When used topically, basil can be used to remove warts. It can also be used to treat snakebites, and insect bites. This herb can also be used for kidney conditions and fluid retention. Chewing on a basil leaf at the onset of a migraine can sometimes offer relief. Finally, basil can be used basil before and after childbirth to promote blood circulation, as well as to start the flow of breast milk.
As Seira took notes on what she had just read, she wondered if eating basil in food could offer any of the benefits that using it in herbal remedies could. It was something to think about at least, and Seira made a mental note to look into it later.
It is best to use fresh basil in herbal remedies because the oils that produce most of the medical benefits are delicate and weaken when the plant is dried.
Seira made a special note of this because some herbs could be used both fresh and dried, but it sounded as though dried basil shouldn't be used in herbal remedies. She would need to remember in the future.
As always, it is as important to know who should not be using an herbal remedy made with any given herb as it is to know what an herb can be used to treat. In this case, basil slows the clotting process of blood, so people who have blood that is slow to clot should not take it. It can also lower blood pressure, so people who have dangerously low blood pressure shouldn't take it either.
Seira copied this down as well. The author of the book had a good point after all; it was always a good idea to know who shouldn't be treated with a particular herb. The last thing she would ever want was to make someone even sicker by treating them with the wrong herbal remedy.
After a while, she set the book aside and thought about what she had just read. She glanced through her notes, and organized them before putting them away. As she did so, she heard Seri come back. Seri. Seri was a far better cook than she was. Would she be able to help her make something for dinner if she asked? It would be nice for them to have something ready to eat when their mother came home from work so that she wouldn't have to cook.
With that idea in mind, Seira got up and gathered a few cookbooks that Seri had so that she could look for a recipe that looked good. Once she had chosen one, she would ask Seri if she was willing to help her make it. But before she did that, she wanted to know more about basil, so she asked Seri if she had any books about seasonings. Her sister had said that basil was a seasoning after all, so a book about seasonings would be a good place to start looking for information about it. She was in luck.
"This is about basil, isn't it? You were reading about its medical uses earlier, and now you want to know about its uses in cooking?" Seri asked as she handed her a book.
Seira nodded.
"I was wondering if any of the medical uses of basil could be given through eating basil in food. That led me to want to know more about how to use it in cooking." she explained.
"Well, I don't know about the medical benefits of basil, or if eating dishes that are seasoned with basil will provide medical benefits, but this should tell you something about basil as a seasoning."
Seri left her to her own devices, and Seira flipped through the table of contents until she found what she was interested in. Some of the information in the book was the same as what she had learned in the book about herbs she had been reading, so she skimmed through that until she found something she hadn't learned yet.
Basil can be used both fresh and dried but fresh basil is typically preferred for cooking. Dried is more concentrated than fresh basil, but it doesn't have the same taste. The dehydrating process draws out more of the mint flavor and less of the anise flavor. When using basil, the general rule is to use one third the amount of dried basil when substituting it for fresh. As an example, you would use one tablespoon of fresh chopped basil or one teaspoon dried basil.
When using freah basil, it should be rinsed under running water and patted dry. The leaves are most often removed from the stem and can be torn, cut into chiffonade, or finely chopped. They can also be used whole and added as a garnish. The thicker stems and stalks should be discarded because they tend to be bitter, but it is okay to include the small stems in dishes. Basil flowers can be used to make both basil flower oil and basil flower tea.
Fresh basil should be added at the end of the cooking process in order to achieve the most intense flavor. This is because prolonged heat will cause basil's volatile oils to dissipate. If you use dried basil it needs to be included at the start of a recipe so that it has time to soften and infuse with the other ingredients.
Basil is a popular choice as a flavoring for infused oil.
