L is for Lefovers

I almost used this one for the 4th-- 'C'-- but leftovers seems more apt, and the celery is more likely to be ready to pick late in the month.

The Thai apple salad (for the Peterson Garden Project Cookbook, and yes, it's delicious, and yes you're going to have to buy the cookbook to get that recipe), left me with leftover apples, apple skins, and bits and pieces of celery. So I invented these two recipes, both of which are delicious. I need Chiot's Run to come over here and take a mouth watering picture of the iced tea.

Celery-apple pesto
Leaves from one bunch of celery, stalks removed (about 2 cups; hold onto those stalks!)
1/2 cup apple, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large garlic cloves
2 T grated Parmagiano
salt to taste

Stick it in the food processor, grind away. I think you're supposed to do pesto in delicate stages so you don't bruise the leaves or something, but this blog is supposedly about the way people actually prepare food. (Sorry, foodies)

Celery-apple green iced tea
Any leftover apple peels
Any leftover celery stalks (reserve a leafy one for a garnish)
6 bags green tea
1+ T agave syrup (depending on how sweet you like your tea)
4 cups water
2 additional cups water

Put the apple and celery in the first four cups of water and bring to a hard boil. Leaving them in the water, add the teabags and sweetener and steep until the water is cool. Strain into a pitcher and add the additional water, plus 1-2 trays of ice cubes.

Serve with a leafy celery stalk.

So many herbs, so little storage space

Four parsley plants. The oregano that ate Chicago. Two creeping thyme. Fourteen basil. Two rosemary. Five lavender. Don't even mention the sage.

Pesto.

Pesto.

Pesto.

Pesto.

Pesto.

Everything but the cheese was home grown

Practiced a little "kitchen archeology" a couple of days ago and unearthed a jar of homegrown walnuts from my "uncle of the heart" Lajos, who lives on a small farm in Hungary and brings produce a couple of times a year.

So I went out into the garden and deadheaded my five sweet basil plants (if it bolts, i.e. develops flowers, the flavor changes, so you have to pinch off the flowers at this time of year). Pulled up 5 enormous cherry belle radishes and made a pesto, using walnut oil instead of olive oil. Sauteed some new snow peas from the oregon sugar pods that just started to fruit, a couple of large mustard greens and the radish greens. Added all to a lovely fettucini from World Market (they have really good fettucini), crumbled some more walnuts on top.

As my previous post averred, this is one of the joys of backyard gardening, joined to a fearless approach to cooking. I had never heard of a pesto made with radishes, but I know that pesto is just a "paste" (literal translation) made of vegetables, oil, hard cheese, and nuts. So why NOT a radish pesto?

Radish Basil Pesto Sauce

* 5 medium radishes, diced
* 1/4 cup walnuts
* 2-3 cloves garlic
* 1 cup fresh basil
* 1/4 cup olive or nut oil
* 1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan

Toast the walnuts and garlic (200F/90C for 5 to 8 minutes).

Place the radishes, walnuts, garlic and basil in the food processor and pulse about 7 to 10 times, until the ingredients are grated, not pureed. Add enough oil to moisten the ingredients and pulse again until blended. My food processor is one of those 3-cup ones, so at this point I moved the pesto into a bowl, but you can mix the cheese right in the food processor if there's room. Add the freshly grated Parmesan and mix it by hand. Taste and season the pesto with kosher salt, as necessary. Don't use pepper with this recipe, as it will mask the peppery flavor of the radishes.

Makes about 2 cups.

Spoon onto fresh, hot pasta to taste. Important that the pasta is hot, because it will soften the pesto. If the pasta is too cool, the pesto will just be in nasty lumps. For additional culinary and aesthetic interest, add sauteed greens and or green beans, diced roasted or sauteed squash, or a diced fresh tomato (or all of them!).

The pesto also makes a terrific condiment for sandwiches.