A Pesto for all Seasons

I'm sure most of you already know pesto as that bright green pasta sauce made with tons of fresh basil and pine nuts. It's really easy (& quick!) to make, especially if you use a food processor or similar device.

There's a few problems though: (1) Basil is grown here as a summertime annual, meaning your wintertime cravings rely on imported herbs that probably aren't going to be of the same quality as summer's abundance. (2) If you've tried to purchase pine nuts lately, you'll notice they've become quite a commodity-- I saw them being sold for over $20 per pound! Pine nuts, literally the seed that develops in a pine cone, take about 18 months to develop. In that timespan, a lot can go wrong. This past year, for instance, the warmer temperature patterns in Utah meant that their pine trees didn't get the consistent nourishment from the snowpack they need, so a lot of the seeds never fully developed.

So what do you do when you can't make that classic pesto? Make it with kale and other nuts instead, of course! And you know what? It tastes amazing. Here's my favorite winter pesto recipe:

A Pesto for all Seasons (especially winter)

INGREDIENTS

Yields 1.5 - 2 cups.

• 1 bunch green kale (lacinato/dino is best) stripped from stems
  
• 3/4 cup walnuts & almonds, or any other nuts you have on hand
  
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and trimmed
  
• 1/2 lemon, for juice
  
• 1/2 cup shaved parmesan
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1 Place your nuts in the food processor, and chop them up a bit. They'll still remain pretty chunky and uneven, but that's okay. Add in the garlic, parmesan, and olive oil, then squeeze the juice from half a lemon in, too. Process this mixture for a few minutes, or until everything looks pretty evenly incorporated. Once it's at this stage, be sure to stop otherwise it will start getting overly thick.

2 Give your food processor a break while you prepare the greens. Be sure to wash them, and take out the tough stem in the center. You'll want to blanch them-- this can be done simply by bringing a pot of water to a boil, then dumping the kale in. Let them remain in the bath just long enough for the water to return to a boil (a few minutes), then quickly remove the greens to a colander and run under a cold-water shower.

3 Next, take the kale and squeeze the water out of it, handfuls at a time, and place the leaves in the food processor along with your nut and oil concoction. Process the greens in with everything until it has a uniform appearance! If you notice that some of the greens aren't being mixed in, take a spatula and shove them down towards where the blades are. This recipe makes relatively low-oil pesto, but you can feel free to add as much as you want for desired consistency.

SERVING

I almost love this version of pesto more than the classic basil version! Either works great on pasta (duh), but I also enjoy it as a sandwich spread, or a dip for veggies.

RELATED INFORMATION

My entry all about kale!

Taste Test #3: Shiney Diney Kale; Dino Kale

Name(s): Shiny Diney kale (pictured); similar to Lacinato ('Dino') kale
Availability in CA: These varieties are more often found Nov. - Apr. but some farmers can grow them year-round.
Characteristics: Kale is the 'dark, leafy green' your doctor means for you to eat. Aside from being good for you, kales can provide an array of tastes: raw leaves are more bitter, but cook for 10 - 15 minutes (steam or saute) and it will sweeten up a bit. If you're sick of your salad greens, try the hearty, full flavor of these guys!

Taste Test #2: Romanesco Cauliflower/Broccoli

Name(s): Romanesco, Romanesco broccoli, Roman cauliflower, broccoflower, coral broccoli
Availability in CA: can be year-round, but is easiest to find late Nov. - Apr.
Characteristics: Part of the fun of this plant is that the bright green buds form in a logarithmic spiral shape. A lot of people are thrown off by the name(s), but in truth this plant is closer to cauliflower than broccoli, which is why I simply call it 'romanesco'. If you don't like cauliflower, I should mention that this tastes better, in fact, and imparts an even nuttier taste.

It tastes just fine steamed up all on its own, but, like other cole crops, take care not to overcook it. It's often overcooked veggies that are the culprit when folks complain about something 'smelling like farts' or having an off-putting texture. In recipes, you'll find it paired with garlic and lemon, but if you find yourself with a head of it on hand, try substituting it in a place you would normally use broccoli, and you'll probably enjoy it!

