Pesto: purple or green?

Pesto. Pesto is amazing. When I was a kid I thought pesto was just one herb. I didn't get it. And it seemed so FANCY - we never had anything like that at my house. 

So I've been making pesto all summer long, but then I decided, why don't I try to make pesto from PURPLE basil? I bet it'll be GORGEOUS. So I grew it from seed! So exciting. Spoiler alert: Not nearly as pretty as the green! But you will see.

This recipe: From my brain

What I changed: Whatever I wanted to change, because it's my recipe!

Ingredients:

- 2.5 cups of fresh basil, blanched (you can sub half for spinach, parsley, etc.)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/8 teaspoon pepper

- 1/8 cup of extra virgin olive oil

- 1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves (or minced if you don't have a garlic crusher thingie)

- 5-8 walnut halves, roasted

- 1/3 cup grated parmesan

STEP 1:

First, pop your walnut halves into the oven at 350 for 8-10 minutes until they are fragrant.

Next, admire your basil. It's pretty. Take the leaves off the stalk, and shout angrily at any caterpillars that have been hiding and eating your basil without your consent.

STEP 2:

Wash your basil, then blanch it for 30-60 seconds in boiling water. Pour your pot of boiling water back into your collander and gently rinse the basil with cold water so it stops cooking. Blanching the basil leaves makes it keep its gorgeous colors much longer than not blanching. 

STEP 3:

Put basil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic cloves, and olive oil together in a food processor. Process for just a few seconds, till the basil is shredded and the oil, salt, and pepper are all mixed together. Add in the walnut halves. Process again until the walnuts are well mixed in. At this point you may need to run a rubber spatula around the edges of your food processor to push down any of the pesto-to-be that has splashed up on the sides. Add in parmesan and pulse just a few times to gently mix it in.

STEP 4:

Finally, put your pesto in whatever container you would like. I made pesto earlier that day using my regular green basil, and... well.... I prefer how the green one looks, don't you? Oh well, it had to be tried.

SPECIAL TIP:

Here's a tip from BFF: let's say your basil plant has been harassing you and you just have a LOT of pesto. Too much. And it's going to go bad unless you DO SOMETHING. So freeze it! And if you freeze it in your ice cube tray, you can easily add it to hot pasta and stir it around til it melts. Peeeeerfect. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake - the most intense chocolate experience of your life

I recently had dinner with some of my awesome cousins, aunt, and uncle. I have a LOT of cousins. My dad's dad had about 8 or 9 siblings, so we have a large family. Which means pretty much wherever I go I have family. Which makes me quite happy!

Now, one of my cousins-in-law (can I do that?) has celiac disease, whereby ingesting gluten causes him extreme discomfort (among other symptoms). So when I offered to make a gluten-free dessert I would make something that didn't just replace regular gluten with gluten-free flours (for instance something made with almond flour or the like), but instead didn't call for any flour at all.

This made me recall a delicious cake I had had at a family gathering of BFF's. So I thought, LET'S DO THIS.

What recipe: Unforgettable (Flourless) Chocolate Cake by America's Test Kitchen
What I changed: Nothing! The first time I make something I try to stick as close to the recipe as possible - this is good because then I know what the original tastes like and if I feel like changing it later, I know what I'd like to add.

One of the better parts of this recipe is that is requires so few ingredients. However, it requires a lot of the few ingredients it does make use of.

*Special note - this puppy has to harden overnight in your fridge. Do not make this the same day of (like I did) unless you start it early in the morning so it has enough time to settle.

Ingredients:
- 8 COLD large eggs
- 1 pound bittersweet chocolate
- 2 sticks (half a pound) of unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup (strong) coffee, espresso, coffee flavored liqueur
- powdered sugar or cocoa powder to make it pretty

STEP 1: 
Set oven to 325 degrees F. Get out 8" springform pan. At this point start boiling water unless you have an electric kettle. Depending on the size of your high-sided roasting pan, you should be OK with 5-10 cups of water. But see STEP 5 for more information to see what the hell I'm talking about.

Coarsely chop up the chocolate and cut up the butter into 1/2 inch cubes or so. Put these together in a metal bowl to melt over boiling water (home made double-boiler!) or melt it all in batches in the microwave. Make VERY SURE not to burn this! This is the gold. Once it is all melted, mix it together and add in the coffee/espresso/coffee flavored liqueur. If doing this over a double boiler, only mix once or twice while it's melting. Temperature should reach 115 degrees F.

While the above is melting, proceed to the next step:
STEP 2:
Crack all the eggs into a large bowl, and get your electric mixer out. Mix together on high for about 5 minutes - your eggs should double in size and become almost all foam.

STEP 3:
Ideally once your eggs have doubled in volume, your chocolate mixture is done. Take 1/3 of the egg foam and fold it into the chocolate mixture. Once there are only a few small patches of egg foam still visible, add in the next third, and fold this in too. Continue until all the egg foam has been added. This should look like a fluffier chocolate mixture, with all the egg foam completely folded in.

