Luton Cafes

Mint Sauce Mint sauce is a sauce made from finely chopped mint leaves, soaked in vinegar, and a small amount of sugar. Occasionally, the juice from a squeezed lime is added. The sauce should have the consistency of double cream. In UK and Irish cuisine it is traditionally used as a complement to roast lamb (but usually not other roast meats) or, in some areas, mushy peas. Mint sauce can sometimes be used in recipes in place of fresh mint. Also you could try it on toast or bread. Mint sauce can be added to yoghurt to make a mint raita. "Sweet and sour" sauces such as Mint sauce were common throughout Medieval Europe, (with the use of mint being more common in French and Italian cuisine of the period than that of the English), however they became less common and mostly died out as Europe entered the Modern Era.

BASIL Basil (ocimum sanctum) is the only member of the mint family which is native to India, where it was called arjaka in the ancient language, Sanskrit. Its Latin botanical names are derived from the Greek okimon, ‘fragrant lipped’ and basilikan, ‘Royal’. Feelings about Basil have mixed throughout history, the herb having been variously associated with death, religious ritual, medicine, fertility, erotica and even as being responsible for the breeding of scorpions. It is probably for this reason, following a homeopathic logic that it was recommended at one time for the treatment of scorpion stings and snakebites. The ancients, although holding mixed feelings about the herbs, even swore oaths on it in courts of law.

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