The basil past the window sent up flower spikes for most of a week. I let it go instead of pinching the buds back, and the leaves turned coarse and a little bitter the way basil does once it decides to seed.
The spikes dried fast in the heat, browning from the base toward the tip. What comes free of a dried spike, tapped over a bowl, is a scatter of black seeds barely bigger than poppy seed. I have done this before. They keep a long time in a jar without any trouble.
Soaked in water, basil seed behaves like chia. Each one grows a clear, jellied coat within minutes, and the water around it goes thick and a little strange to look at.
Serves 2
2 tablespoons dried basil seed 2 cups water, divided 1 lemon 2 tablespoons honey ice
Basil seed goes into a cup of water and sits fifteen minutes, undisturbed. Each seed swells into its coat and the water turns cloudy and slow moving.
The second cup of water is warmed only slightly, just enough that the honey disappears into it without a trace left behind. Lemon is squeezed in once the honey is gone.
The two cups come together, poured over ice. Basil seed sinks and rises unevenly instead of settling, and the glass keeps some motion in it long after the pouring stops.
Drink it while the seed is still moving. It thickens further given time, and by the end tastes like a different drink than it started as.