A Healthy Midweek Meal

While fresh basil is not quite in season yet, the unusually hot weather we experienced here in Rhode Island this week had me craving this lighter version of basil pesto.
Locally my mother is known as the “pesto queen” since during my childhood she ran a small pesto making business, selling it by the gallon to local restaurants and gourmet shops throughout South County. Every summer she would grow a large garden of basil, and would spend July and August weeding and later harvesting the basil in huge quantities. She did most of this herself, but would also often enlist local teenagers and more help from wonderful friends and neighbors.
Harvesting was a long process: we would clip the basil and put it on a big white sheet, which we would then carry over to a kiddie pool full of cold water where it would be washed thoroughly (this was a nice job on hot, humid August afternoons). Once it was washed it was put out to dry on big screens in the sunshine. When the basil was dry it was transferred back to a big white sheet which was put on the ground and then surrounded by “basil strippers.” This sounds exciting, I know, and while actual stripping would have been way more fun, these strippers were just lots of people sitting in beach chairs “stripping” the basil leaves off the stems. This took a long time, especially for the younger kids, and my mother would often get us to help by offering us ice cream sandwiches as incentive (which worked for me, obviously). Once all the basil was stripped it was transported in big baskets into the kitchen, where my mother would stand for hours feeding the basil leaves into an old meat grinder, which turned the basil into a dark green paste. The meat grinder always horrified me because I knew that if I stuck my fingers into while it was on, it would grind them up. Scary! The ground up basil was then put in the big freezer down stairs and frozen until my mother would get a pesto order.
This pesto recipe however, is not her famous one. I will post that someday I promise. Instead, this pesto is one that is much lighter and therefore more “figure friendly,” since most of the olive oil is replaced with chicken or vegetable stock. While this may not sound appetizing, the minced basil with garlic, pine nuts, and cheese makes it equally delectable. Put it over whole wheat pasta, along with some cheery tomatoes and grilled chicken thrown in and it is a really healthy and satisfying meal.

Simon also made a very tasty Bloody Mary Tuesday night, garnished with the last of my dilly beans from the summer. And the garden is now full of delicious salad greens, which we also ate, tossed with lots of balsamic vinegar and salt.

Figure Friendly Pesto

2 c. fresh basil, packed

2 cloves of garlic

¼- ½ c grated Parmesan cheese

¼. c pine nuts

¼ low sodium chicken stock

3 Tbs. olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in the food processor and pulse until it is a paste. Enjoy!

Add any of the following: grilled chopped chicken, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, sautéed zucchini, grilled shrimp etc.

Goat Cheese Danish, Thanks to the Lovely Andrea

Before you say anything let me tell you that I know. I know. I have been neglecting the blog. I have been unfocused. I have been easily distracted. I haven’t even been cooking very much.

What have I been doing?

What have I been doing.

I’m not really sure. I guess part of what’s been going on is that the seasonal shift from winter to spring has finally happened. Now, instead of scurrying through the short days, trying to be as industrious as possible before darkness and cold descends, friends call at noon to say they are drinking beer on the porch. They say that they are enjoying the warmth and sunshine, and that I should come over. At noon. To drink. Sometimes on a Monday. But I didn’t just write that.

Or, there was that Saturday a few weekends back when a friend and I decided to tune up and dust off our bicycles so that we could take rides anytime, all the time. And since we fixed mine up (which had been sitting unused in the garage since I took a nasty spill during an unexpected rainstorm in 2008) I have been going for rides a lot, instead of making things.

Then last weekend my parents asked if I would help them in the garden. I planted rows of bush beans, and made little dirt mounds for zucchini, sprinkled basil seeds, and dill seeds, “Scarlet Nantes” carrot seeds. I watered little pepper plants, shoveled compost that was full of wiggling pink worms into the wheelbarrow. Helped my mother mulch the dahlia beds.

And then this happened:

Welcome to the wilderness little brother....

BUT THEN a few days ago my friend Andrea, who keeps goats, asked if I would like to come over and make goat cheese filled Danish.

And of course I said yes.

My friend Andrea, who I already told you keeps goats, has been making all sorts of delicious things with the goat milk. Fresh chevre, ricotta, yogurt, and ice cream.

Neither Andrea nor I had ever made Danish before, and the normal pastry dough recipe for Danish that Andrea and I found involved too many "roll out the dough and then refrigerate for 30 minutes” stages. Instead, we found a quick method recipe from the cookbook Baking With Julia, which worked beautifully. Andrea read the directions while I rolled out the dough, and then folded it. At first we didn’t understand why you have to keep rolling it out and then “fold it like a business letter.”

“What is the point of this?” I kept asking every time Andrea told me to do it. “Why does this matter?”

“I don’t know,” she kept responding. “Just do it.”

This question was answered when we took the adorable little Danish out of the oven and the dough had risen in little flaky, buttery,  golden layers.

“This is why!” I cried holding the Danish in the palm of my hand. “By rolling it and and folding it over and over it makes it like this!”

Oh, the revelations of the self taught home cook. These are special moments indeed.

The goat cheese we used was a yogurt Andrea had made and then strained most of the liquid out of. The result was a delicious, soft cheese with a very understated tang. I don’t know how Andrea has been making the cheese. She is just going to have to enlighten us about it by guest blogging here soon.

We made two different combinations for the Danish. The first was goat cheese with stewed rhubarb from Andrea’s garden. I just put it in a pot with a little water and brown sugar and let it cook down. Then we also made a batch with the goat cheese and some lemon marmalade Andrea got at the farmer’s market. These were good too, and tasted sort of like lemon meringue pie.

