Walnut Pesto

There were giant bunches of basil staring me down at the farm stand. They said:
"My only desire in my short basil-y life is to be pesto."
And so I acquiesced.
Basil can be very persuasive. 

Walnut Pesto

Makes about 6oz

A couple roasted garlic cloves, more or less to taste

1 ounce fresh basil leaves

1 ounce walnuts

3 tablespoons grated romano or parmesan cheese

1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil

juice from half of a lemon

a few pinches of salt

First roast the garlic. (click here to learn how)

Next, combine garlic, basil and walnuts in a food processor and process for 30 seconds or until chopped fairly evenly. While the food processor is still running drizzle in olive oil, then the cheese and lemon juice. Add salt to taste but remember the cheese is salty already.

Toss pesto with warm pasta, or spread on crusty baguette (my favorite way to eat it). Also makes a great spread for sandwiches, a base for bruschetta, or pizza; and it's delicious mixed with ricotta, in calzones and stuffed shells.

Pickle Failure

It seems like everyone has pickle story. Some have long been singing the praises of all-things-fermented or brined and some are just learning to like them but never-the-less, recipes are popping up everywhere.

If you follow me on flickr, you saw my pickles in their early stages. Plump, kirby cucumbers - nestled together with spices - working hard to ferment themselves. What you did not see coming (and neither did I) was the mold. That's right, I pulled my pickles out a week ago only to discover a thick layer of fuzzy mold on top of a thin egg-white-looking layer blanketing the top of my pickles (too much information?).

I peeled up the mold and examined my pickles to see if they were okay underneath the white layer - they weren't. They were soft and squishy and definitely not something I wanted to eat. Sigh. 

Finally, I dumped the whole jar and sent an email to Shannalee to see if she could figure out what I did wrong. We both decided that I let them ferment for too long (two weeks). I also read numerous sites that said to put the jar in a dark place while they ferment - which is what I did and I think that helped the mold along as well. Oh well.

I bought another bunch of cucumbers from the same farm and started a new jar. This time I put them on the counter where I could keep an eye on the sneaky little mold-producers and I only let them sit 6 days.
This afternoon, I pulled one out, cut it open and took a bite.

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed. They are just barely pickled yet the tops of one or two are already slightly soft and threatening to turn to mush. Leaving them out to ferment a bit longer is not an option...I can sense them just daring me to leave them one more day so they can grow that thick mold again. Gross. So my question for you is, what now? Am I expecting too much from a pickle without vinegar? Maybe this is how they are supposed to taste. I don't know, I guess I'll try again.

These fussy, little, good-for-you bacteria better get it together or I'm going to ditch them for their better-tasting cousin, yogurt. We're already good friends anyway.

Failed (or not?) Lacto-Fermented Pickles

Adapted from Food Loves Writing

Pickling cucumbers
Water
Kosher Salt

Caraway Seeds

Whole Black Peppercorns

1/2 of a white onion, peeled and chopped in large chunks

3 garlic cloves, peeled

Fill a quart size mason jar about a quarter or a third full with water, and add two tablespoons of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds, 1 tablespoon of black peppercorns, three garlic cloves and the onion chunks. Add in cucumbers, as many as will fit comfortably, and then fill the rest of the jar with water, leaving a little room at the top. Cover and set on the counter for 5 to 8 days (I left mine for 6). Put them in the refrigerator when they are done fermenting or when you sense they will turn moldy if don't. 

Hopefully yours turn out better than mine!

With eyes toward tomorrow.

"All the bags are checked

And the reasons why

Yesterday lingers on

That’s the piece you keep when you say goodbye".

- Conor Oberst (Monsters of Folk)

Just like realizing you've out grown snow days, discovering you no longer have a place in a city you previously called home, is a hard pill to swallow. It may be a gradual realization or it may hit you head on when you return for a visit, either way it's your  first step in going forward - especially if you've been dragging your feet as much as I have.

Above picture courtesy of Max Horowitz

I went back to Binghamton this weekend to go to Spiedie Fest and to spend a night out with some friends before we scatter to all parts of the country, including Alaska, South Carolina, Georgia and New York.

We raised our glasses and celebrated with those who are leaving to settle in a new place and commiserated with those who don't know what to do next. We made promises of visits and tucked loose questions into neatly packaged answers wrapped in promises not to fall out of touch.

Saturday night blurred into Sunday morning without skipping a beat. The sun rose, as it always does, and brought with it a new relief and nothing left to do but head off in our various directions.

The drive back down state was three hours longer than usual but somehow underlined with a sense of calm;  the monotony broken up by a roadside farm stand in Monticello. A small sign on the highway lured me off with the promise of local peaches but I left with no less than two pounds of tomatoes, 2 onions, 2 green peppers, 4 ears of corn, 1/2 pound of string beans, 1 pound of white peaches and 1 and a half pounds of the best apricots I've ever eaten. The farmer was friendly and talkative as were his customers and suddenly nothing seemed as important as his local produce. The traffic and roadwork became irrelevant and the uncertainty of tomorrow faded in the presence of a plump, imperfect tomato. After that, I opted to avoid the main thruway for as long as possible, instead choosing a winding state road that meandered through small towns.

