A Basil-Inspired Feast to Remember

Warm Asparagus Soup with basil + a hand-rolled Goat Cheese and Basil Wedge; Basil Pesto for dipping assorted vegetables and roasted potatoes. Thank you to my cat sitting client Sue for tipping me in basil leaves!

Julep Update: Seeds to be Replanted

Sadly, the above basil sprout dried to a crisp and withered away a few weeks ago, and my planters remain dry and empty. I was remiss at watering my seedlings enough, and the big, romantic thunderstorms of last summer have yet to arrive and routinely drench my herbs.

I aim to plant more basil seeds soon. And whether it's homegrown or store-bought, I do declare there will be fresh pesto made in my kitchen sometime this summer!

Julep Update: Seeds Planted

Today I planted the first porch seeds of the year. This season I have one planter of basil, and another of spearmint. I'm keeping it simpler than last year, and also planted much earlier.

This year I used better soil; have a new, more sprinkly and gentle watering can; and know how to fight bug fungus should it again attack my herbs.

I'm looking forward to making pesto from my basil, Cuisanarting various herb-based sauces, and most importantly, muddling mint for Mojitos and Mint Juleps, which I'll drink in a plastic cup as I take my evening stroll.

I've already got my pine nuts, rum, and whiskey; bring it on, herbs!

February Food Porn

Photos of and recipes for my recent culinary 'conquests.'

Bad table manners during dinner at Cochon, which is owned by two of New Orleans' top chefs, Donald Link and Susan Spicer. On a double date, Jon and I feasted on roasted oysters that taste like liquid gold, cucumbers that had just the right amount of vinegar and mint, and a smorgasbord of pork delicacies.

I'm often inspired by my food magazines that arrive each month. One recent night, I made pasta with homemade tomato sauce that includes Kalamatas and grilled chicken sausage. I was also compelled to try Five-Spice Beet Soup topped with sour cream and celery leaves. I didn’t know anything about Chinese 5-Spice Powder before this – it’s a beautiful, delicious and aromatic blend of spices that includes fennel, pepper, star anise, cinnamon, and clove. The soup was smooth and velvety, rich, fragrant, and complex from the spices.

A bountiful counter, onion goggles and all!

Above is my homemade vegetable stock for the Beet Soup. This New York Times article, which I've consulted many times since it was published, gave me the idea to make it. I didn’t have enough store-bought stock in the fridge, so per the article, I decided to supplement and make my own for the first time. The article said cook an onion, carrot and celery stalk for 10 min, but I used more vegetables and cooked them for at least 25 for good measure.

For a special meal with my in-laws, I made grilled arctic char over red cabbage, inspired by this Gourmet recipe, and this Bon Appetit one. I seasoned the fish with salt, pepper, and a blend of 5-Spice Powder, cumin, and turmeric, inspired by both the Gourmet recipe, and the beet soup one.

I also cooked scallops wrapped in grilled turkey bacon, using the same seasoning on the scallops.

Lastly, I made a mashed potato-like cauliflower puree that is incredibly tasty. I don't usually like cauliflower very much, but I love this recipe.

For dessert, I made rhubarb white chocolate chip muffins, as my father-in-law adores rhubarb. When I told Jon I was making them, he complained, "I don't like rhubarb." Guess who ate the most muffins and couldn't stop raving about them?

The recipe for these Espresso Brownies made my mouth water to such a grand extent that I baked them the next week for a visiting friend. If you bake them, please note that the original recipe was not published correctly, but is corrected in the comment section online. The brownies turned out well, except I wish I had cooked them for 5 minutes less (as they cooled, they became much harder than I wanted). When I make them again, I'll add in extra espresso powder. Due to personal taste preference, I left out the nuts.

My friend wrote afterwards, "Do you think you could FedEx me some of those coffee bars? Maybe about 50 of them. Tonight. I can practically taste them in my mouth, and it's driving me insane. I suppose I could make them myself this weekend, if I don't die of longing first."

I made my favorite grilled shallot topped Mac n' Cheese for a friend, who requested it after reading my blog post about it. This time I added in sliced turkey bacon (97% fat-free!), which in hindsight I should've grilled separately before layering into the casserole (would've added more of a crunchy texture to the dish).

I also served homemade carrot soup. I put the carrots, onion, and celery that I'd used to make the vegetable broth for the beet soup into the food processor and gave it a whirl. I was very happy to find a use for those vegetables -- I couldn't stand the idea of throwing them away. Next I mixed them with a can of creamed corn, and the leftover broth, plus salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Poof! I had homemade, healthy, carrot and corn soup. I was a little shocked at how easy it was.

Funny story: I found out during dinner that my guest had never actually had carrot soup before, but had wanted to since she was 11 years old and read about it in a children’s book…something about the bunny feeds another animal carrot soup so that the other animal doesn’t eat the bunny? She (and hopefully the animal in the book) savored every drop.

Finally, "Chocolate Sin" for breakfast at the extremely popular Pancake Pantry in Nashville, Tennessee. Cherry pie filling, chocolate ganache and fudge sauce, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and thin pancakes light as air -- no repenting necessary, it was worth the calories!

Recipe: Spaghetti Spice Sauce

Per my February Food Porn post, the link to Gourmet's Spaghetti Spice Sauce recipe is here.

I like to slice (not dice) the Kalamata olives into threes so that there’s more to go around, and you can actually use any tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, or pre-made spaghetti sauce you like.

I often add diced yellow onion to make it chunkier. I recently tried a new pasta, VitaSpelt Whole Grain Angel Hair, from Whole Foods, which turned out to be delicious. Note: the pasta only takes 5 minutes (the box says 2-3, but it wasn’t ready at 3).

The one problem with this recipe is that there's no protein, so while the sauce is cooking, I add some in by grilling 3-4 store-bought sausages for about ten minutes, take them off the heat, and depending on my timing, either first let them cool some in the pan, or put them on a cutting board and use a paper towel to hold one hot end while slicing up the other (slice the "butts" extra thin for textural purposes).

Like the olives, the more sausage pieces you cut, the more there appears to be in your dish. I add the sausage into the sauce after it's cooked for awhile, and let the sausage warm up again in it until it’s time to mix it with the pasta and eat. I usually use a low-fat chicken, feta, and spinach sausage, but any kind would work.

If you don't like spice, leave out the red pepper flakes. If you do, add more!