Basil seed

Graine de basilic

What it is

It is the seed of the same plant grown for its leaves, drunk as a cooling sherbet in Persian and Indian kitchens long before it reached anybody's dessert — tukmaria in one, sabja in the other. It hydrates in under a minute where chia takes twenty, because the mucilage sits in a thin outer layer rather than through the whole seed, and the black core stays crisp inside its halo.

In the kitchen

Hydrate them apart in cold water — a teaspoon to 250 ml, five minutes — and spoon them into the drink afterwards. Dropped in dry they clump and float in a raft, and no amount of stirring will separate them again.

Goes with

Rose water Lime Coconut milk Lychee Palm sugar Mint Lemon Watermelon

Same species

Basil Holy basil Purple basil Thai basil

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