Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Garden Creations!

I am going to start a new category called "Garden" it will include all the recipes I make from the produce & herbs from our garden.
To kick it off, I'll post my pestos. I recently learned you can freeze pesto- that is great news for me! I never use it all before it goes bad & I often can not think of anything else to do with my herbs.
We had tons of Italian Parsley & Cilantro. You can basically take an herb & make it into a pesto.
Off to myrecipes.com & search for "Parsley Pesto"
I went with the Parsley & Walnut Pesto since I had a nice big bag of walnuts.

Ingredients
3 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (about 2 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, chopped


Preparation
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth.
** I ended up adding some olive oil to it to make it a bit more oily **


Next up was Cilantro Pesto


Ingredients
3 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 cups fresh cilantro, lightly packed
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper


Preparation
Place the garlic and cilantro in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. With the processor running, slowly add the oils, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Process until smooth.
Place the pesto in an airtight container and freeze for up to 4 months. To thaw, microwave on low for 2 to 3 minutes.

So now I can make Cilantro pesto pizza, or Mixed Grill w/Cilantro Pesto, and I just came across a recipe for Roasted chicken w/ mint-cilantro pesto. I sure do have some mint in the garden...

1 comment:

Sarah said...

There are these little Ziploc containers that are the perfect size for storing pesto in the freezer--they are great little portions. I also use these to make individual portions of things like panna cotta or to refridgerate small portions of sauces or dressings for leftovers.