Mom gave me bag of basil when I left Iowa--and I figured that basil would be perfect for Pesto sauce (p. 569). I love pesto but I've never made it...partially because fresh basil at the grocery store is so expensive.
Easy recipe--basil, Parmesan, pine nuts, and garlic cloves went into the tiny food processor. I think I halved the the recipe because I only had a cup of basil (it was still early in the season!).
It smelled absolutely divine at this point. Amazing.
Olive oil was then slowly poured in as the food processor was running (not an easy task, there wasn't a very big hole in the top of food processor).
The original goal? I was going to make TJOC pesto macaroni salad. What actually happened? I binged on the pesto smeared on crackers. And it was amazing. I want more! I can't wait until I go home and mom gives me more basil. Amazing!
I ran out of homemade curry and decided to make another batch--this time Curry powder III (p. 975). Josh and I eat a LOT of curry but I was a little afraid of this recipe. It was complex and looked like it was going to make a huge amount--what if we didn't like it? So I decided to quarter the recipe.
The long list of ingredients? Turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, pepper, red pepper flakes, fennel, mustard, poppy seeds, cloves, and mace.
I can't wait until I have a spice grinder. It's one of the items on my wedding registry that I really hope I get. Because I don't have one yet I used pepper instead of peppercorns and the fennel seeds didn't get near ground up enough.
Even so, it looked beautiful.
And it was very good. This curry yielded a much more complex flavor than the Curry powder I. Unfortunately, a quarter of the recipe wasn't very much and I had a strange suspicion that I would be mixing curry again very soon.
I had a big jar of macadamia nuts that I've been meaning to use. And now I had a jar of curry powder...the perfect combination for Flavored nut butters III. Curried macadamia butter (p. 179)! Sounds strange, right?
And it was strange. Six ounces of salted macadamia nuts, a still of cold butter, some honey, and a little curry.
The butter took forever to become "smooth".
How was it? Definitely weird. I was expect more of a peanut butter type feel and taste. This was more like nut-flavored butter not flavored nut-butter. Even so, it's tasty on a bagel. And it's fancy. I think this would be perfect for a breakfast where you are trying to impress people (the in-laws?)--it would be terrific on pancakes or waffles.
How do I get so far behind on posting? No idea. I literally have about twenty more recipes to post, so be sure to check back. And always feel free to comment or send me an email at thejoyofthejoyofcooking (at) hotmail (dot) com.
Growing your own basil is super easy! I bought a start from the nursery ($2.00) to get one going soon. But also just threw in handfuls of basil seeds along my tomatoes (as it's also a nice pest deterrent) and they're doing beautifully. I probably have 25-30 basil plants from less than one $1 packet of seeds.
ReplyDeleteLast year before the freeze I harvested all my basil and made a big batch of pesto then froze it in ice cube trays, threw the little cubes into a freezer bag and I can add pesto to things through out the winter.