs, mesmerized by weathermen in shirtsleeves on coastal beaches. Me, I’m in the garden.  

Ocimum basilicum

L’herbe royale.

Ah, basil.  I stand amid the waist-high plants and tear off leaves. Hurricane Irene is coming and I’m not taking any chances. My basil is besiegingly lovely. Beyond Utterance.  A bull moose bumper crop of Biblical measure.

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In Italy, basil is called bacia-nicola (kiss-me-Nicholas). A pot of basil on a windowsill means that a daughter is of marriageable age.

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Basil appears in the poetry of Shelley, Keats, and Edna St. Vincent Millay but its most famous literary role is in The Decameron, by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. He tells the tragic tale of Lisabetta, whose lover Lorenzo is murdered by her brothers. When Lisabetta learns from a dream that Lorenzo has been killed, she finds his body, removes the head and places it in a pot with a basil plant. The basil grows vigorously, nourished by her tears. That’s Amore! La pura verita.

But it seems there’s good basil and bad basil. In Sicily, they say that a pot of dwarf basil on the windowsill is the sign of a house of prostitution. (In eastern Turkey, the signal is more subtle ~ the glow of a lighted cigarette in a dark window. Must be too dark for potted basil.) Others believe basil left between two bricks transforms into a scorpion.

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In ancient Rome, basil was called Basilescus, meaning the Basilisk ~ a fire-breathing, half-lizard, half-dragon creature with a fatal piercing stare. This creature had the head of a rooster, the body of a serpent, and the wings of a bat. Basil leaves were said to be the only cure for its bite as well as its withering breath, which could kill plants and animals. The Romans ( and my father) also believed you needed to rant and swear while sowing the seeds in order to get the most potent plant possible. (I read that in French, semer le baslic (sowing basil) means to rant. Word travels.)

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Nicholas Culpeper was an English herbalist who claimed basil would cure scorpion and bee stings while others of his time insisted that basil caused aforesaid scorpions to grow in the brain. Culpepper deemed basil the Herb which all Authors are together by the Ears about, and rail at one another like Lawyers.

Culpeper had eight children, only one of whom lived to adulthood. He argued  that “no man should have to pay an insulting, insolent physician”. Maybe he should have.

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Basil was so revered in ancient civilizations that only kings and priests could gather it. And it had to be cut with a golden sickle. My Italian grandmother taught me to tear basil and Never Ever cut it with a knife.

So, escape the hurricane hysteria. Get yourself some basil. Make pesto. Electricity not required.

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Toni 8/30/11

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ITALIAN-STYLE PESTO

5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1⁄4 cup pine nuts

4 cups basil leaves

Salt

1⁄2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

About 3⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the garlic and pine nuts in a large mortar and crush them with the pestle into a smooth paste. Add the basil to the mortar, a handful at a time, crushing the leaves against the sides with the pestle. The mixture will be like a coarse, thick paste until the oil is added. Add a few pinches of salt to the basil.

Drizzle the olive oil in slowly, a bit at a time, as you work it in. The pesto should become very smooth and there should not be any big pieces. Stir in the cheese. Once most of the oil is added, taste for seasoning and adjust with a little more oil, cheese, or salt.

****If you are using a food processor, combine the garlic, pine nuts, basil, a few pinches salt, and a few tablespoons of the oil. Process until mixed. Add the cheese and most of the remaining oil, process until smooth. Taste for seasoning, then add the rest of the oil.

Want summer in February?  Fill baggies and lay them flat in your freezer.

Who Do You Call When You Have: Upset Tummy? Mosquito Bites? Pesto Hunger? NOT Ghostbusters. BASIL!

Tags

40th century BC, basil, Boston accent, Hampton University, marvelous teacher 1969, Mrs. Stevenson, olive oil, relieve anxiety with basil tea, Vietnam War, Virginia, West Hartford Connecticut, what to do with 40 school kids, Willis School Hampton Virginia

When I was 22, it was during the Vietnam War , so Jack had to leave law school and join the Navy. We went to Virginia. I got a job teaching third grade at a newly integrated school in Hampton. Willis School. Here it is.

And I was scared–a lot. Nothing that worked in West Hartford during my first year of teaching (the year I discovered the Hot Pastrami Sandwich?) nothing was working with these kids. Sometimes it was so bad in the room I’d go out in the hallway and cry. Mr. Jones, a former line-backer from Hampton Institute, the 4th grade teacher with perfect control of his kids, and a gentleman of the first order, he would see me in the hall, come out, tell me to take a break, go splash water on my face, while he’d  quiet my kids down.

None of the black kids or teachers had EVER been in the same school with any of the white kids or teachers; it was a Grand Experiment. It was the law. It was 1969 and a New World for Southerners. I had no problem with integration, it was how to teach 40 kids that couldn’t understand my Boston accent, 40 kids who up to this point had never sat next to each other, 40 kids who knew I would never use the ruler to discipline anyone–that’s what had me floored.

At the end of the day I’d go to my teammate, Mrs. Stevenson.  Her classroom was an oasis of calm. Like Mr. Jones, she was an African-American teacher and graduate of Hampton Institute. She’d taught in the all-black elementary school for decades and was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had the privilege to work with–well, learn at the knee of. She would talk with me for hours, but first she made me sit down, and she brewed me tea.