Spiced Romanesco Rigatoni

I love this dish. I kind of hate to admit that I originally found it on some website with Rachel Ray's face all over it. I remember that someone had written in the comments section, "too bland. wouldn't bother again", but I totally disagree. Romanesco, apart from looking cool, has a nutty flavor that works well with the chili powder and citrus. That's the real secret to this recipe. (More on romanesco here!)

Spiced Romanesco Rigatoni

INGREDIENTS

Yields about 6 servings.

• 2 heads romanesco, broken into florets
  
• 2 - 4 cups dried pasta (make as much as you like)
  
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
  
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  
• 1 large onion, peeled, diced
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 3 tbsp. butter
  
• 1 tsp. grated lemon peel (get a lemon and grate it. Use the inside for your water?)
  
• 2 springs fresh rosemary (talk a walk and steal some from a neighbor's yard)
  
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 2/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated or shaved
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1 Get your pasta cooking. Simple enough!

2 Pull out a big saucepan and melt your butter in it at medium high, then add the onions and garlic. Once these have browned up a bit, pour the apple cider vinegar and soup stock in. After about a minute, toss in the romanesco, lemon peel, rosemary, and chili powder. Salt & pepper to taste, then cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

3 Once the pasta is done cooking, drain most of the water off, reserving about a cup to add to the broth. In a serving bowl, combine the pasta (along with reserved water), romanesco/broth mixture, walnuts, and some of the cheese. If you want a quick way to toast walnuts, just lay them flat on a dish and microwave for 1 minute.

SERVING

Put out a bowl with extra cheese in case folks want to add some on top. It helps to have a ladle around in case you want to drizzle extra broth over your dish, too.

Quinoa Bake

Quinoa is kind of one of those things that you just have to try, even if you're skeptical of it. In terms of nutrition, all sorts of people put it up on a pedestal. It's high in protein, containing a balanced set of amino acids, plus there's magnesium, phosphorus, iron, etc. It's really quite special, and can be happily substituted in a lot of places you would put some generic carb item that probably wouldn't give you as much protein. Of course, these days you can find quinoa pasta, flour, and any number of other processed items so you can really sneak it in there if you're interested in its health benefits but not much else.

To be honest, though, it actually tastes pretty great all on its own. It cooks up into light, airy halos of simple, slightly sweet, somewhat nutty flavor. It's prepared similarly to rice-- in fact you can use a rice cooker if you want. If you're interested in trying it during the winter season, but plain quinoa seems too bland, try a quinoa bake that uses sun-dried tomatoes to give it that warm-weather feel.

Quinoa Cheese Bake

INGREDIENTS

Yields about 6 servings.

• 8 ounces dark, leafy greens like kale or spinach
  
• 4 cups quinoa
  
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes- if you want to make them more tender, soak them in some olive oil
  
• 1/2 head of broccoli or cauliflower, broken into small florets
  
• 1 large onion, peeled, diced
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 tsp. fresh sage, chopped
  
• 3 oz. cheese, grated- gruyere or white cheddar work well
• 1 oz. cheese for topping, grated - try parmesan
  
• Olive oil and/or butter (there are oil people, and there are butter people!)
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1 Cook up your quinoa and set aside. To cook the raw germ, first rinse it thoroughly to dissolve the naturally occurring bitter coating on the outside. Most commercial quinoa is industrially rinsed, but it doesn't hurt to do this yourself anyway. Combine 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water, bring to boil for about 15 minutes, or until liquid is gone. That's all there is to it. Cut up your leafy greens into easy to chew strips

2 Prep your veggies. If your sun-dried tomatoes are suspended in a chunk of congealed olive oil, now's the time to let them defrost on the counter. Pull apart the head of broccoli or cauliflower so that the florets are somewhere between dime or quarter sized, depending on your preference. When all this is done, preheat your oven to 400ºF.

3 Heat up some olive oil in a pan, and add the diced onion. After a few minutes, add your garlic in, along with the florets, and let this begin to brown. When you think there's only about 3 minutes left until the florets are done, toss in the greens and the sun-dried tomatoes. After the 3 minutes, remove from heat.

