We bought 10 potted herbs over the weekend to add to our increasing herb garden.. Theses included chocolate mint ( smells good) and an African Blue variety of Basil which looks like this:

The basil has been taunting me since yesterday just begging me to start using it and so I succumbed and tonight I made a beautiful basil oil dressing to drizzle over a huge salad to accompany our meal of jerk chicken and rice. Its probably the nicest dressing I’ve ever made and I will definitely be doing it again.

If you want to try it yourself it’s very simple, you just need a pestle and mortar, a bunch of basil ( whatever variety you have in your garden or can buy in supermarket) a good glug or two of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of seasalt ( I used Maldons smoked) and some peppercorns ( I used Sichuan). Place everything in your mortar and use your pestle to give it a good bash until all the ingredients combine. Use immediately to drizzle over anything, would also be a lovely dip with some homemade bread.

I can’t say enough just how good this tasted. Try it.