Posts tagged pesto

Sharing Pastry Wheel

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Sharing Pastry Wheel

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his puff pastry sharing wheel has become one of my Christmas signatures! Made only in December for a festive drinks gathering with friends. Its such a perfect sharing canape as you can tailor it to your favourite flavours, those flavours of your guests or to suit any dietary requirement. I like to make this vegetarian as the rest of Christmas tends to be meat themed . Its such a pretty centre piece to the table – eye catching and head turning! The best part is that its barely cooking – I’d call it an assembly job! 

Glass of cold Champagne in hand, buttery puff pastry really is the most ideal pairing and always will be in my eyes!

Ingredients

  • 1 block puff pastry (I always end up with leftover pastry when I make this so I make a set of Palmiers here to match. Same process really just a different shape)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Fillings of choice, some combination suggestions below: Be careful here with your choices, you’re not making a pizza. It can’t be too ‘full’ or bulky. Chop finely and scatter scarcely, hence why punchy flavours work better!

Green pesto, feta, sun dried tomatoes, cumin seeds

Red pesto, sun dried tomatoes, goats cheese, chopped dill

Olive tapenade, feta, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, fennel seeds

Pesto, anchovies, capers, crumbled mozzarella, basil

  1. Half the pastry block and roll out each on a floured surface into circles around 30cm diameter. Use a plate as a cutter to cut around to form a nice neat circle.
  2. Place one circle on a baking sheet on a baking tray. Onto this circle add your toppings! Start with your pesto base and then scatter over the toppings and herbs making finely chopped/small pieces and scattering evenly. You can work up to the edges, but leave a 1cm border or so.
  3. Brush the 1cm border with a little egg wash.
  4. Take your second circle of pastry and place on top, and then gently press down so that it snugly hugs the fillings underneath and is sealed at the edges where you’ve egg washed.
  5. Next take a small upturned egg cup and place it in the middle gently, not enough to cut through. Working outwards, cut thin strips so that they are still attached at the centre.
  6. Take each strip and gently twist like a cheese straw and press down onto the tray at the end to keep it unfolding again. You’ll know here if you’ve packed it too full or cut your pieces too big as they will pop out everywhere!
  7. Continue all the way round and once done, remove the egg cup.
  8. Place in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes, preheat the oven to 200°C.
  9. When ready to cook, remove from the fridge, egg wash over generously so its gets a wonderful golden shine and then scatter over sesame, nigella or any seed of choice that suits your filling if desired.
  10. Bake for about 20 minutes, checking regularly until golden and puffed!
  11. Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little before serving but nicest served warm (avoid burning anyones mouths with molten cheese!)

You can remove the centre circle puff where the egg cup marked (eat it..) and then pop a nice dipping sauce in the middle in a dish. The idea is the guests ‘tear and share’…and dip if desired!

Pearl Barley with Walnut, Mint and Basil Pesto

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Pearl Barley with Walnut, Mint and Basil Pesto

 

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Pesto is such a great addition to bland food – pearl barley, pasta, tossed on boiled vege of ripped through your favourite pizza dough base (personal favourite!) I’m not a regular to the jar of shop bought but sometimes a tablespoon of the punchy stuff is needed, homemade or not. Pesto is all about the basic ingredients (Parmesan cheese, fresh herbs, nuts, lemon and oil) mixed until you get the right balance. Basil and pine nuts if you’re a traditionalist but its also delicious with other nuts or herbs. As usual, my lazy self can’t be bothered to weigh so the ‘handful’ measurement has come in again here….I have averaged-small sized hands so do as you please…

Serves 2

Pearl Barley with Walnut, Mint and Basil Pesto

  • 120g pearl barely
  • Handful walnuts
  • Handful grated parmesan
  • ½ lemon
  • Large bunch basil and mint, leaves picked
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 x salmon fillets
  • Slow roasted balsamic onions (see here)
  1. Toast the walnuts in a hot dry frying pan until fragrant or roast in a hot oven for about 6 minutes until warm and smelling delicious!
  2. Transfer to a pestle and mortar or a food processor. Pulse until you have fine crumbs with texture.
  3. Add the herbs, garlic and cheese and blend. Season and thin out with the lemon juice and enough oil to get the right consistency for your liking.
  4. Taste and adjust with more of the above.
  5. Cook your pearl barely until tender in a pan of simmering water. When ready, drain and toss liberally with the pesto. Stir through a few whole walnuts and chopped herbs too if you like. Set aside at room temperature
  6. Roast the salmon in a 200°C preheated oven or pan fry, skin side down until crisp and cooked.
  7. Serve the barely topped with salmon, a spoonful of roasted balsamic onions if you like (see here). Drizzle with a good oil and scatter with mint. Serve with greens beans or similar…

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Wild Garlic Pesto

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Wild Garlic Pesto

 

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Free ingredients feel cheekily delicious. Whether its that buy one get one free packet of salad, that suspect lemon that apparently didn’t scan in the hands of the conveniently incompetent cashier or, in this case, the hand foraged bunch of wild garlic my sensitive foodie nose kindly led me to on a country walk this Easter. Growing in the hedgerow and just dying to be plucked and cooked these leaves are fragrant with a garlic punch.

