mint recipes???

Hi!

I am growing some varieties of mint: lavender, basil, chocolate, orange, lime, ginger. What recipes can I use them for? I know that tea is made from mint leaves but, what else???

thank you!

Hi Spider,

I have quite a patch of plain peppermint growing and wanted a quick mint sauce to go with some broiled lamb chops. We didn't have any plain yogurt so I took my husbands suggestion and added a little store-bought hummus to about 1/3 cup of chopped peppermint leaves. It was too thick to be a good sauce, so I added some fat-free half and half to thin it a bit. I know it sounds wierd, but it tasted really good with the lamb. I didn't even have to add salt and pepper as the hummus was already seasoned.

thank you Mc Cool. I will try that!

This is still tea, but I freeze pretty mint leaves and sprigs into ice cubes. Gorgeous in the glass, and add to the flavor.

And of course you'll add them generously to your juleps! I'm as certain as heat in Atlanta that didn't need to be said, honey-child.

Brigidlily, what is julep???

Sorry to ask but i am not american and never heard of this word before.

Oh Spider, you MUST learn about juleps! that's what I do with my mint. This is for spearmint or Kentucky Colonel Mint. You take a few sprigs, maybe more than a few, wash them, take the leaves off, and either
1) crush them in a tsp of sugar with a bit of water using the back of a teaspoon or
2) seep them in some simple syrup, which is just sugar dissolved in boiling water to make a syrup, for a half-hour or so.

You'll need a highball glass, which is about as tall as it is wide. Fill it with crushed or shaved ice (if you used method 1, then do the crushing of the mint and the adding of the ice to the same glass); if you used method 2, add 2 or so tsp of your mint syrup to the ice, fill with Kentucky bourbon (or it's not really a julep). Stir, add a tall spring of mint, and enjoy.

(I'm not from NJ, just live here now).

Mint jelly, if you like canning.

Bbinj, that sounds delicious. I will do that. Thank you!

Zeppy, what do you eat the jelly with?

Spider, the ginger mint should make a great tea IMHO. I've also been using mints as garnish, sticking springs in drinks just to add fragrance. And sticking them in vases, to look and smell nice.
If you ever make sorbet or granitas, the mints will be good in those too. And you can freeze or dry some for the winter. Or for potpourri.

I have chocolate mint I want to add to fudge brownies, when/if it's cool enough to run the oven again. Should make them taste like peppermint patties (I hope).

Oh Bbinnj, you must be a great cook. i am terrible in the kitchen. :o(

You eat mint jelly on lamb, traditionally, but it accompanies several meats/fish/poultry nicely.

thank you Zeppy!

Spider, I thought I'd faint dead away when someone from GA didn't know what a julep was! Land sakes, honey child! But since you're not from the country, you're forgiven. ;)

And then a YANKEE lists a recipe. My po' li'l ole heart is all a-flutter.

LOL!!!

Hey, bbinnj isn't a Yankee!

Thanks Spider07, not great, just inspired. Amazing how much better food tastes with the zip of fresh herbs.

bbinnj is a Marylander (Murlinder, if you're from there). My chicken is made with corn meal, not flour. I have to oven-fry it though, to watch our cholesterol levels.

My apologies for jumping to that conclusion; what's a girl to think when the address is NJ? I should have known, though -- both the julep recipe and the brownie idea. I'm definitely going to try that one.

Hmmm... if it's 102 outside but 76 in here with the A/C, then it's not too hot to bake brownies, right? Heck, I could almost bake them on the sidewalk....

LOL!

It's never too hot for brownies. ;)

I put two recipes that use a lot of mint on the following thread. These are two of my favorites:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/630613/

But don't forget about the drink from even farther south than the tip of Florida, The Mojito -- mint and light rum. See recipe at:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/104364
The Epicurious web site is one of the best for recipes for almost anything. If you search on mojito you will find recipes for chicken, salsa and all kinds of other dishes using mint. Probably if you searched on mint you would find a lot more.
But when I was a kid in Mississippi and Louisiana, the sole use for mint, as far as I was concerned, was to place a sprig of it in your iced tea.



This message was edited Aug 3, 2006 8:35 AM

thank you very much Pajaritomt. that sounds delicious!

Oh Mojito! Rum and mint, 2 of my favs! I am making one RIGHT NOW. Pajaritomt, shouldn't it be Pajaritoplateau? Just kidding. I trained at Los Alamos National Labs a few years back. Reading about the history of it, the scientists, etc. is a hobby of mine (I've read four books on it this summer, on book number 5 now). I love NM, put 900 miles on the car in the time I was there touring around before going to Los Alamos.

Never too hot to EAT brownies; do not want to tempt the power gods. DH lost AC at noon today. it was not fun.
It's after 10 pm, it's still over 90 degrees and the humidity is probably higher.

