Home-made pesto and chillis
Pesto — and the word comes from the same word as the English Pestle and Mortar — is a puree of basil leaves, often mixed with garlic, pine nuts and olive oil. I adapted this simple pesto recipe, using the surfeit of basil plants in our garden.
I’d like to say that we grew all of this basil from scratch, but in fact most of it comes from supermarket plants. These plants are grown under strong lights with the “ultimate” chemical feed to make them ready for the store, so they quickly wilt when they get home. We pot them up, N-sama gives them her loving spoonful, and we planted them out in the garden. They went wild, but the season is ending soon and it was time to finish them off.
Pine nuts prove surprisingly oily when blitzed into the basil:
and after the garlic, oil and other ingredients are added we end up with something that is pesto, but better:
The starter involved incinerating chillis. Here are some photographs. For the rest you’ll need to ask N-sama and M-kun.
October 8th, 2006 at 5:26 am
I loved “green pesto” most when I cooked pasta!
Don’t know what you’d say, but I liked ones from Sakura.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Rich cut all my basil off!but it’ll be long dark British winter soon,so It’s time really.
I would say the home-made pesto was very pesty!quite strong smell of garlic
and all ingredients actually,but they are mixed nicely.
The colour came up very strong green from basil,beautiful contrast
with the chilli red.
To Fumineko
Isn’t Sakura the Japanese restaurant in London?
October 8th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
さくら そそそれは広岡 瞬の店… やたら盛の大きい。 いぎりすやののそばの。
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BA%83%E5%B2%A1%E7%9E%AC
Saclaの間違いでした。。。すいません。
Even an Italian said it tastes quite good.
Sold @ every super market as bottled sauce. You can try it too, maybe when you don’t have enough time to cook it by yourself! Nice and yummy to spread it on crisply toasted slices of bread…
http://www.sacla.co.uk/products/details.asp?pId=7
October 8th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Ah yes, the Sacla pesto is very nice. I had their Sacla red pesto in this pesto dish I made last week. Can you buy it in Japan though?
Anyway, home-made pesto tastes great and it’s very easy to make.
October 8th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
ははは やっぱり？！
なんでさくらでペスト？って変だなーっておもったんだよね
ってわたしがへんだよ はははー
すんません
October 9th, 2006 at 12:34 am
いやー、さくらを調ながら検索中変なもんを見つけてしまった。Sakura, tescoなんていれて検索したら､桜庭あつ子のエロイDVDとかでちゃって。なぜTescoで売ってるんだ？？Tesco Value?? ネットって怖いわ～
Not that popular in Japan. But I think it’s available at imported goods shops or food corner of a department store… a, the, or without them?… I need a patient teacher to correct my English grammar… articles…. ah-
October 9th, 2006 at 1:14 am
BTW, I’ve been emphasizing the efficacy of lemon in my dairy. But Rachel doesn’t like sour taste and, to make matters worse, she doesn’t like sweet & sour, too. I’ve suggested taking it as a dressing or by pouring it on sweet yogurt or jam… Those are all rejected. The best is, as anyone may agree, to blend it with some alcohol… but that’s not a proper choice for a binge drinker! Can you come up with any idea, Richard the chef?