1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup sweet butter, softened
1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest, or to ta, ste
Directions
In a saucepan of boiling water blanch the basil for 2 seconds. Drain
the basil well, pat it dry, and in a food processor blend it with the
butter, the zest, and sat to taste until the mixture is smooth. Let
the basil butter stand, covered tightly with plastic wrap, in a cool
place for 1 hour or, chilled, overnight. Serve the lemon basil butter
with steamed vegetables or grilled meats and fish. Makes about 2/3
cup.
Servings: 1 servings
Lemon Basil Butter Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Fruit
The History of Recipes
Food historians have tracked the existance of recipes back into the far past, in fact as far back as the ancient Egyptians, and maybe even further. However, generally, these old cookbooks were just very basic pictorial instructions for preparing food.
Interestingly, the most ancient recipe found, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are some ancient tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel exhilarated. During Roman times around 25BC a man called Apicius created a few documents showing how to cook the recipes cooked by his fellow Romans. In his scrolls, Apicius recounts how the roman meals were split into hors d`oeuvre, entrees and dessert, a style of dining still practiced today. Aspicius recounts how the chefs of Roman times were skilled in the use of a wide range of herbs, including a few you will know like thyme, fennel and asafoetida. As our culinary historical trip moves on a few more years we have some interesting books which date from the 1300s - a recipe book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary named `Curye on Inglish`. Perhaps surprisingly, these are nothing to do with the indian food that is popular today, but instead descriptions of the types of meals prepared by the cooks of the upper classes of the time. In the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought us a variety of spices and herbs from the Middle-East, including spices such as coriander, parsley, and rosemary. These new foods and spices caused a surge in recipe publications, many of which are now in academic collections. By the arrival of the 20th century, cooking publications are greatly in demand mostly due to increased literacy, leisure time and being a little richer. Like it or not, the introduction of television brings us TV chefs and the recipe books that accompanied them. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing everybody to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Lemon Basil Butter recipe.