4 Combine the quinoa and the mixture from the pan in a bowl. Add in the cheese, sage, and some s 'n p, and toss it until everything is incorporated evenly. Scoop it into a 9" x 9" casserole dish so that it creates a thick layer. You might want to tamp it down a bit so it is even. Then sprinkle your parmesan over the top.

4 Bake in the oven at 400ºF for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat in the oven, and let it sit for another 5 minutes before taking it out.

SERVING

Eat it warm and toasty, with any sort of seasonings you like. I made a little mixture of soy sauce and red wine vinegar for mine. Another thing that's nice about this dish is that it is easy to save and reheat the following days for lunch or dinner, and won't get a soggy texture.

Sliders, Your Own Way

What is it about miniature foods that makes them that much more enticing?

I'm not going to bother answering that here, as I'm sure we can all come up with a few reasons. I will say this, though: if you tend not to prepare meat for yourself very often, or, hey, maybe you don't even eat meat that often anyway, I think some truly homemade sliders are a good place to start.

What I mean by truly homemade is that you start with good meat. I find myself pretty grossed out by a fair portion of the meat that finds its way into burgers, however it would be outright wrong for me to say I don't like fast food burgers. When I'm out of state, I salivate when I think of an In-N-Out Burger. And, much as I hate to admit this, my I'm-starving-and-I'm-hating-today comfort food tends to be a Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl's Jr.

But I think I may have actually found a replacement. For me, the "best burgers ever" are about the patty. Here's what I'm suggesting:

INGREDIENTS & CONTRAPTIONS

Yeah, you're going to need a meat grinder for this one. You can get a manual one for around $40. If you are near the San Jose flea market, they have some on the cheap, too!

• Your choice of meat. [This is the best part. You can pick what you like! I like lean, grass-fed cuts that don't have a lot of ligaments or other 'stuff' in them.]
  
• Any sort of herbs, spices, etc. you want to incorporate. Ideas: onion, garlic, lemon juice, pepper, salt, cilantro, oregano, basil, dried tomatoes, etc.
  

PREPARATION

1 Cut your meat into pieces that your grinder can work with, often times 1.5" strips or so. Trim off any portions of meat you don't want to eat.

2 Grind it through once, collecting it in a bowl.

3 Mix in any spices you'd like. Depending on the texture you want, and how well distributed you want the flavor, you can do this entirely by hand, or you can start using your hands, and then finish by running the mixture through the grinder a second time.

4 When you're done, use a simple kitchen scale to weigh your meat. Since grinding meat is a bigger task, you can grind a bunch up and then pack bags of whatever amount you normally eat for freezing. I like to do mostly one pound bags, labeled with the weight, the date I ground it, and what I added in.

SERVING

This is the easy part. You probably know exactly what you like on your burger. Here's some ways you can change it up, though, if you're feeling like your go-to combination is getting old:

• Make a slider bar: Cook up patties that are just under 2 inches across. Cut buns into fourths, make your own, or use some bread instead. Put out all the fixin's and let everyone go to town.
• Do a cheese change-up: Seriously. If you already know you don't hate cheese, I can pretty much guarantee you there's more cheeses out there your pallet will like. Do some research at the special cheese bar in a grocery store. Lately, I'm loving melting the amazingly creamy Point Reyes Blue Cheese on mine, but I'm also partial to Gruyere.
• Add the forgotten veggies: And there are many: kale, chard, asparagus, kohlrabi, leek, carrots, etc. Often they should be cooked first, but still. There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes to choose from, at least try a different kind now and then!

FAVORITE COMBOS

Green onions, Sriracha (or your favorite hot sauce) patty + meunster cheese + kale

Chipotle spiced patty + sauteed sweet peppers

Soy sauce'd patty + blue cheese + wasabi mayonnaise + bitter greens

Garlic, celery salt spiced patty + pesto sauce + sundried tomatoes + mozzarella or ramano cheese


Now if only I could find a good mini-bun recipe...