She had a huge bag that seemed to be made out of a carpet;it snapped open and all manner of marvels came out of it. She settled me in one of the kid’s desks with some task to occupy me, usually looking through her plan book–she made notes on all the margins as to how each lesson went.

Once I was seated, Mrs. S would open that bag and pull out a tupperware of basil leaves. She’d cut them with a tiny scissors she also pulled from the bag and then sprinkled them in some just-short-of-boiling water, water she heated by immersing
a coil directly into a cup. I’d never seen such a gadget before and haven’t bumped into one since. I thought it was another example of how wonderful Mrs. S. was. She knew everything.

(This isn’t her bag, but, by golly, it looks almost exactly like it. Check out http://www.thecarpetbagger.com/.)

After three minutes, she’d hand me the cup,and, while I sipped she’d chew a few basil leaves and, with her hand covering her mouth as she chewed and talked, she explained that she always made sure to break the leaves up in her mouth so that all the oils got released and absorbed.

She told me that Basil was mentioned in Indian texts from as early as 4000 BC! It was worshipped for its good properties. The essential oil from basil is antibacterial and kills insects.

My mama and my grandmama–she was a slave; I’ve told you that, right? Take another sip why don’t you? They swore that basil is a nerve tonic.

Never heard of such, Mrs. S. Nerve tonic?

An antidote to depression!  

Just now, I Googled a list of what regular use of basil accomplishes: improves memory, purifies blood, reduces cholesterol, diminishes kidney congestion, reduces renal calculi and regulates blood pressure. It is an anti-inflammatory, decongestant to the respiratory tract. It contains vitamin C, carotene, calcium and phosphorus. It is commonly used to cure symptoms of cold, sore throat and cough.

And, back then, in that old school engaged in new stuff, basil tea helped calm anxiety, I can attest to that.

Mrs. S. knew all this from experience. Here’s another tidbit she shared while I unwound with my tea and her plan book.

I wash my veggies in a basil water. And Mr. Stevenson and I never have diarrhea. That basil gets the germs first. I always put it in my salads and my vinegarettes. It’s got something about it that enhances the flavor. But I think it makes it safer to eat the salads too.

I don’t know about this last wisdom, but basil tea gave me courage to say goodnight to Mrs. S, clean the classroom, go home, get some food and sleep, gather up my energies, and, try again the next day.

Patty

7/10/11

‘TIS THE SEASON FOR HOMEMADE BOURSIN CHEESE

Tags

appetizer, basil, Cuisinart, garlic, homemade and easy for holidays, homemade cheese

Years ago, in the time of bottled Green Goddess salad dressing, a delicious recipe for boursin cheese was making the rounds. Instead of a small cylinder of garlicky herbed cheese costing a bazillion dollars, I could actually turn out vats of a similar cheese made in my Cuisinart. I even submitted the recipe to a cookbook, Connecticut a la Carte, published by the Wadsworth as a fund raiser. It has become a tradition for me to give away tubs of this ambrosia to special friends at Christmas time. (This tradition has survived, unlike the trays of cookies I once assembled–until I “saw the light” and realized that joy had turned into drudgery–and we all know how much I avoid real work!)

Unfortunately (or as it has turned out, fortunately–but that’s the story of life, right?!!), there is no longer any Green Goddess gracing the supermarket shelves. My “think on your feet and improvise” training as a teacher kicked in, and I created a much better boursin formula. I now use fresh basil leaves (available year round in supermarkets) and some dried herbs. The result is a better taste–and so addictive that I only make it for Christmas. Even after my sense of smell and most of my taste buds were deadened by the aneurysm, the cheese is wonderful, though I need a taster to make sure I don’t overdo the garlic!! Grab your food processor and try this yourself! Feel free to fool around with the herbs to suit your own tastes.

You’ll need:

4 8 oz. packages cream cheese, cold

1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks), cold

fresh garlic, peeled (I use 5 to 8 sections, depending on the size of the garlic and individual taste.)

10 to 12 basil leaves (or to taste)

small (about 1/4 tsp.) amounts of herbs–I favor sage, salt, pepper, but there is also thyme, etc.

Using processor blade, mince garlic and basil. (Pause to inhale the fabulous smell–I miss that!)

Begin adding chunks of cold cream cheese alternately with cold butter. This process takes time and requires pulsing and removing the cover to scrape the sides now and then. At some point in the mixing, add the dried herbs. Once most of the cheese and butter is added, you can do a taste test, but alas, it is too late to add more garlic. Fix that issue on the next batch! Process the cheese until it is smooth–it will be almost like cake batter, but you need to be sure the lumps are gone.

Remove the cheese to plastic tubs–it will firm up in the fridge. (It can be frozen, but it’s better fresh.) Store in fridge for up to 2 weeks, covered. (It won’t last 2 weeks, so don’t worry about it!!)

I deliver a tub of cheese with a box of exotic crackers, but it is also great with chips or fresh veggies. It is also yummy spread between salami slices–4 slices, boursin in between, cooled, then cut in wedges for finger food. Warning: you won’t make just one recipe! (Hey, there are far worse bad habits!)

Mary