For the Love of Basil

Last week, we held another Flavour Bible Sunday.  My sister was our guest.  Basil was our flavour.  And with no further ado, here is the menu...

Basil Martini - Blended ice with vodka, 1 whole lemon, about a teaspoon of sugar and some basil leaves.  Mixed about half and half with tonic water in a short martini glass.  Delicious!

Appetizer - fresh baked egg bread, homemade mozzerella balls, tomatos from our garden and basil (bought, not grown, since we just used all of ours to make pesto!), drizzled with balsamic and olive oil.  Yum yum yum.

 Main Course - ravioli we made ourselves, stuffed with mushrooms (crimini and portobello), goat cheese and...basil, of course!  Topped off with pesto (ours was basil, Kasari's was red pepper).  Both fantastic.

And for dessert....blueberry and basil compote with ricotta cheese.  Guests were suspicious, but won over in the end.

I really do have to work on my photographs - they're always a case of "oh no!  we didn't take a picture!  stop eating!"  Hopefully next time, I'll do the food justice.  In the meantime, you'll just have to trust me.  It was fan-friggin-tastic.

Flavour Bible Sundays

No, we haven't found god over the weekend.  Although, if god was to be found, I'm quite certain it would be folded into beautiful fresh food and hiding behind excellent company. 

We have a book called the Flavor Bible that we pull out every once and awhile, although strangely always on a Sunday, open up to a random page, and choose a food to build our menu on.  The beauty of this book is that is provides an extensive list of ingredients, each followed by a long list of flavours that go well with said ingredient.  There are no recipes, although a few sample menus and photographs sometimes help stimulate the imagination, but the flavour combinations are all the inspiration we need. 

Yesterday's food was figs.  Completely random and completely perfect, since the fresh fig is just coming into season and had just arrived at our local grocery store that day!  So, we invited my sister and Kelsey's brother and this is what we ate:

• Fig Supreme Cocktails to start
• Fig Salad with goat cheese, raspberries, walnuts, proscuttio (for the meat eaters), and arugula (although I actually forgot the arugula - but I think it would be good!)
• Pear and Ricotta Pizza with caramelized onions
• and Roasted Figs (in butter, brown sugar and a dash of wine) with Creme Fresh (mixed with maple syrup and Grand Marnier) for dessert

Yum!

We call these Flavour Bible Sundays, but I think we need a slightly catchier name, so I'm working on that.  I think this requires a new label, don't you?