Make Your Own Creme Fraiche

The Oxford dictionary defines creme fraiche as 'a type of thick cream made from heavy cream with the addition of buttermilk, sour cream, or yogurt'. A lot of people wonder what the difference is between sour cream and creme fraiche, as they are often used interchangeably in recipes, particularly in savory soups. If you've tried different store-bought varieties before, you'll notice that there is indeed a range: some are soupier than sour cream, and less tangy, some are much thicker, and more tangy, and some are even sweet. In my opinion, creme fraiche is simply more 'creamy'-- so it tastes more like cream.

This does tend to mean more fat, yes, but I'm not an anti-fat person. Especially not tasty, naturally occurring milk fat. Consider that this is something you add to recipes as a topping usually, so you probably don't need to stress out over exactly how much fat is in it. (In my humble opinion.)

You can find it in plenty of stores, and often times pay a pretty penny for it, or you can make it yourself, on the cheap. If you make it yourself, you're in charge of all the factors of its taste: how sour it is, how thick it is, and the quality of the ingredients, of course. And it's easy and fun, too!

INGREDIENTS
Yields just over 2 cups.

• 2 cups heavy cream-- I advocate as unadulterated, fresh-from-the-cow as you can get. You'll taste a difference. Also, it takes ultra-pasteurized cream longer to thicken, so avoid that if you can.
  

• 1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk (or previous batch of creme fraiche)

PREPARATION
1 Warm up the cream on the stove, but don't boil it. Take it off the heat and let it naturally cool down to room temperature.
2 Transfer to a bowl, and then add in your yogurt or buttermilk, cover it with a loose rag. Keep it on the kitchen counter at room temperature to let it culture. After about 12 hours you'll want to taste it. If you like it more sour or tangy, leave it another 12 - 24 hours. You'll notice the heat will expedite this process, so keep in mind that the amount of time you leave it out for your desired tanginess might differ throughout the year.
3 Once it's done, put in in a sealed jar in the fridge, and you can use it for up to two weeks. At the tail end of those two weeks, you can use a 1/4 cup of it to make a new batch. Amazing, cheap, and simply delicious.

SERVING
Creme fraiche is great on savory soups and stews, but can also go well with desserts, particularly fruit. You can even whip sugar in (1-2 tablespoons granulated white sugar to 1 cup creme fraiche) and use it in place of whipping cream. It really is all-star.

Borsch / Borscht / Borshch

What a haul of purple vegetables! Purple Dragon Carrots were the highlight of my meal that night.

The first 'real meal' I made after setting my goal was a vegetable borsch, a soup known for its use of beets, and the fact that it is often served with sour cream. In this case, I made creme fraiche to go along with it, which is incredibly easy to make (see how here) and, in my opinion, tastes better than sour cream. There are about a million versions of borsch in traditional Russian and Polish households; some use beef, some are strictly vegetable, some are served hot, some are served cold. I chose not to put meat flesh in mine, although I did use beef broth as the soup base, but you could opt not to if you'd prefer to avoid it.

The great thing about this dish is that you can kind of sneak in as many other vegetables as you'd like. For one, the beets dye everything a deep red color, so feeding carrots to kids becomes a sneaky trick. The flavors that stand out to me as most important in a borsch are the beets, meat if you want it, onion, vinegar, dill and creme fraiche. Aside from that, you can add/subtract the other ingredients as you see fit. Here's what I did:

INGREDIENTS

Yields about 6 servings.

• 8 cups broth (beef broth works well!)
  
• 5 large beets, peeled, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled, chopped
• 1 large potato, cubed
• 1 large onion, peeled, quartered
• 2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
• 3/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
  
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 Tbsp white vinegar
  
• 1 cup creme fraiche
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1 Cut up, peel, and prepare any of the vegetables. If you have one, you can throw a the beets, carrots, potato, etc. into a slicer to make it easier on your hands.

2 Bring broth to a boil, and add in your onion to flavor the base. Incorporate beets, carrots, and potato, bringing to a boil at first, and then reducing to a simmer. Cover this and let it go about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender all the way through.

3 Add in your cabbage and most of the dill (the rest you'll use as garnish) and keep it simmering for another 15 minutes.

4 Season to taste with salt and pepper how you like. Stir in the vinegars, making sure to taste test. I like my borsch vinegary, so I added extra. If you generally don't like vinegar, start with less of it and taste as you go.