Wild garlic should be treated more like a herb- a hardier basil. It can be sauteed in butter but not cooked as hard as a cabbage. I decided to make pesto which can be made in a pestle and mortar and I always find this satisfying and a lovely idea where you really can adjust the consistency, taste and vitally the texture to your own preference steadily and carefully. However my solid granite pestle and mortar weights a tonne and after a long day at work and a run home I wasn’t in need of a weigh session or the horrors of having to unsuccessfully scrape my delicious pesto creation into a bowl and wash up my granite weight. So….shamefully the magi mix came out to do the job for me. I bought a beautiful Godess-like pot of bushy Greek basil on the way home today and couldn’t resist adding a handful to the mix as a nod to the classic pesto but go easy as it is punchy and will overpower the beautiful garlic leaves if added too heavy handidly.

Enjoy with – roasted fish, meats, roasted sweet potato jackets, mixed into pasta sauces, stirred into soups, mixed in salad dressings. I served mine here with pan fried seabass and red camargue rice.

Makes a small bowlful (depending on the amount of oil)

  • 100g wild garlic leaves, cleaned if foraged
  • Optional – a small handful of basil leaves
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 50g finely grated Parmesan
  • 50g pine nuts, lightly toasted (or walnuts)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive/rapeseed oil (up to 150ml. See note*)
  1. First, if foraged from the bushes, carefully wash the garlic leaves in cold water and pat dry or spin dry in an old school salad leaf drier.
  2. Place in a food processor with the pine nuts, garlic and basil (if using). Blend until chopped finely.
  3. Add the cheese and season.
  4. Now slowly drizzle in the oil until you get the desired consistency. I think I used about 2 tbsp for mine.
  5. Alternatively, bash the leaves with the nuts in a pestle and mortar before adding the cheese and stirring in the oil.
  6. Add seasoning to taste and adjust with whatever you think it needs, a hint of lemon juice perhaps!

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NOTE* – the amount of oil will depend on a few things but I personally like my pesto thick as its more concentrated and punchy in flavour and healthier as it uses less oil. It will also depend on how long you want to keep it. If you plan on storing in your fridge for a bit, pop into a sterilised jar and make sure there is enough oil to cover and seal it from exposure and oxidation.

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Mixed Seed Pesto

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One thing I love about being a student is the necessity to be resourceful with whatever food is to hand. With a need to budget, being economical with your weekly shop is an art, and I am forever searching for ways to make my food go further without EVER skimping on flavour or going hungry. So, today I knocked up a satisfying, tasty and fresh salad which my taste buds were certainly thankful for, after noting the anorexic looking shelves of my dying fridge. I seem to be using pumpkin seeds a lot at the moment in this Autumnal weather, so I decided to use a handful of mixed seeds to create a pesto dressing for the last of my sweet, ripe tomatoes and pessimistic salad leaves. Homemade pesto is always more wholesome and scrumptious than the jarred equivalent in the shops and this one certainly didn’t let me down……

  • 2 tbsp of mixed seeds (I used pumpkin, sesame and sunflower)
  • Small bunch of coriander and flat leaf parsley
  • Small handful of grated parmesan
  • 1 small garlic glove
  • ½ small lemon
  • Salt and pepper
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  1. Start by grinding the garlic to a paste with some coarse salt in a pestle and mortar.
  2. Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan until they release their flavour and begin to crackle.
  3. Add to the pestle and mortar and grind to a chunky paste with the garlic. You can grind it as much as you like. I like to keep the seeds a bit chunky to add a bit of texture
  4. Now add the herbs and parmesan and grind to a green paste.
  5. Add a splash of oil and a squeeze of lemon juice to make a thick pesto or to your desired consistency.
  6. Taste and adjust using salt and pepper and more lemon if you like.

I added a large tablespoon of my pesto to a mix of bitter cos lettuce, sweet tomatoes and some cress for a lovely salad. This would be delicious topped with some salty, fried halloumi cheese…..but, sadly my fridge didn’t deliver on that one.image