Basil

Basil, i can't have enough of them. Toss them in the salads.... it's divine. Mix with tomatoes and good olive oil and eat them with bruschetta... meraviglioso. I plant them in the pots and put in the garden that receives only afternoon sun.. They need sun but not too much. Too much sun, the leaves will turn yellow and hard.

There are so many kinds of basil; Greek basil, Thai basil, purple basil to name a few.I love them all. They are so easy to grow. I have Thai basil in the greenhouse. Put them for the calamari salad with some fresh cillies and lemon juice. Fantastico!

A couple of weeks ago, i made Thai green curry fish. Never tasted so good. The combination with the lemongrass, galanggal and fresh cillies gave it more distinctive flavor. Basil is also said to deter the mosquito bites. Rub them on your body, you will smell good. Good option rather than an insect repellent!

Redcurrants!

Redcurrants were only associated with me with a drink called 'Ribena'.This is actually a redcurrant flavoured drink that is still widely sold in Malaysia. I can still remember the Ribena advertisement of 2 cute berries with the famous Bollywood song! When i have loads of this berry in my garden this year, i can't even imagine making a drink from them as the fruits have a lot of seeds. Once i read in a gardening magazine that in a small village in south of France, they even make seedless redcurrant jams by removing the seeds with feathers!

The fruits are so tiny, i can't even hold them with my two fingers, let alone using the feathers to remove the seeds! It has been for years that i have been ignoring their existence in my garden, i have even let all the weeds growing around the bushes. I think the temptation was so strong last weekend when i saw the berries were sooo...oooo red and shiny and i couldn't resist myself and pop some of them in my mouth! The taste was so sweet and tangy. I braved myself through the Italian heat to turn them to redcurrant jam with seeds of course!

The redcurrant jam has the gelatine like texture and taste of homemade jams is never the same with the off shelf ones and i will never overlook my tiny berries again!