OK peeps.

who is going to give me those brownies recipe? I am desperate!

Hmmm.... 1 box brownie mix, prepare according to directions, substituting 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce for the oil (because if brownies are lowfat, you can eat 2... and honestly, you won't notice the difference), and adding a good 1/2 c. minced peppermint leaves... try it and report back!

thank you very much Critter.

bbinnj,
We have Pajarito Mt. and Pajarito Plateau here. I do, indeed live on Pajarito Plateau, but when I chose my moniker I was thinking of the mountain behind the town where our local ski area resides. That is Pajarito Mt. The symbol for the ski area is a little yellow bird on skis.
If you think back to your days here, you will probably remember the ski area. I enjoy very much living in this area. Gardening is a challenge, but we still eek out decent gardens and the cool weather, compared to the rest of the US, is very pleasant. Maybe you need to visit out here until the heat wave breaks. At the moment the time is 9:41 and the temperature is 64. Very pleasant.
Mojitos and julips are probably really great for dealing with the heat without turning on the oven. Just don't drive.

Hi pajaritomt, I was only there for 1 week for training so no skiing :-( just Bandolier and that was fun :-) but I'll come back anytime. Sometimes I even look for a job in the laser lab I was training in. I only knew about the plateau and thought the mts were the Jemez. Shows that I'm not from there, a real tourist, it's OK, I love NM so much I subscribed to NM Magazine for a while.
I made a non-alcoholic Mojito the other night, it was pretty decent. Like adult lemonade, nice and sparkly. I used lots more mint, just a mint fiend here.

I love to cook, but admittedly, I've only needed fresh mint a few times, and usually only for garnish. So, I had to go searching amongst my favorite recipe sources. Look! Tons of great ideas. I could have listed zillions here, but here's several examples. Go take a look at www.epicurious.com, they seemed to have the most good recipes using real mint. Just enter "mint" into the search function, then sort by "Fork Rating." Lots and lots of really good ideas! Enjoy!

Mint Sugar - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/102034

Mint Julep Pineapple Dessert - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/232020

Minted Lamb & Sugar Snap Pea Salad - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/14435

Minted Green Beans w/ Red Onion - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/12549

Watermelon-Mint Ice Cubes - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/235177

Iced Sweet Mint Tea - http://www.recipezaar.com/91292

Cucumber w/ Feta Cheese and Mint - http://www.recipezaar.com/135455

Mint Bath Salts - this one calls for mint oil, but I bet you could just put the mint leaves in with the salts and get the same effect - http://www.recipezaar.com/78076



This message was edited Aug 3, 2006 1:56 PM

I've made the cucumber w/ feta and mint and, honestly, it's hard to go wrong with those ingredients in a recipe. It's yummy.

thank you digigirl.

I have been cutting my mint and throwing it away. now I know what to do with it!

an I use any type of mint for these recipes?

I would think so. If there is a significantly different flavor in one mint to another, just look at the other components of your recipe and see if one seems to fit better. I would think that spearmint and peppermint are probably fairly interchangeable. With some of the flavored ones, like chocolate, say, you might want to look at your other ingredients and see if it's a good match, first. But if the flavor is only subtly different between the different varieties, they'd probably all do well in any recipe.

thank you digi!

Cucumber and mint is sometimes made with yogurt too. That's for the less than svelte among us (and I am defintely in that category).

If you're cutting back your mint and have way more than you could use in dozens of recipes, here's a different idea... Chop it up a bit and sprinkle it around your vegetable garden to deter bunnies. I've been doing this, and I really think it works! Of course, it also helps that I have lots of nice clover that the bunnies can munch on all they want as long as they stay out of my minty-fresh garden. I've got a bunch more to trim back over the weekend, as some of my mints are trying to flower now... it goes without saying I won't be spreading any flower heads that might contain mature seeds in my garden bed.

In some other thread, and I'm WAY too lazy to go searching for it, someone said the fruit flies in the kitchen disappeared when she (I think it was a she) put a sprig of mint in some water! Since I have a worm bin (no real ff problem right now) it's good to keep in mind.

brigidlily,
I kind of doubt that one about the mint driving away the fruit flies. I have had a piece of mint in a glass vase for about a year now and I have noticed no lack of fruit flies. If there are fruits and/or vegetables, especially with a crack in them, I have fruit flies, mint or no mint.

pajaritomt, what I've done is taken a plastic container (Beneful dog food leaves you with wonderful ones) and poked very small holes in the lid. About 1/2" of cider vinegar, and they check in, but they don't check out. I shake it now and then to drown the little buggers. Somehow I'm happier with that than, say, breeding spiders to take care of them!