Spicy Cilantro Pesto with TJ's Sausage

Ok. This post is way past due. This was the most tasty dish I made while Shelby was gone in Korea in January. That's right, January. No excuses. I have just been lazy.

I got a bunch of fresh cilantro from the farm share. I learned this summer that really the best thing to do with these huge bunches of herbs is to make pesto, or puree, if you are a purist and only call basil with olive oil pesto. Anyway, Bittman's recipes for these are delicious. I made his cilantro pesto with the spicy variation, throw in a hot pepper to the food processor. We have these hot peppers from the Korean market in the freezer, and they really add a kick to anything. The sauce is make entirely in the food processor, super easy.

The pasta was also a key ingredient. I used some of the homemade pasta I bought from the Cambridge indoor farmers market. It was Valicenti Organico's truffle pappardalle, super delicious after boiled for a few minutes. Just remember to separate the pasta before you boil, which means you need an hour for it to thaw first.

 For a little protein, I made some TJ's sausage to go with the pasta. The sausage was Apple and Chardonnay variety. Tasty, and it cooked very well in the cast iron.

The finished  product was very delicious. The cilantro and spicyness meant it paired well with some corona, especially since I had a lime left over from the recipe.

I can't wait for the summer when the herbs start rolling in and we can restock our pesto supplies. This stuff freezes very well, and I want to stock up the fridge.

Creamy Carrot Soup and Homemade Popcorn

This blog is intended to record Shelby and Paul's adventures in Kitchenland. We offten cook new things, which are usually quite tasty. This is an attempt to record our successes (and occasional failures), along with some lovely pictures.

12/29/2012 Dinner:
This evening we made Creamy Carrot Soup, from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (p. 129). We had made a ginger and lemon carrot soup from Epicurious a few times, but we decided to try something new. The carrots were from our farm share, and we used many small fingerling potatoes, also from the farm share, in place of the larger starchy potato. We used 4 cups of TJ's vegetable stock and 1 cup water for the base, and did add the optional sugar. We omitted the sour cream and parsley.

The soup was delicious! It was a beautiful orange, and the immersion blender did a fantastic job of making it smooth and creamy. We served the soup with bread and cheese, which made a thoroughly simple but hearty and delicious meal for a snowy night.

The bread and cheese were both from TJ's. Their Parisian Baguette is delicous when fresh, although you have to eat it within a day, or else it goes rock hard. The cheese was quite unique but also delicious. Cinco Lanzas, a spanish blend of Sheep, Cow, and Goat's milk. It was a sharper cheese, with a nice soft texture, but not too obnoxious a flavor. As Emily Brown described it, "its like Cheddar meets Parmesan".

12/29/2012 Snack Time: Mini-Indian Popping Corn

Ok, this was incredible. We got a few tiny ears of popping corn on the cob from our farm share. Making this was a truly unique experience. The corn when from autumn decoration to delicious snack in no time flat. I first removed the kernels from the cob by hand, just pushing them off with my thumb, maybe getting the first few off with a knife.

It covered out cast iron skillet with a thin layer of vegetable oil, and allowed it to get hot. Then I threw in a bunch of kernels, and let the magic happen. Man, when these baby's pop, they really pop. There were literally popped kernels flying all over our kitchen. The cast iron doesn't have a proper lid, so we had to improvise and use the shallower lid from the big stock pot. This created a fun clear dome that we could see filling up with white popped corn.

The corn were quite mini-when everything was done, but very delicious. They had a ton of oil on them from the frying process because I didn't have a slotted spoon to pick them up. We cracked in a little salt and they were ready to eat. We enjoyed with a few episodes of "The West Wing", and the falling snow outside.

1/1/13 Brunch: Whole wheat pancakes

Shelby made the delicious "Whole Wheat Hotcakes" recipe from the Fresh & Honest green cookbook this morning (one of our favorites). She had made these before and we loved them, and we decided to make more in honor of Emily Brown staying with us over New Years. We pretty much following the recipe to the letter. I like these more than Shelby's silver dollar swedish style flat pancakes. Just putting that in writing . . .