Basil – a very steampunk name

Tea and Chat ©

Mid-July and the basil plants are insisting on being harvested or flowering. I cut back all the basil plants on my deck this morning. You must use a very sharp knife or scissors with basil as it bruises easily. As everyone that grows basil always discovers, I have a lot of basil.

This weekend I may make a basil potato salad for our steampunk picnic and croquet game, but for now I have other things in mind. I want to have that fresh basil flavor for cooking late into autumn and winter. Winter is coming.

I trimmed and washed my harvested basil and then briefly blanched it. I reserved the blanching water for use in making tonight’s dinner. After all why waste such lovely flavored water? If it doesn’t make it to dinner. I  will  be drinking it as a refreshing basil iced tea.

The blanched strained basil went into the food processer along with some divine Valencia orange grape seed oil. I used a ratio of about 4/1, basil/oil. You may want to add a bit of garlic, but with all that garlic scape pesto in my freezer and tummy, I didn’t feel the need. I processed until the basil was finely minced and emulsified into the oil. Then I strained the mixture reserving the drained oil.

This elegant deep green oil I then decanted into the now empty Valencia orange grape seed oil bottle. Refrigerated, I expect the oil may last upwards to a week. Normally, I wouldn’t refrigerate oil but with the basil content I think it best. I’ll be using it in that potato salad I mentioned, and perhaps some chilled soup I’ve yet to imagine.

The basil puree that remained I put in an ice tray and then into the freezer. Once frozen I will put the basil cubes into sandwich size plastic freezer bags, three or four cubes to a bag. In this way I can pull a bit of that fresh basil flavor out for inclusion in a dish whenever I want to remind myself of summer.

Beauty is in the eye…

Tea and Chat ©

We all see beauty in different forms. I have a friend who relishes the bohemian poet view of things. It resides in the simplicity she sees in gathering fresh ingredients in a European market and composing a lunch of these items on a quiet patio awash in Mediterranean sun. A scene that is recreated many times in movies and books.

I find this same beauty closer to home in every respect. The garlic scape pesto I made a few days ago came from a day trip to Brooklyn’s Farmer’s Market. Certainly, the memory of scouring the market to find the treasures I brought home, fresh organic, local grown at small farms, gives me joy and lends to my sense of beauty.

Yesterday, as I was bracing up my gigantic tomato plant that is laden with more tomatoes than seems possible, I accidently knocked off the largest of the green tomatoes. I harvested several of the small green peppers that were ready, along with a beautiful yellow crook neck squash that seemed to have reached its peak. I have a childlike joy in my small raised bed vegetable garden. Each piece of produce seems to have magically come into being by the incantations of my back muscles and dirt under my manicured finger nails. I seem to be able to smell the sun that has penetrated my vegetables and herbs. Like a Disney Princess, I have a secret belief that the animals are helping me with my garden.

I melted unsalted butter in one of the iron skillets I’ve owned since 1970 and placed in it the sliced green tomato to lightly fry. Adding the peppers thinly sliced with the seeds still in for a bit of sweet heat and finishing with the sliced yellow squash. When the squash showed signs of becoming a bit translucent I added several tablespoons of the garlic pesto. The pesto is very thick but the heat softens the oils and allows it to spread. Finally, I added some cooked egg noodles stirring over the low heat until everything was coated in the pesto. The noodles had been cooked in salted water and I found this to have been enough salt given the strong flavors of the pesto. This was my dinner.

I thought it was beautiful, and the taste was divine.

There is something about the flavor of the vegetables that have been grown in my garden, watched over through thunder storm downpours and searing hot days, checked for insect traitors daily and ultimately pollenated by a myriad of buzzing creatures including honey bees. That undefinable something makes me smile the way I smile when a child I have nurtured performs in a recital. I find the whole of the process leading to the meal full of beauty and grace.

Pantry Pesto

Tea and Chat ©

I’m waiting for my attorney to call. We’ll be discussing the LLC, and other matters, related to Tea and Chat. While I am waiting I remembered I had some garlic scapes still sitting about from my trip to the Brooklyn, NY Farmers Market at Grand Army Square.

A little scrounging in the pantry and I’ve decided to make Garlic Scape Pesto.

In a food processor:

15 garlic scapes cut up a bit (this is how many I had left so everything follows from this number of scapes)

A very heaping 1/3 cup roasted unsalted pistachios

1/3 cup grape seed oil

a gurgle of walnut oil (maybe 1/6 cup)

I cup chicken stock (about four ice cubes of frozen homemade chicken stock)

freshly grated parmesan, a bit less than a full 1/2 cup.

juice of half a lemon, strained

pepper and salt to taste

Process until it looks like pesto!

After the conversation with the attorney, I’ll cook some pasta and cover it with the pesto for dinner. Any left over pesto can be frozen for awhile.

What’s in your pantry?

Hello and Here we are again….

Tea and Chat ©

This is a place of dreams and fantasy based in good food, strong friendships, great conversations and a speculative history of grace and invention. I want to have a savory tea café that throws fabulous fantasy parties now and then, but for now it is in the planning and dreaming stages. Welcome to my dream.