Friday, November 18, 2005

Good Addition


The last time i was at Whole Foods i picked up a free booklet called "Twenty-four Bruschette," which was full of ideas and tips on entertaining with rustic breads and toppings. I was intrigued by the "Middle Eastern Hummus and Fried Sage Leaf" recipe - i love hummus and make it often, but i'd never heard of fried sage or any deep-fried herbs for that matter! be liked the idea too, so i blended up a batch of hummus (recipe here) while he experimented with deep-frying fresh sage leaves at various temperatures. We used a mix of grapeseed and olive oils in a small pot, frying about 20 leaves total at various temperatures and for differing times, ranging from 1-2 seconds to 10-15. At 350 degrees the leaves quickly burned but at around 220 for a few seconds the leaves turned out just right. After draining on paper towels they were crispy, translucent when held up to light and very flavorful. They added a nice aroma to the hummus, which we spread onto toasted Parisi bread. (The original recipe also called for a drizzle of garlic-infused olive oil; we were sad we didn't have any but it sure sounded amazing!) We're definitely going to make hummus with fried sage leaves again.

posted by beXn @ 12:19 PM

5 Comments:

At 4:05 PM, November 18, 2005, Blogger Solarkat said...

Hi Bexnnie,
That sounds so good!
But for the garlic infused olive oil oil you should've contacted me about it! I started to post a recipe here for herb infused oils, but it got too long, so I posted it on my blog. I'll call you later. :)

Love,
Solarkat

 
At 4:06 PM, November 18, 2005, Blogger Solarkat said...

Heh. oil, oil. Sorry for the typo. :)

 
At 1:00 PM, November 21, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have some garlic-infused olive oil. I didn't make mine (I was in an olive oil store in San Francisco, and it was all too tempting), but I agree with Solarkat that that it definitely seems do-able. It is fabulous stuff! Great for dipping bread, or making salads. (a lemon-infused one is also great for salads)

 
At 1:02 AM, November 22, 2005, Blogger beXn said...

I'm totally going to make garlic oil and sage oil this weekend! What do both of you think of botulism fears in infused-oil products? I've read it's fine as long as you use them up quickly or refrigerate them.

 
At 1:03 AM, November 24, 2005, Blogger Solarkat said...

Hi Bexnnie,

I think that the botulism fears in infused oils are just that: overblown fears. Botulism is really rare (though serious)--only about 110 people in the U.S. get it each year. The majority of cases being infants--from the consumption of honey (adults usually do not get botulism from honey because we have stronger, more developed digestion and immunity systems). Herb infused oils are considered an UNUSUAL source of botulism. Another unusual source includes improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil. I mean think about store brought salad dressing; some of the natural brands do not even use a natural preservative (like vitmain E) and they are fine! Now, that's not to say it can't happen, just saying that as long as one is careful (see below), there really isn't much to fear.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/botulism_g.htm

Just make sure that all your equipment is very, very clean! Sterile if possible. Additionally, I highly recommend refrigerating them. Though some oils do go solid in the fridge; just use a warm water bath.

I forgot to add in my blog that it's important to make sure the herbs are dry (not wet or damp) before use. For fresh herbs, it is good to allow them to air dry for a day in a brown paper bag. Dried herbs use as is.

Miss you! We'll call you later today (thursday).

Love,
Solarkat

 

Post a Comment

<< Home