STEP 4:
Cover the bottom of your springform pan with parchment paper (this means your cake comes out nicely at the end). Grease the sides of the pan VERY WELL - use whatever you like, butter, canola oil etc. Cover the outside of the springform pan with foil - the next part is weird, so just go with me on this one. Pour in your chocolate/butter/egg mixture. Smooth it out with a rubber spatula.

STEP 5: 
Put the springform pan into a larger roasting pan with high sides. Pour in boiling water AROUND the springform pan (absolutely NOT into it). This is why we added the foil, so water can't seep in through the springform pan while the concoction is baking.

STEP 6:
Careful put this whole setup into the oven, and bake it for 22-25 minutes. The middle should be 140 degrees F, the sides should appear to harden, and the top should have a hardened sheen to it, like the way brownie's get when they're done (thanks for that helpful tip, America's Test Kitchen!).

STEP 7: 
Pull it out of the oven, cool it down to room temperature on a cooling rack, then cover it with foil or plastic wrap and put it in your fridge overnight. Don't be concerned when you pull it out of the oven - it's gonna look like it's still wiggly and wobbly and not done. But remember, most of these ingredients melt at high temperatures. This is why the cake has to chill in the fridge overnight! As long as the outside looks right and you measured the temperature of the middle of the cake, then you are good to go.

About 30 min before you want to serve it, take this guy out of the fridge, take it out of the springform pan (I would carefully flip it upside down, take off the sides, then take the bottom and parchment paper off), dust it with powdered sugar or cocoa, and cut it in small pieces to serve. This is a SUPER rich cake, so a little goes a long way. Sorry no final money shot where the cake looks all pretty and stuff - it didn't solidify until I had put it in my cousin's freezer! ;) My family liked it served with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Mojitos Monday

This recipe: The Real Mojito Recipe

I know it's only Monday, but I need a mojito already. I'm sure you do too.

Normally I don't care for most of what you can find on allrecipes.com. Because I'm picky. But this recipe is everything I look for in a mojito - mainly that you let the mint and lime do the talking. It's perfect to enjoy the evening sunshine in your backyard. Neko agrees (and no, she didn't manage to taste any mojito).

Ingredients (makes one mojito):

- 10 fresh mint leaves

- 1/2 lime, cut into 4 wedges

- 2 T granulated sugar (or to taste)

- 1 cup ice cubes

- 1.5 fl oz white rum (shot and a half)

- 1/2 cup club soda

Drop in half the mint leaves, one wedge of lime, and 1 T sugar into your cup. Muddle this all together (muddling means you're smooshing all the yummy stuff together, releasing the juices and flavor in the lime and mint). While I have a muddler now, I have been known to use the opposite end of my vegetable peeler. Drop in the rest of the mint leaves, two more wedges of lime, and the last of the sugar. Muddle again.

Add ice, add rum, add club soda, stir, and add the last wedge of lime as a garnish. 

Now make more for your friends and enjoy!

Special note: I don't strain this because I like all the green in the glass. But you can if you want. Or you can make a simple mint syrup and use that to muddle together with the lime wedges.

'Sun' dried tomatoes

I used these recently for a base to a pizza. And it was amazing. You should make them soon too and gleefully shove them in your face. A great way to preserve cherry tomatoes if you accidentally bought too many! Or got an enormous $3 bag from the farmer's market - thanks farmer's market! YUM.

This recipe: Slow-roasted tomatoes by smitten kitchen
What I changed: nothing, this is perfect. I just used more than one kind of tomato.*

*If you do use more than one kind of tomato, make sure they are as close in size as possible so they have the same cooking time.

Ingredients:
- Any kind of small tomato (e.g. cherry, grape, etc)
- Whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Optional: herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, etc)

Preheat your oven to 225. Halve all of your tomatoes and arrange them on your baking sheet. Add 4-5 cloves of garlic throughout your pan. Spray or drizzle olive oil over everything, just until it glistens. Sprinkle lightly with salt - not too much though, these little guys are going to be packed with flavor!

Pop the pan in the oven, and wait for about 3 hours.

I know, I know... THREE HOURS?!?!! But it'll be worth it. The mouth watering smell will hypnotize you.

I used sungolds and red pear tomatoes.

The tomatoes should appear shriveled, but not completely dried out. You can either eat them all right then and there, or store them covered in olive oil in the fridge for future use - add to pasta, baked goods, salads, etc. If you do cover them with oil, peel the garlic at this time and pop them in there too!

Eggplant pizza is heaven in your mouth

Pizza. I love it. You love it. We're all obsessed with it.

And it's summer! Tons of delicious fresh veggies to be had. I was recently looking for recipes to use up the copious amounts of eggplant I was getting from my friend Laura's garden while I was caring for it, and came upon a marvelous recipe. But I've pieced together a couple recipes for this pizza.

