Walnut Pesto

Walnut Pesto

Served up with Angel Hair, Early Girl Tomatoes, Red Onion, and Parmesan

Summer and light, flavorful food just go together. This is not the time for heavy gravies and cream sauces, its a time for salsas and vinaigrettes and...pesto! I grow my own basil in the summer and pesto is the perfect way to use it up. It's especially good for the older, more bitter leaves that aren't quite good enough to serve fresh, for my fellow basil growers out there.

Bounty!

By saying that pesto is light and flavorful, I am not saying that pesto is “lite” or low cal. The other main ingredients are nuts, cheese, and oil. However, used sparingly with some pasta and veggies it can make a great, light feeling summer meal, the kind that won't leave you clutching your tummy and groaning in the afternoon heat.

In this recipe, I separate all the leaves from my basil and only use those. If you are using store-bought basil, or happen to be a better basil gardener than I am, your stems will not be tough and bitter, so you can use them for the pesto.

I substitute walnuts for the more traditional pine nuts in this recipe. They have a rich flavor and are not as expensive as pine nuts. I've also successfully used almonds and pistaccios, and I've seen a pesto that uses pepitas (pumpkin seeds), for those eaters who are trying to avoid nuts. I've swapped out Parmesan cheese for Asiago in the past as well. Basically, any basil, nut, oil, garlic, hard cheese combo will yield a pesto, so get experimental. I will only caution against the use of peanuts, since they have such a strong flavor.

Walnut Pesto

Yields 1 ¼ cups, about 5 servings

6 cloves Garlic, unpeeled

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

Salt

½ cup Walnuts or chopped Walnuts, shelled

1 cup finely grated Parmesan

1/3 cup Olive Oil

2 cups fresh Basil leaves

1/3 cup Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinagar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place unpeeled Garlic, 1 tablespoon Olive Oil, and a small pinch of salt in a small, oven safe pan and roast for 10 minutes.

While Garlic roasts, heat a small, non-stick skillet over high heat and add Walnuts. Do not add oil. Stir and toss continuously for about 2 minutes. Sample a walnut to see if it tastes toasted. If you are satisfied, remove from heat. If not try another after about 30 seconds. These babies go from delicious to burnt pretty quickly, so be vigilant.

When 10 minutes has elapsed, remove garlic from oven. Allow to cool before peeling. Discard paper-y skins, but try to conserve the good galic-y oil left in the pan for the pesto.

Add roasted Garlic, garlic oil, toasted Walnuts, Parmesan, and 1/3 cup Olive Oil to blender. Blend until smooth.

Add basil and remaining Olive Oil (1/3 cup) and Red Wine Vinegar to blender. Blend until smooth.

Now the rest is up to you. Salt and pepper to taste, add more vinegar if the flavor lacks a little acid or “brightness.” Also you can add move oil if you like your pesto thinner.

To Store: I usually use mine up pretty quick, so I just put it in a jar or tupper-ware and refrigerate. This is good for a week or so.

If you want to freeze your pesto, you can do it one of two ways. (1) Put it in a large freezer safe ziplock bag, and lay the bag flat in the freezer. This way it won't take but a couple minute in warm water to defrost. (2) Pour the pesto into an ice cube tray and freeze. When the pesto is frozen, pop it out and put the cubes into a ziplock bag, and return it to the freezer. Each cube should be about half a serving. You'll have a convenient way to use just a bit at a time, and you won't have to defrost a whole bag of pesto to get your fix.

Cheesy Bacon Scones

Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Scones

Scones are the most scrumptious of all the world's pastries, in my humble opinion. Flaky and buttery, they are delicious without any cloying sweetness. About a year ago I started experimenting with savory scones, and I've used this recipe for Parmesean Rosemary Black Pepper Scones with much success. This morning I thought I'd try my hand a similar savory scone, though I wanted to make something distinctly breakfast-y. They turned out great, and therefore blog-worthy.

The trick to making good flaky scones is cold butter. If your butter is warm or melted, your scones will turn out more biscuit-like. Biscuits are not the end of the world, but they are also not scones. I freeze my butter and then shred it with a cheese grater. For this recipe I also froze the cheddar cheese for a few minutes before adding it to the dough. In an effort to keep my butter cold until it hits the oven, I also use a food processor or a pastry cutter to do all of the mixing. In fact, I only touch the dough with my hands when I put it on the baking sheet.