Seira took notes on what she had just read. The part about using basil to make an infused oil caught her attention. She knew how to make infused oils. Had in fact done so before when making some herbal remedies. Did knowing how to make infused oils for use in herbal remedies mean that she knew how to make basil infused oil? If it did, then it meant that knowledge she had gained while learning about herbal remedies could also be used in cooking. Where there other skills where one aspect of them could be used in another skill? The idea was an interesting one.
Seira set the book about seasonings aside, and began looking for recipes for basil infused oils. She found one in a chapter about infused oils, and she began to read the chapter.
Infused oils are used in a variety of ways. They can be used as garnishes to plated foods, marinades, and in sauces and dressings. They can also be added to pasta, or even for dipping delicious artisan bread as an appetizer. When making infused oils, it is important to use good quality, mild flavored oils such as pure olive, grape seed, peanut and canola oil. This is because stronger oils such as sesame or extra virgin olive oil will overpower the finished product. The general rule is that the lighter the oil flavor, the more pronounced the herb flavor will be. Many different herbs work well in making herbal infused oils. Some examples include basil, bay leaves, chives, cilantro, dill, mint, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, tarragon, and thyme. You can also add things like citrus peel for even more flavor.
After taking notes on what she had just read, Seira began looking for recipes for infused oils. She found several, and their appeared to be different methods for making them. But one method, the cold infusion method seemed a lot like making the infused oils she had made for making herbal remedies.
"Hey, Seri, can you come here for a trill?"
It didn't take long for Seri to poke her head into Seira's room.
"What is it?"
"I've been reading about herb infused oils, and I thought that we could make some. It might be helpful if we made some herb infused oils. It would be cheaper than buying them, and from what I can see, there's one method of making them that is a lot like the one we learned for making herbal infused oils for herbal remedies. I already know how to make those, so I should be able to help with making these more than I would with cooking dinner for mom, or something."
Seira watched her twin think about what she had just asked.
"I'm game for it. What do we need to make them, and do we have what we need already, or do we need to go shopping first?"
Seira showed Seri the part of the chapter that mentioned what oils and herbs were good choices to use. Once Seri had read that, the two of them headed into the kitchen to see what they had to work with. Unfortunately, they didn't have any of the oils that they would need, and they didn't have much in the way of seasonings either. They would need to go to the market to get the supplies they would need to make the infused oils.
Knowing that they needed to go to the market anyway, Seira checked to see if they needed anything for the house. It was something that she hadn't thought of when they had been cleaning the house since she had been so eager to read her book, and she felt guilty for that now. They were running low on several things, so she made a shopping list before they headed out. Once the twins arrived at the Earth Market, Seira asked Seri to choose what they would buy. She was the one who was the better cook, so it only made sense that she would know more about the quality of the oils and the seasonings that they were looking for. Seira didn't even know the difference between the different types of oil that had been mentioned in the book much less how to tell the quality of them. For that matter, she hadn't even heard of some of them. But she did watch closely as Seri made her choices. Seira wanted to learn as much as she could about cooking now that she had made the connection that a knowledge of how to make infused oils for herbal remedies would be of use in making different infused oils for cooking purposes. It made sense to her that if that were true, then it was possible that some aspects of cooking...or other skills...could also be of use to her in the study of medicine, alchemy...or who knew what else.
After they bought the herbs and oils they needed for the infused oils Seira wanted to make, they split up and did the rest of their shopping. When they got home, Seira felt a lot more sure of herself. She already knew how to make infused oils for herbal remedies, but she looked for a recipe of the type of infused oils that she wanted to make totrial all the same. If there were any differences between the methods, she wanted to make certain to get them right.
As she looked for a recipe, she took note of the four different methods of making infused oils that were used for cooking; the cold infusion method, the blanching method, the steeping method, and the spice paste method. Of the four methods none of them looked especially difficult, but the blanching method required that the oil be kept cold, so Seira eliminated that one right from the start. While it would be easy enough to keep the oil cold in Cylus, Seira was more interested in learning techniques that could be used all arc long. The cold infusion method was the one that she knew about already from making infused oils for herbal remedies so she definitely wanted to make some of those. But she wondered if oils made using different methods tasted different. Was one method better than the others?