I made this pizza after I came home from work on a weekday (getting home around 5:30 pm), and was eating by 7:00.

Are two recipes too much for one blog post? Probably, but I'm going to do it anyway.

I was inspired by:
This recipe: Grilled eggplant and olive pizza by smitten kitchen
What I changed: I added a bit more yeast to the pizza dough so it would rise faster, I added oven dried tomatoes (add link to your post about oven dried tomatoes) to the base, and did not add olives (I didn't have any, and I wanted the eggplant alone to shine!)

PIZZA DOUGH: really simple homemade pizza dough
- 1.5 all purpose flour (Deb at smitten kitchen says you can replace up to half of this with wheat flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup warm water (~110 degrees F)
- 1.25 tsp yeast

I used my bread maker to make this dough: why? Because my bread maker makes fewer dishes. But if you don't have one, this is how to make the pizza dough.

     ONE: 
     Sprinkle the yeast on top of the warm water (110 degrees). This helps it wake up and be as excited for        pizza dough as you are! Let it sit for 5 minutes.

     TWO: 
     Whisk together the flour and salt, add in the water and yeast mixture. Combine until the ingredients begin      to form a ball. Empty the contents of your bowl onto a well floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until        the dough is springy (this means the gluten is well formed). Put in a a well oiled bowl - flip the dough over      so all sides are coated with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap/foil/a towel until the dough has doubled (30-     45 minutes in this case. Thanks extra yeast!).*

*extra tip - if you find your kitchen is cold, or your dough isn't rising as fast as you like, you can heat up your oven a bit and put your bowl in there! I usually turn it up to ~200 degrees, let the oven heat up for just a couple minutes, turn the oven off, then pop my bowl in. You don't want it too hot because it could cause your dough to overproof or even start baking! haha And yes, if you're asking, I have forgotten to turn the oven off before.

OK - while your pizza dough is rising, time to deal with the eggplant!

EGGPLANT PIZZA: keep in mind that the original recipe was made on the grill, but we're making ours in the oven, so we're going to use less olive oil than Deb at smitten kitchen.

From your jar of oven dried tomatoes:
     For the base*
      - 1 garlic clove, minced
      - 3 T olive oil
      - 3 T oven dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup flat-leafed parsley
- 1 pound pizza dough (we already made ours! This recipe calls to make 1.5 as much dough as we made, but I found for a 13" crust, the amount we already made is perfect!)
- 1.25 lbs eggplant (or two small garden eggplants)
- 5 oz provolone, cut into short thin matchsticks (I used 5 slices... is that the same?)

*If you haven't made the oven dried tomatoes, feel free to just use 1-2 cloves of raw minced garlic and regular olive oil. Still comes out super noms!

ONE:
Cut the eggplant into 1/2" thick coins. Arrange these on a paper towel and sprinkle them all with salt. This forces the eggplant coins to give up their extra moisture! Wait 15 minutes, then take another paper towel and squeeze the moisture out of the eggplant. Do the same for the other side, again waiting for 15 minutes. Using some spray olive oil, pan fry these coins until browned (at this point don't add any more salt). This should take 5-7 minutes per side on a medium to low flame.

 

TWO:
At this point, your pizza dough is ready. Pre-heat your oven to as high as it'll go. You won't burn your pizza, I promise! Spread a dash of cornmeal over your baking surface - I just use a round pizza pan, not a pizza stone or anything. Plop your pizza dough down on this and spray your knuckles with some olive oil and start pressing it out to meet the sides of your pan. Push from the middle out towards the edges of the pan. When it measures roughly 13", you're good!

Now, some of you might say, but DANI, you didn't spin the dough in the air and then put it on a pre-heated pizza stone? No, no I didn't. For me in my life right now, all that's too fussy. Plus, in the texture and taste of the dough, I don't think it's necessary!

THREE:
Take 1-2 cloves of garlic from your jar of oven dried tomatoes and mince them. Chop 3 T of the oven dried tomatoes, and sprinkle the garlic, tomatoes, and 3 T of the olive oil from the jar on base of the pizza dough. Again, if you don't want to make these oven dried tomatoes, feel free to use 1-2 cloves of raw minced garlic, and 3 T of olive oil. Chop up the parsley and sprinkle on top of what you've got.

Then pile on the eggplant!!

Then pile on the provolone:

Then throw the whole thing into the oven! It will only take 7-10 minutes for the cheese to melt and the crust to bake. If at the end of this time the crust or cheese isn't browned enough for you, turn the broil on high - but only for a minute or two tops!! You definitely don't want to burn the delicious creation at this point, when you're so close to the end! And if you're wondering, yes, I have done this before.

Let it cool on a cooling rack after, so the crust doesn't get soggy.

Now it's time to eat!