July spice rack challenge: basil

This months spice challenge was Basil.  I like Basil, a lot.  However in midwinter my glass house doesn't have anything at all in it, apart from a self sown alpine strawberry plant that I must get around to moving before I loose that as well.  I had oodles of basil over summer; sold it by the bunch at the local farmers market and it was the top selling item in my stall.  But no fresh basil for me at the moment, so its uses for the dried variety I was looking for.

And I found that it pairs well with fruit, specifically peaches, according to Mr Google.  That is something that I had never tried, normally I use it in salads, pesto or my favourite tomatos and crackers.

I've also recently discover what you Americans call pudding, in my speak.  I knew about crumbles and crisps, was bought up on apple crumbles as a kid, but struggled to find recipes for any baked desserts with fruit in them apart from those.  I stumbled across a website titled 'The Betty, Buckle, Grunt, Pandowdy, Slump, Cobbler and the other 3 Cs'.  At last, fruit pudding recipes, uses for all that fruit that I bottled over summer apart from serving with custard and ice cream.  So this months recipe is a peach and basil pandowdy, and sorry no photos since they weren't joking when various websites said this is an ugly dessert.  The basil gave it a peppery contrast to the sweet of the syrup and fruit, which I quite liked, hadn't expected but then hadn't really thought about it either.  I didn't know how much of the herbs taste would survive the cooking, since normally if I was cooking something with basil I'd add it at the last moment to preserve its flavour from being destroyed by the heat.  This wasn't herby like I was expecting, but the savoury component was there.

Peach and Basil Pandowdy
serves 2

for the filling:
1/2 pint bottled peaches or 5-6 fresh
1/3 cup light brown sugar
 pinch of salt
1 1/2 tspn cornstarch
1 Tblspn butter

for the pastry crust:
3/4 cup flour
1 Tblspn dried basil
1/4 teaspoon sugar
pinch of kosher salt
4 Tblspn butter, grated
1 1/2 Tablespoons cold water or peach juice if using canned peachs

1.Preheat oven to 400°F and butter 2 5 inch baking dishes
2.For the peaches: Toss the sliced peaches with the lemon juice, brown sugar, salt and cornstarch.
3.Pour the peaches into the prepared baking dishs and dot with the a Tablespoon of butter.
4.For the pastry: Combine the flour, sugar, basil, and salt and mix
5.Add the cold butter and mix with fingers or pastry cutter until crumbly
6.Add the juice/water andmix until it just starts to clump together.
7.Turn the mixture out onto a work surface and knead ever so gently to incorporate all the dry bits.
8.Flatten slightly into a disk
9.To roll the pastry: Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to about 1/8” thick and about the length/width of the baking dishes.
10.Lay the pastry ever so gently over the peaches and trim it flush with the edges of the baking dish.
11.Brush the pastry with milk and sprinkle with sugar.  Cut a few vents into the pastry.
12.Bake until the pastry is lightly golden, about 30 minutes.
13.Remove the dishes from the oven and cut the pastry into 1” squares.
14.“Dowdy” the pastry by gently pushing it down onto the fruit, letting the juices come up over the pastry.
15.Return the dishes to the oven and bake until golden brown, about 30 more minutes.
16.Serve warm with ice cream, heavy cream or whipped cream