Yesterday I used the fresh basil from Madison's Farmer's Market to make some homemade pesto. Yum! I used the recipe here. It turned out great! Heidi Swanson says to chop all the ingredients, adding more basil, pine nuts, cheese as you go. That way, the pesto is not one big blob of green. You can see all the ingredients, so the texture and visual components are different than normal. I can verify, this is very cool. It is pretty as well as tasty. It was very good stuff, with one minor problem...
When I added a bunch of it to hot pasta, all the pesto clumped together as the cheese melted, and all my chopping went out the window because the stuff resembled the green blob I was trying to avoid. Next time, I will add the pasta water to pesto before adding pesto to pasta. Pesto pasta pasta pesto, fun to say! This will thin the stuff out a bit, and it will combine better. Theoretically.
Anyway, I ate the stuff spread on a bagel this morning, and that was pretty awesome. I think basil is my current favorite herb.
Heidi Swanson's site is very nice. Good recipes, clear instructions.
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tahini Dressing
Today I made my tahini based dressing for the second time, and it is still very kick-ass. I think it is maybe similar to Annie's Goddess Dressing... but I have never tried Annie's Goddess Dressing (although I hear it is also very kick-ass), so I cannot confirm this. Here is what I do:
1. Chop up one clove of garlic and smoosh it together with some salt until it is pasty and not chunky, so that I do not have to bite into raw garlic while I eat my salad. Throw into bowl.
2. Chop up a big handful of parsley and two or three green onions. I chop this for what feels like *forever*, because I do not want big chunks of either of these ingredients in my dressing. A food processor would be handy for this step, but I do not like getting the machine out of the cupboard. And it is very loud. So, chop chop chop and throw into the bowl.
3. Chop a lemon in half and squeeze juices out of each half and into the bowl. Now I put away my knife, because the chopping is all done.
4. Add soy sauce to the bowl. Maybe a teaspoon or two. This, along with the salted garlic, makes the dressing plenty salty.
5. Add red wine vinegar to the bowl. I think two tablespoons. But again, I am not sure. I also think I could make this dressing with any vinegar, and it would still be ok.
5. Add a little bit of honey. I cannot remember if I did this the first time I made it or not. I tasted it today without adding honey and it wasn't quite right... enough sour, enough salty.... sweet! I think I maybe just used plain sugar the first time around, but honey is better. Au-natural. I think a heavy teaspoon is good.
6. Add tahini! This is the best step because it is the most important ingredient of all. I am not sure how much tahini I add to the bowl. I would guess maybe a quarter cup. After I add this I slosh everything together.
7. Add some water until the dressing is nice and runny. There is so much flavor in all the ingredients that water helps to make sure every flavor is spread to all my lettuce leaves in my salad. Yum!
This dressing is more kick-ass the second day. The ingredients like to hang out for awhile together before they reach optimal taste-bud satisfaction.
1. Chop up one clove of garlic and smoosh it together with some salt until it is pasty and not chunky, so that I do not have to bite into raw garlic while I eat my salad. Throw into bowl.
2. Chop up a big handful of parsley and two or three green onions. I chop this for what feels like *forever*, because I do not want big chunks of either of these ingredients in my dressing. A food processor would be handy for this step, but I do not like getting the machine out of the cupboard. And it is very loud. So, chop chop chop and throw into the bowl.
3. Chop a lemon in half and squeeze juices out of each half and into the bowl. Now I put away my knife, because the chopping is all done.
4. Add soy sauce to the bowl. Maybe a teaspoon or two. This, along with the salted garlic, makes the dressing plenty salty.
5. Add red wine vinegar to the bowl. I think two tablespoons. But again, I am not sure. I also think I could make this dressing with any vinegar, and it would still be ok.
5. Add a little bit of honey. I cannot remember if I did this the first time I made it or not. I tasted it today without adding honey and it wasn't quite right... enough sour, enough salty.... sweet! I think I maybe just used plain sugar the first time around, but honey is better. Au-natural. I think a heavy teaspoon is good.
6. Add tahini! This is the best step because it is the most important ingredient of all. I am not sure how much tahini I add to the bowl. I would guess maybe a quarter cup. After I add this I slosh everything together.
7. Add some water until the dressing is nice and runny. There is so much flavor in all the ingredients that water helps to make sure every flavor is spread to all my lettuce leaves in my salad. Yum!
This dressing is more kick-ass the second day. The ingredients like to hang out for awhile together before they reach optimal taste-bud satisfaction.
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