SERVING

It's recommended that each serving gets a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche and a teaspoon of fresh dill. Truly, fresh creme fraiche and dill make all the difference!

Taste Test #1: Cara Cara Orange

Name(s): Cara cara navel orange
Availability in CA: late November
Characteristics: Wikipedia says, "This medium sized navel is sweet and low in acid, the flavor is more complex than most navel varieties and has been described as evoking notes of cherry, rose petal and blackberry." I like it because it reminds me of a grapefruit without the acidity. The flesh color is quite neat-- it can range from a deep pink to a dull orange.

I got these from a farmers' market, but they are common enough that you can often find them at a specialty produce shops-- I even found a big bag of them at Costco. Delicious!

A Nosher's Business Plan

I'm a twenty-something person who grew up enjoying a healthy (at least in the ‘robust’ sense of the word) rotation of fast food, “all-American” meat and potatoes, and sprinklings of 20^th-century versions of traditional Mexican and Eastern European fare throughout the year.What I’ve gotten out of this upbringing is the following:

1. I never know what to eat for dinner. And, more than that, I’m not confident in my cooking skills. I open the fridge and all I see are obtuse raw foods that my brain has a hard time imagining as anything remotely tasty. I look at cabinets of simple staples, like rice and beans, and my eyes glaze over. Like many of us, I come home from work with a mean appetite, but lacking a plan. It seems to me that preparing one’s own meals is about as primordial a skill as you can get, yet I am grossly underdeveloped in this arena.
2. I eat things ‘as-is’, not so much out of appreciation for their natural state, but more so out of sheer laziness. I used to refer to this eating style as grazing to make it sound more respectable, but there’s not a ton I respect about myself when I’m sitting on a couch in my sweatpants alternating bites of cheese, then cracker, then cheese again, instead of taking the time to simply slice the cheese into reasonable pieces and place them on the cracker like a reasonable person.
3. The repertoire of recipes, if you can even call them that, I call on is far, far too thin. I don’t try to cook enough new things to find those winning recipes that work their way into my meal cycle. Instead, you can rest assured you will find me eating grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta added to canned soup, and re-cooked sausages at least once a week, and restaurant leftovers the rest of the time.
4. I see the value, in so, so many ways, of diverting from this lifestyle. It helps that I spent a few years studying the intersection of food, agriculture, society and the environment, I admit. I grew up in the Bay Area, after all. I’ve seen first hand what happens when first generation immigrants switch from their traditional diets to the ultra-processed versions we offer on the cheap here. Almost everyone on my dad’s side of the family has type II diabetes, and my aunt passed away directly because of it when she was 30. How could I not worry about this, at least some?

Then there’s the heavy, beyond-me stuff: I’ve been blindly supporting a food system that breeds government involvement in what we eat, degradation of culinary knowledge and the environment (to name a few), and which ultimately reinforces unhealthy food choices and the status quo.

The status quo is a fair portion of what got me to be points one through three, above. Here’s what I’m going to do about it:

Goal 1: Start cooking. The easiest thing to do is jump right in, right? My plan is to cook at least twice a week with a seasonal recipe in mind beforehand. This means I have to think about what flavors I’m looking for, use my slim wallet to purchase ingredients and just try it. My focus will be on dishes that can be crafted to reflect the local bounty of special foods available to me, don’t use an unnecessary number of ingredients, and which build skills. How about instead of buying pre-made pasta sauce and lumping it on a bowl of noodles, I actually put some of the tomatoes I froze from my garden to good use?

Goal 2: Try at least 50 different varieties of produce and meats by the year’s end. Part of this plays into the big picture of appreciating the food I’m eating, which means appreciating the seasonality that the special California Bay Area climate offers me here. It means taking a hard look at the flavors offered to me and comparing them so I have a wider array of building blocks to choose from, and so I’m not always thinking “pasta” when I’m starving.

Goal 3: Simply put, eat better. Better for my body [i.e. more fruits and veggies], better for my wallet [i.e. eating out less], better for my friends who are farmers, and even better for anyone who wants to eat dinner with me.

Let’s see how I do.