Originally we were going to make the Danish into a “pinwheel” shape, as described in the Joy of Cooking. But I cut the squares too small so we just ended up leaving them as squares and then placing the cheese and filling on top. They were delicious.

My friend Rose and her daughter Ella arrived just as the Danish were conveniently coming out of the oven.

How many did you eat Rosie?!

I think it was at least five.

Danish Pastry, from Baking With Julia

Ingredients:

1/4 cup warm water (105ºF to 115ºF)
2-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter

Instructions:

Mixing the Dough

Pour the water into a large bowl, sprinkle over the yeast, and let it soften for a minute. Add the milk, egg, sugar, and salt and whisk to mix; set aside.

Put the flour in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Cut the butter into 1/4-inch-thick slices and drop them onto the flour. Pulse 8 to 10 times, until the butter is cut into pieces that are about 1/2 inch in diameter. Don't overdo this — the pieces must not be smaller than 1/2 inch.

Empty the contents of the food processor into the bowl with the yeast and, working with a rubber spatula, very gently turn the mixture over, scraping the bowl as needed, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Again, don't be too energetic-the butter must remain in discrete pieces so that you will produce a flaky pastry, not a bread or cookie dough.

Chilling the Dough

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight or for up to 4 days, (if that better suits your schedule).

Rolling and Folding

Lightly flour a work surface (a cool surface, such as marble, is ideal), turn the dough out onto it, and dust the dough lightly with flour. Using the palms of your hands, pat the dough into a rough square. Then roll it into a square about 16 inches on a side. (A French rolling pin, one without handles, is best here.) Fold the dough in thirds, like a business letter, and turn it so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. (if at any time the dough gets too soft to roll, just cover it with plastic wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for a quick chill.)

Roll the dough out again, this time into a long narrow rectangle, about 10 inches wide by 24 inches long. Fold the rectangle in thirds again, turn it so the closed fold is to your left, and roll it into a 20-inch square. Fold the square in thirds, like a business letter, so that you have a rectangle, turning it so that the closed fold is to your left, and, once more, roll the dough into a long narrow rectangle, 10 inches wide by 24 inches long. Fold in thirds again, wrap the dough well in plastic, and chill it for at least 30 minutes, or for as long as 2 days. (Depending on what you plan to do with the dough, you might want to divide it in half now.)

The dough is now ready to be shaped, filled, and baked, following the recipes of your choice.

The dough can be kept covered in the refrigerator for 4 days or wrapped airtight and frozen for 1 month; thaw overnight, still wrapped, in the refrigerator.

Yield: Makes 2 pounds of dough

Bluebird Sings Spring Songs

Last week I was invited to judge my old elementary school’s Pie Baking Contest, which is just one of the many exciting events at the school’s annual May Fair.

When I was little I used to wait with bated breath for the May Fair every year. It was quite the social event, complete with a Maypole, dancing, face painting, flower crowns, and sticks with streamers tied onto them that we would wave around excitedly.

The Pie Contest is a fairly new addition to the festivities, and I took the job seriously from the get go. My friend Lea also agreed to judge, and on Saturday we arrived ready to eat lots of pie.

Actually this is not entirely true. Originally I was excited to eat lots of pie, and I thought it was a great idea until I began thinking about it more, whereupon I realized that this could potentially be too much pie. It started to give me anxiety.

“Lea” I said, my voice heavy with concern. “Even if we just take one bite of every pie- say there are forty pies? That will still be like eating an entire pie on our own, at least. I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Maybe we can do it like wine tasting,” she said trying to ease my nerves. “We can take a bite and chew it just enough to taste it, and then spit it out.”

I thought about this for a minute, and tried to imagine sticking a forkful of oh, say, chocolate cream pie in my mouth, chewing it (sort of) and then spitting it out.

“That’s impossible,” I said to Lea. “How can you only partially chew pie? How can you taste it without swallowing it? It will just dissolve in our mouths before we can spit it out. We have to eat it.”

“That would be so gross anyway,” she said. "Imagine."

So I was resigned to the excessive pie consumption that seemed inevitable, and made a mental note to take an epic bike ride later that day.

But once we arrived we quickly realized that all my worries were for naught because only two adults entered pies! The pie contest would have been a total bust if it wasn't for the “Under 14” category in which about ten pies were entered.

Suddenly our task seemed much more manageable, and we got to work tasting and rating on a scale of 1-5 (five being the best), for crust, filling, originality, presentation, and overall tastiness. Since there were not that many pies entered I admit I did indulge in repeated tastes of the same pie. With most of the pies. Okay all of them. But Lea and I did go for a bike ride that afternoon- I swear.

The pies were all delicious, but I do have a few personal favorites:

The first was an apple pie that was decorated with a ceramic blackbird poking out of the middle, and then little dough “eggs” that were dyed blue. I was instantaneously deeply in love with the kid who conceptualized this one. The apples weren’t cooked through and some weren’t peeled, but I didn’t care. It was just so sweet! And the girl who made it even wrote on the recipe card “bluebird sings spring songs.”

My heart melted.

The grand prize winner went to Owen Gilmartin for his outstanding Old Fashioned Lemon Pie with Macadamia Coconut Crust. It was also decorated with glazed blackberries and raspberries. Taste, presentation, and overall deliciousness made this one the winner.

There was also an insanely delicious sweet potato squash pie, with a huge mound of whipped cream on top. This was one of the two pies made by a parent, but the spices in the filling gave it a wonderful warm and complex flavor.

Happy May Day!