One more trick I picked up is to double stack baking sheets AND line the with parchment paper in order to avoid blackened bottoms. This is truly key to scone success. If you don't, your scone bottoms will be charred while the innards are still doughy. I learned this little nugget from the amazing book A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. If you are looking for a good baking recipe book, this is it!

From Olive Bread to Cheesecake, this book has it all

And, in reference to my Simple Food qualifications, I am willing to make allowances for baking, since the only non-simple ingredient is baking powder. Call me a hypocrite, but I just love scones that much.

And now to the main event...

Cheesy-Bacon Scones

Yields 10-12

3 cups Flour

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

¾ cup unsalted Butter, frozen then shredded

1 cup Sharp Cheddar, shedded

¼ cup Bacon bits (4 strips bacon chopped and fried up crispy)

3 tablespoons Chives, finely chopped

¾ cup whole Milk

1 tablespoon White Vinegar

1 large Egg

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Add shredded cheese to shredded butter and put them in the freezer for a few minutes.

Add Flour, Sugar, Salt, and Baking Powder to the food processor and pulse a few time to combine, add Bacon bits and Chives and pulse a couple more times.

Add Butter and Cheese to the food processor and pulse until the mixture is a bit coarse and grainy. Then turn it out into a mixing bowl.

Whisk together Milk, Vinegar and Egg thoroughly.

Make a well in the middle of the Flour Butter mixture and pour in the Milk and Egg mixture. Combine with a pastry cutter (or 2 butter knives) until the mixture clumps together. Marcy Goldman describes the ideal dough texture as “shaggy” and I think that's as good a word for it as any.

Stack 2 baking sheets and line with parchment paper. With your hands, form a scant ½ cup of dough at a time into a loose ball and place on the baking sheet. Some of the dough will not stick, and that is fine, just pat it on to the top of one of the scones.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. The tops and bottoms of the scones should be golden brown and the inside moist and flaky.

If you need to do more than one round of baking to accomodate all the dough, put the dough in the fridge while you wait for one tray to bake.

Classic Collards

Classic Collards

Ok, well the title is kind of misleading, but this is my take on a classic collard green preparation, complete with bacon fat. This recipe can be applied to any leafy green (kale, chard, mustard, spinach...etc) you just have to adjust the cooking time accordingly. It's flavorful and keeps well. I tend to make a big batch and add bits of it to scrambled eggs, pasta dishes, or as a vegetable side with my lentils and rice. These collards also make a great side for a dinner party, since they are easy to prepare. You can put a lot of time and energy into your main dish(es) and throw this together just before go time.

The gorgeous raw material!

Hearty leafy greens have thick, dense stems, and a mistake I often see is that people leave them in. I think this has a lot to do with the prevailing image of kale, collards, and mustard as tough and unappetizing. So take the time to remove the whole stem. One stem-y bite that a guest has to gnaw on til it's just cellulosic shreds is going to ruin all the delicious bacon-y goodness of the rest of the dish.

Just slice the whole thing right out

Classic Collards

Yields 4 servings

½ cup Bacon, frozen then finely chopped (3 -4 strips)

1 pinch Red Pepper Flakes

3 cloves Garlic, sliced

3 tablespoons White Cooking Wine

1 bunch Collard Greens, de-stemmed and sliced into ¼ inch strips

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large wok over high heat and add Bacon immediately. When just a bit of the fat begins to melt off, add Red Pepper Flakes. Adjust the size of the “pinch” according to how spicy you like your food, a little goes a long way.

Stir frequently until the Bacon is just starting to show some browned spots. Add Garlic, and stir.

When the Bacon is nicely browned add the White Wine. Once you add the liquid, the Bacon won't get any browner or more crisp, so make sure you are ready!

Add in the Collards and toss to coat. Use two utensils, some tongs, your hands, or some combination of said instruments to get that good flavor base distributed throughout your Collards.

Stir frequently for 2 minutes to cook down the Wine, then cover. 

After 3 more minutes check the Greens. If they are tender, you are done! If not cover for another minute and taste again. This part is subjective. Some people like them more well-done than others, so the choice is yours.

Salt and pepper to taste, stir, and serve!

Note:  If you are going to use this preparation on other greens here's a little info on relative cooking times.  Kale cooks in slightly less time than Collards, Mustard Greens in slightly less times that Kale, Chard in slightly less time than Mustard, and Spinach cooks almost instantaneously (so make sure your wine is already cooked off, before you add it).

