When I saw the magnificent herb garden that my husband planted complete with parsley, basil, Texas tarragon (I kid you not – must be really big tarragon to get that name), cilantro, and sage, I knew I had to enter a post in Kalyn’s Kitchen Weekend Herb Blogging.

But what to make? Then I saw this recipe at the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website that supplements Barbara Kingsolver’s fantastic book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, I knew I had the perfect entry for the next edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Srivalli from Cooking 4 All Seasons - Basil-Blackberry Crumble.

Basil in a dessert? Actually, it’s amazingly good in a sweet ‘n’ sour, slightly sophisticated sort of way. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of cold beet borsch. The vinegar (!) and basil may not be to your children’s taste, but have them give it a try anyway. If they don’t like it, don’t worry. Then there’s just more for you!

And not only did the basil come from our yard, so did the blackberries.

Basil-Blackberry Crumble

Ingredients:

1. 2-3 apples, chopped (I used two large Pink Lady apples. Make sure you use sweet apples and not tart. The vinegar adds enough tartness.)
2. 2 pints blackberries (6 cups)
3. 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4. 1 large handful of basil leaves, chopped
5. ¼ cup honey – or more, depending on tartness of your berries

Preheat oven to 400. Combine the above in an oven-proof casserole dish, mix and set aside.

Crumble Ingredients:

1. 5 Tbsp flour
2. 3 heaping Tbsp brown sugar
3. 1 stick cold butter

Directions:

1. Cut butter into flour and sugar, then rub with your fingers to make a chunky, crumbly mixture (not uniform). (Do this fairly quickly as the heat from your hands will turn the mixture into paste making it harder to sprinkle over the berries.)
2. Sprinkle it over the top of the fruit, bake 30 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Activities for the kids:

• writing out the shopping list
• picking basil and blackberries
• washing basil leaves and apples
• rinsing berries
• cutting apples and basil
• measuring ingredients
• figuring out how many pints equals how many cups
• counting how many blackberries are in one cup, pint, etc.
• mixing the crumble ingredients
• sprinkling the basil or crumble over the dish

Notes: There was a lot of juice from the berries making it a bit soupy. Maybe serving it over angel food cake or sponge cake would help sop the extra liquid up.

Also, I would have liked a little more crumble for a little more sweetness. (The texture of the crumble is a nice contrast to the liquid and berries.) Next time I make it I will multiple the crumble ingredients by 1.5 as doubling it may be too much. Finally, it’s best served very warm or the leftovers very cold.

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