When I finally walked in the door at 9pm, I turned one of my farm-stand tomatoes into bruschetta, topped with basil from our backyard. The simplicity of it was familiar and comforting and I ate it on the back patio in the cool, dark night. Afterwards, I folded myself into bed and set my eyes toward tomorrow.

Farm-stand Bruschetta

Serves 1-2

1 Large beefsteak tomato; washed and chopped, seeds removed

1-2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing on bread

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

fresh basil

1 large clove of garlic

2 large slices thickly cut bread

Toss chopped tomato with 1-2 teaspoons olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

brush both sides of bread lightly with olive oil. place in oven or toaster oven on 375 degrees or grill on medium until golden. Remove and rub garlic clove on top side of bread. 

Top with tomato mixture and garnish with basil.

Add another grind of salt and pepper if desired.

Enjoy!

Click here for more pictures from the weekend.

An August Sun.

Have you ever noticed how the sun feels different in different seasons or even during the same one. Sometimes it's a gradual change and sometimes it's a quick flip flop. You go to bed one night exhausted from the humidity and wake up the next morning to the forgiving dry heat of late summer. The air is less heavy, the sun is in a different place and, oh my, there is a breeze! Green tomatoes turn red, stone fruits are suddenly sweeter, and basil continues to grow in abundance. The sun is a little lower in the sky than it was at the same hour just a month before, but that's not all; somehow, some way, it's just a little different. You can't quite explain why, it's just different than it was a few days before.

Last saturday, that is precisely what happened. It was still just July 31st but I woke up to an August sun.
For me, August is the summer that I love. It's the month of fresh tomato salads and more local corn that you thought you could ever possibly eat. It's zucchini from one of the only two remaining farms in Nassau County. It's homemade pickles (recipe soon!), long bike rides and ice cream after rock climbing (soft serve please!). Best of all, it's the month of assembling foods instead of cooking them; because the best way to eat foods this fresh, is with minimal alteration.

I stumbled across Shannalees's post about peaches and basil and the recipe looked so good that it was the very next thing I ate. Coincidentally, I seem to want a cool blob of  ricotta cheese on everything that I eat these days and that's exactly what was dropped on top of her open-face sandwich.


Because I have to be difficult, I made a few of my own changes like, adding arugula, leaving off the butter and honey and swapping the sourdough for whole seeded rye (it's what I had at home). I also swapped the peach for a nectarine because, again, it's what I had at home.

Nectarines and Basil on Toast

Adapted from Food Loves Writing. 

Serves one.

One large slice whole rye bread (or whatever sliced bread you like)

Small handful baby arugula or baby spinach

One nectarine, sliced

A couple leaves of fresh basil (I picked it from my garden!)

A few blobs of ricotta (If you're near NYC I like Colabro brand the best)

Sea salt and black pepper

Toast bread. Top with arugula then sliced nectarine and basil. Drop small blobs of ricotta on top and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. 

Enjoy immediately!

Maple Nut Granola

I don't make granola all that often because I'm usually tempted to eat the entire batch. All 10 cups. Most of it probably before it even cools. However, today I went cross-country skiing and figured that was as good an excuse as any to make a batch. It's easy to carry, convenient and good energy when you're skiing for a few hours.

A little while back I made Hazelnut Almond Granola and thought I had finally figured out the secret to granola. It even had those coveted clusters. It turns out, clusters are not necessarily the way to go. Recently Cathy showed me a recipe for maple nut granola from Terry Walters' Clean Food. We made it last weekend and it was honestly the best I've ever had/made. It's not clumpy, which makes it perfect for yogurt and it is sweetened with only maple syrup. I adapted it slightly, leaving out cashews and switching raisins for dried unsweetened cherries. You could really mix in whatever you like, just make sure to put the dried fruit in after you bake the granola and whatever you do, don't leave out the almond extract.

Maple Nut Granola

If you can't find crispy brown rice cereal, regular rice crispies work fine. Just make sure you don't buy puffed rice cereal. Makes 10 cups. 

4 cups rolled oats 

2 cups crispy brown rice cereal

1 cup sunflower seeds 

1 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut 

1 cup sliced almonds 

1/2 cup walnuts (or whatever other nuts you like)

1 cup unsweetened dried cherries (or whatever dried fruit you like) 

2 Tbls ground cinnamon 

3/4 cup canola oil 

3/4 cup (real) maple syrup 

1 tsp almond extract. 

Mix dry ingredients except for fruit, set aside

In another bowl whisk oil, syrup and almond extract together

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix until well coated

Spread evenly on 2 9x13 casserole or half jelly roll pans. If you're oven isn't big enough to place them side by side put one on the lower rack but make sure you switch them half way through.

Bake at 250 for 60 minutes or until golden. (I got a little impatient and turned it up to 300 or maybe even 350 at one point. Just keep stirring it every few minutes so the bottom doesn't burn

Let cool, mix in dried cherries or other dried fruit

Picture courtesy of Mike Zuber