Rice Noodle Salad with Sesame-Soy Dressing

In preparation for camping, I thought I'd whip up this quick, shelf-stable recipe. It's fresh tasting and healthy, and can easily be made WHILE camping. Just bring the veggies and dressing along and cook the noodles in the great outdoors. I did it at home for a couple of reasons: I wanted to make a pretty blog post, and we want to spend more time mountain biking and rock-climbing on the trip, and less time cooking.

This dish uses Sambal Oelek chili paste, or Sriracha. These do not meet my Simple Food criteria, and I was planning on making my own (see recipes here and here), but I ran out of time before the trip. However stay posted for an in depth look at homemade Sriracha style hot sauce in the future.

I learned this dish while working at the fancy hotel restaurant. We did a Sunday brunch and every Saturday the French cook I worked under—let's call him B—and I made this as well as four other beautifully garnished, delicious salads. No one ever ate them. They were all lovely dishes, but with so many other options (prime rib, caviar, and a chocolate fondue fountain to name a few), guests treated the salads as mere decorations. Nonetheless, B spent hours making them perfect. I asked why once and he replied in his thick, charming accent, “Because I want to know that if Chef tastes them, he cannot say SHIT about MY salads.”

B taught me many things while I worked with him. I learned the importance of having a spray bottle of canola oil in my kitchen (for applying oil to pans, coating pasta, or veggies, or greasing cake pans), how to handle knives, and tons of recipes and techniques. I also learned to never get involved with a co-worker. So here's to B: a good friend, a great mentor, and an amazing cook.

Thanks B!

Quick note about prepping the veggies for this one: I julienne the veggies for this recipe. I think it looks pretty and goes nicely with the long noodles. If you have a mandolin with teeth attachment, use that for the carrots. But watch your fingers! If not...

Julienne-ing carrots is hard to do by hand. Use a sharp knife and cut the carrots in half across the middle to start. This way you have to shorter pieces to work with and the fatter top is separate from the tapered bottom. From there, cut the bottom in half lengthwise so there is a flat surface for the carrot to rest on, and slice thin strips. Do the same for the top, except cut it in to thirds or quarters lengthwise, depending on how fat your carrot is. This gives you thin slices, not match-stick julienne carrots. But unless your friends/family are real jerks, no one should complain.

Bell peppers are easier. Just cut in half lengthwise, remove as much of the seeds and ribs as you can by hand, and rinse. Then, and this is totally optional, I like to trim away any remaining white parts (along the ribs or at the ends) with the tip of my knife. After that, just flatten the halves out a little for easier slicing and cut long, thin slices.

Before

After!

Now for the fun part!

Rice Noodle Salad with Sesame-Soy Dressing

Yield 8 servings

You will need:

They come in nice compact packages for
backpacking

1 package Thin Rice Noodles (approx. 8.8 oz)

Canola Oil spray

½ cup Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon Sambol Oelek or Sriracha (more if you like it spicy)

2 tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar

1/3 cup Canola Oil

1/3 cup Sesame Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 Carrots, Julienned

2 Red Bell Peppers, Julienned

3-6 Green Onions (depending on size), sliced on a steep angle

Garnish: Cilantro and Sesame Seeds

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While you wait, prepare a bowl of ice water and have it ready. When water boils, turn heat off and submerge your Rice Noodles in it. Stir them around to separate them so they cook evenly. They only take 1 or 2 minutes to cook, so try one after one minute. They should be springy but not crunchy.

Drain noodles and submerge your colander in the ice water. I do it this way to keep from having to pick ice cubes out of my noodles. Stir the noodles around so that the ones in the middle don't continue cooking.

Allow excess water to drain.

I have a sub-par colander, so I have to get creative

Transfer noodles to a large bowl. I like to cut my noodles with kitchen scissor while I do this. Shorter noodles are easier to manage if you and your friends or family will be serving yourselves. I also spray the noodles with that handy Canola Oil in a spray bottle so they don't clump up.

Now make the dressing. Whisk together the Soy Sauce, Sambol Oelek (or Sriracha), and rice vinegar.

Whisk in the two Oils. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Add about half the dressing to the noodles and toss to coat.

Add in the veggies and toss to combine.  Then add as much of the remaining dressing as you see fit. I use it all, some might find this over-dressed. Toss thoroughly.

Garnish and there you go!

Note: For camping purposes, I just mixed the garnish right on in for less fuss.

Hummus!

The Perfect Pot Luck Food

So this weekend my co-habitant and I are going camping with some buddies. I was brainstorming a good, transportable camp snack when I remembered my old friend, hummus. Flavorful, protein packed, and relatively shelf stable I am almost certain this will be a camp hit.

