Kitchen Happenings: Herb and Renewal

One of the things that I lke doing is just looking over what I've got laying around and figuring what I can make out of it. So, recently, I've been playing around with my herb garden again. This time around, I've got the standard basil, oregano, sage, and thyme going. But I've added some peppermint and lavender to the mix. And of course, these two are the ones that are growing the best. So, I was doing a little trimming to the plants, and ended up with a bunch of peppermint and lavender that was too nice to just throw out. So, inspiration hits. Cook the stuff down in water to draw out the flavor and then add some sugar to make a syrup out of it. Perfect stuff for mixed drinks or even for starting a sauce or dressing out of. I was grilling over at my friend's place the other day, and I brought over a pitcher of mojito, made with more of the fresh mint, but also sweetened with the mint-lavender syrup. Stuff was awesome. Just a nice, mellow flavor that gave the drink a nice undertone.

The other thing that I was fiddling around was with a basil oil type of sauce. So, add a bunch of basil, some salt and pepper, some lemon juice, some mustard powder, and olive oil to a blender. Awesome. Light, sort of like pesto, sort of like a vinagrette, a little depth, a little tangy. The stuff would have gone great over some greens, as a dipping sauce for some warm, crusty bread, or as a sauce for pasta. Where I went with it was a little out there. Dipping sauce for king crab. It was pretty good stuff. I think that this new sauce could also go well with things like scallops or shrimp. We'll see if it makes the rotation in the kitchen.

Now, the most interesting thing that I've done in the kitchen lately was rediscover fresh ginger. Classic Chinese cooking uses a base of soy, garlic, and ginger as a starting point. And it's only been very recently that I've decided that I needed to learn to use ginger. It certainly adds a nice flavor to Asian-style marinades. But where I've neglected it until recently is with actually creating some tasty beverages. Making a nice ginger syrup is pretty easy. Cut up some ginger, and cook down the flavors. Strain out the ginger (you can really cook it down twice, I think, and get good flavor out of it) and cook down the liquid with some sugar to make your syrup. Again, great for mixed drinks, serving over ice cream, using as a start of a sauce, etc. But an even easier thing is to take the ginger water, without any sugar added to it, and using it as the water for lemonade. Basically, any can of frozen, lemonade concentrate will turn into a phenomenal drink if you use ginger water instead of normal water. You get this great ginger flavor that adds some body to the drink and then gives you that fun, spicy, peppery aftertaste that makes you want to drink more. And for those of you who need some alcohol in your summer drinks, some vodka and a sprig of mint makes this a really good hard lemonade.

Really, that's been the new and interesting happening in my kitchen. There are still a few restaurant reviews that need to be written. We'll get to them soon, I hope.

-foodgeek