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| Left most: Lettuce-leaf Basil; Back center: Italian Sweet Basil (classic); Right: Anise Hissop |
Hello! All of the above herbs were grown in our little urban-suburban claim to land. It was a bountiful harvest today, and the plan is to make some "tricolore" pesto. Perhaps it will be spread on a pork loin, rolled up and grilled to make some pesto-stuffed pork loin!
More later!
Well...as it turns out, a trip to H-Mart later returned garlic scapes, supposedly amazing rice suggested to us by a trusted source to try out in our hand-me-down rice cooker, and some small whole Red Snapper. As a result, the pesto was made with deliciously fresh looking garlic scapes instead:
The small whole Red Snapper was paired with the pesto instead of pork loin this evening. The Snapper was sliced on the bias several times on each side and stuffed with pesto in the slits made as well as in the middle belly portion.
I seared the Snapper on both sides in a heavy bottomed stainless steel pan, deglazed with some white wine and stuck the whole pan (covered) in the over at about 400 F for 20 min, followed with a brief 5 min broil (uncovered) at the end. I removed the Snapper from the pan, added some butter on the stovetop, browned the butter and bits remaining and again deglazed with some white wine briefly to produce a nice pesto browned butter sauce that I strained and served over the fish. I forgot the "after" photograph of the fish. Oh well, trust that it was tasty!
Regarding the rice, I'm not sure if we did something wrong or the rice cooker has its own issues, but the rice turned out mushy and slightly burntish/stuck to the bottom. Therefore, being the quick thinking cook that I am, I remembered I had two zucchini in the fridge from the Farmer's Market the week before that really needed to be used. I thought: "Ah-ha! I'll make pesto-zucchini rice cakes!" Voila! I mixed 2 eggs, some of the remaining pesto and the rice in a bowl and pan fried the cakes in some olive oil. They were delicious and were an excellent application of the otherwise slightly gummy and tasteless rice.
Overall, it was a very tasty meal that cost in all $9.00 total. In a seafood restaurant this would have easily been a $60 bill. One note is that next time, I might just go for the filets...bones are a pain!
Well...as it turns out, a trip to H-Mart later returned garlic scapes, supposedly amazing rice suggested to us by a trusted source to try out in our hand-me-down rice cooker, and some small whole Red Snapper. As a result, the pesto was made with deliciously fresh looking garlic scapes instead:
The small whole Red Snapper was paired with the pesto instead of pork loin this evening. The Snapper was sliced on the bias several times on each side and stuffed with pesto in the slits made as well as in the middle belly portion.
I seared the Snapper on both sides in a heavy bottomed stainless steel pan, deglazed with some white wine and stuck the whole pan (covered) in the over at about 400 F for 20 min, followed with a brief 5 min broil (uncovered) at the end. I removed the Snapper from the pan, added some butter on the stovetop, browned the butter and bits remaining and again deglazed with some white wine briefly to produce a nice pesto browned butter sauce that I strained and served over the fish. I forgot the "after" photograph of the fish. Oh well, trust that it was tasty!
Regarding the rice, I'm not sure if we did something wrong or the rice cooker has its own issues, but the rice turned out mushy and slightly burntish/stuck to the bottom. Therefore, being the quick thinking cook that I am, I remembered I had two zucchini in the fridge from the Farmer's Market the week before that really needed to be used. I thought: "Ah-ha! I'll make pesto-zucchini rice cakes!" Voila! I mixed 2 eggs, some of the remaining pesto and the rice in a bowl and pan fried the cakes in some olive oil. They were delicious and were an excellent application of the otherwise slightly gummy and tasteless rice.
Overall, it was a very tasty meal that cost in all $9.00 total. In a seafood restaurant this would have easily been a $60 bill. One note is that next time, I might just go for the filets...bones are a pain!
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