Hummus and I have a history. When I was vegan, up to 30% of my diet was hummus (not recommended). When I worked at the co-op, we had a hummus making work-shift where some lucky member would make a 5-gallon bucket of hummus for the house each week. We got some very creative flavors like Spicy Peanut Butter and Shroomy-Bloomy Mushroom, but for me a classic garlicky, lemony hummus stands alone as a perfect food.

When I moved out of the co-op and into my job as the Sierra staff cook, I thought I knew how to make hummus. Then I met Itamar. Itamar is an Israeli outdoor educator and Middle Eastern food enthusiast. One day he imposed himself upon me as I made hummus, and offered his uninvited critique of my process. At first I was resistant, but he knew his stuff and helped coach me to new levels of chickpea mastery. Here are a few of the pointers he gave me:

1. Cook those chickpeas for a LONG time. They should literally fall apart.
2. Use lots of tahini. FYI: American tahini is different from the stuff available in the Middle East, something about the processing of the sesame seeds. So don't tell your Israeli or Syrian friends that you've made an exact replica of their Grandma's hummus. They will know.
3. Use lots of lemon.
4. Blend your lemon juice, tahini and spices separate from your chick peas, and mix them together by hand.

My hummus has vastly improved, thanks to Itamar's counsel. Try your hand at this recipe for a tasty snack or an impressive appetizer for the next backyard barbeque. It yields a lot, so have some available tupperware.  And heads up, you are going to need a food processor. If you don't have one, thumb through your Rolodex for a friend who will lend you theirs, because doing this by hand will be...quite messy.

This is a time intensive recipe, which is why I make big batches. Don't be intimidated, most of the time is just spent on waiting for the chickpeas to cook. For the most part, the food processor does the rest for you.

Thank you, Modern Wonder!

Hummus

yields 8 cups

You will need:

3 cups dried chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), soaked in water for 18 hours

                       

Before

After

Water for cooking beans

1 tablespoon Salt

2 Bay Leaves

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

4 cloves Garlic, sliced

1 teaspoon Cumin

2 teaspoons Paprika

2 teaspoons Salt

1 pinch Chili Flake

Several grinds Black Pepper

1 ¼ cups Tahini

Juice of 5 Lemons

½ teaspoon Coriander (For all of you who speak English as opposed to Amurican: I mean the powder, not Cilantro leaves)

Olive Oil (if needed)

Garnish: (mix and match) chopped Parsley, finely minced Red Onion, Olive Oil, Paprika, Zatar (mine was a gift from Itamar straight from the West Bank, and I haven't seen it in my shopping trips at home), Black Pepper, and Salt.

First drain and rinse your soaked Chickpeas. Cover with water in a nice stock pot and add 1 tbsp. Salt and Bay Leaves. Make sure you have plenty of water. In my pot, that means about 1 inch above chickpea level. Cover the pot, bring it to a boil, and reduce to a simmer...for about 4 hours. That's right, cook those chickpeas low and slow for 4 hours until they are soft and plump.

Strain the chickpeas, reserving the chickpea water and remove Bay Leaves. Allow chickpeas and liquid to cool, in their own bowls.

Heat a saute pan over Medium High heat and add Olive oil. Add 4 cloves sliced Garlic, and about 30 seconds later add the spices (Cumin, Paprika, Salt, Chili Flake, and Black Pepper). Stir and saute for another 30 seconds then remove from heat.

Add the Spice Mixture to your food processor along with Tahini, Lemon Juice, Raw Garlic and Coriander. Process until smooth. If the mixture is too stiff add a bit of Olive Oil to loosed it up (¼ cup at most). The texture should be like creamy peanut butter.  Spatula this into a separate bowl.

Add Chickpeas to food processor in batches. Add ½ to ¾ cups reserved liquid to each batch, and process. The texture should approximate what you want your final product to be. I like mine a smooth as possible, but if you like yours chunky go on ahead.  Spatula chickpea mixture into a large bowl.

Add in Tahini mixture in three parts, stirring to combine. Taste it and adjust the flavor as you see fit, and don't feel like you have to saute the corrective spices.

Set....

Ready

Hummus!

 Garnish whatever amount you are going to serve, and refrigerate the rest for later.

I will eat any form of hummus.  In this iteration I had it with a corn tortilla, some salad greens from my garden and a little cheddar cheese.