"Seri, do you know anything about the different methods of making infused oils that are used in cooking?"
"Not really. I've never tried to make infused oils before other than the ones we made for herbal remedies. Why?"
"I was wondering if oils made using the different methods would taste different, and if one method was better than the others."
"I have no idea. Why don't we try a couple of different methods and find out?"
"Sounds good to me." Seira said with a smile.
She decided to start with the cold infusion method since that was the one she was familiar with.
"Do you know which oils we should use with which herbs, Seri?"
"Not really. I'm not sure it matters."
Seira wasn't especially happy with not knowing for certain if it mattered or not, but that wasn't enough to make her give up. After a little while, she decided to make the choices at random. Hopefully at least something would turn out to be good. They hadn't found any fresh basil at the market, but they had found some fresh chervil, chives, cilantro, dill, lemon balm, oregano, parsley, sage, sweet bay, and thyme since those herbs could apparently be grown indoors all arc long. There were four different types of oil to work with; olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, and grape seed oil. With ten types of herbs, and four types of oil, Seira decided that they three infused oils using two different types of oil, and two of the other two. That would give them ten different kinds of infused oil made with the cold infusion method, and ten using the steeping method, which was the other method that she wanted to try.
Seira eyed the amount of oil that they had to work with. How much oil were they supposed to use? According to what she had read, they only needed a few sprigs of herbs to infuse with the oil, but there was no mention of how much oil was needed. It seemed unlikely that they had enough to make twenty different kinds of oil, so she decided to make eight. They would divide each of the four types of oil in half to manage that. Hopefully that would be enough oil to use. She also decided that most of the oils should be made using the cold infusion method since that was the one they were familiar with. So they would make one type of oil using the steeping method, and seven using the cold infusion method. They would just need to make certain that they used the same herb to make both the steeping method oil and one of the cold infusion ones so that they could compare the taste.
With that decision made, Seira eyed the herbs.
"Are you sure that you don't know which herbs we should use with which type of oil, Seri?"
Seri shook her head, and Seira frowned.
"Well...you're the cook here. Can you choose which ones to use? I don't even know if I've eaten anything with all of those herbs. I have no idea what they taste like. And the same goes with the oils."
"I guess I can." Seri replied.
Seira watched as Seri hesitated over which oils to combine with which herbs. Once she made her decisions, she wrote them down on a sheet of paper. Seira read it carefully out loud.
"Chervil and chives with the olive oil, cilantro and lemon balm with the canola oil, sweet bay with the peanut oil, and finally thyme and dill with the grape seed oil.
Seri nodded.
"Parsley and oregano are used in a lot of the things I make for dinner, so I figured I would be able to use those readily enough in other ways. Fresh herbs won't keep for long, so we need to use them quickly." she explained.
It was Seira's turn to nod.
"That sounds reasonable."
They split the work, with each of them making four types of infused oil. Seira made the oils using chervil, lemon balm, sweet bay, and thyme using the cold infusion method while Seri made the rest. It was easy enough for Seira to manage. Bruise the herbs with a roller first to release the oils and enhance the flavor of the finished product. Pour some oil over a few sprigs of herbs into a jar, cover it tightly, label it, and set it in a cool place for at least fourteen trials. Finding a cool place to put the oils in was easy given that it was Zi'da.
When Seri began making the cilantro and canola oil using the steeping method, Seira watched her closely. It also looked fairly simple to do. Seri bruised the herbs first then combined the oil and cilantro. When she was done with that, Seira watched her as she warmed the oil on the stove. The rest of it was the same; pour it into jars, cover them tightly and label them before letting them steep in a cool place out of direct sunlight for seven trials. The amount of time the oil needed to steep was the only other difference.
After they were finished making the oils, Seira cleaned up the mess they had made. Then she headed back into her room to read some more.
