Category: Cooking

(More) Thai Basil Pesto

SabineLeave a Reply

Yesterday, I harvested all remaining Thai basil, which was a ton. Back in March, I had started seeding six cells, which I then thinned to three or four seedlings. It took me more than two hours to prepare all the basil leaves for pesto. In the end I had exactly six cups of packed leaves and made a triple batch of the pesto recipe. I froze two servings in Ziplock bags for the winter (I now have three servings in the freezer as I had made a double batch back in August). Looking forward to Thai Pesto Noodle Bowls tonight. Overall, my six cells of Thai basil produced a total of 12 packed cups of leaves for six batches of pesto. A nice yield!

The Thai basil “wall”

Zucchini

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Oven-roasted zucchini with pistachios and fresh herbs

I turned three zucchini I had recently harvested into a very tasty side dish. I first drew out some water (because one of the zucchini was pretty big) by sprinkling the finger-thick slices with salt and letting them sit for 15 minutes. After blotting them dry, I sauteed them and finished them of in the oven at 450 for 15 minutes. I then added chopped pistachios and chopped fresh parsley and basil from my back porch. Super delicious with fresh baguette.

Today’s Harvest

SabineLeave a Reply

Nice big harvest today. I keep forgetting to take pictures. I harvested a ton of Italian basil and made basil pesto (really just basil, olive oil and salt; no garlic, cheese or nuts), which I froze in ice cube trays. I like to leave out the garlic, cheese and the nuts to keep it more versatile, as I also use it on fish or roasted vegetables, where I might not always want cheese.

Thai Basil Pesto

Sabine1 Reply

Last night, I harvested a bunch of Thai basil from my plot and made this delicious Thai basil pesto. It uses toasted sesame oil and peanuts, and gets a little kick from red pepper flakes. The kids and I had one of our favorite meals last night – crispy pork bowls topped with Thai pesto. I used this recipe for the pork. So good! I made a second batch of Thai pesto but left out the vinegar and lime juice, and froze it for future use.

Thai basil harvest (about a third of what is in the plot at the moment)
Mise en place (kind of). I used my Ninja blender, which works really well for pesto.

First Zucchini

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I harvested my first zucchini (zucchino?) yesterday and turned it into a roasted vegetable goat cheese pizza. I roasted broccolini, red bell pepper, red onion, Brussels sprouts and zucchini, and spread those on a garlic bechamel. Topped it all with goat cheese and fresh mozzarella. (Recipe from the cookbook Eat Delicious). The pictures do not do it justice. It was delicious!

June Harvests

SabineLeave a Reply

Earlier this week I harvested my garlic scapes and turned them into garlic scape pesto. I (loosely) used this recipe, but omitted the cheese as I plan to also use the pesto on fish or for other purposes where cheese might not work. I am loving the sunflower seeds in the pesto. They made it super creamy and tasty. As always, I froze the pesto in ice cube trays and transferred the frozen cubes into Ziploc bags for storage.

Last leeks plus rhubarb

I also had several harvests of rhubarb, all of which were turned into strawberry-rhubarb compote to go over vanilla ice cream. The rhubarb plant is still young, so I did not want to over-harvest, but I got quite a good amount of stalks.

Peas 🙁

This is the first year that I did not get to harvest a single pea. I was very successful in protecting the peas from the rabbits by fencing them in, but they sadly were no match for the birds. I ripped out all plants this week. I will need to think about what I want to plant there now. Beans? Beets or carrots? More greens?

Sowing, Staking and First Harvests

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This morning, I sowed more flowers in my flower patch (Zinnias Queen Lime Blush and Queen Lime Red, and Cosmos Rubinato and Sensation mix) plus nasturtium (all over the plot) as well as a row of Golden beets. I also staked all my eleven tomato plants. I noticed that one (Black Prince) had a broken stem. It looked like it was cut in half. I will replace it with a new Black Prince seedling that I still have on my back porch. Luckily I had started two seedlings for each variety, and all germinated. A few days ago, I harvested a few of my overwintered leeks (which I roasted for dinner last night together with carrots, Brussels sprouts and potatoes and served with a bright Chimichurri) and some rhubarb (which I turned into a strawberry rhubarb compote and enjoyed over vanilla ice cream). I need to harvest the remaining leeks soon to prevent them from flowering.

Nicely sized overwintered leeks

Last Squash

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Today, I used up the last butternut squash from the fall. I made a rose harissa-roasted squash salad with greens, toasted pumpkin seeds and blue cheese (because I did not have feta on hand) in a white balsamic vinegar dressing. It turned out pretty spectacular.

My last squash, harvested on October 31, 2023
Looking good for having spent the last five months in my back hall way
Last soft-neck garlic

As for home-grown vegetables from last year, I still have garlic hanging in the pantry and a few beets in the fridge. In the freezer, there is still basil pesto, lemongrass, Thai basil, and Thai peppers. I used some of the lemon grass last week to make this lemongrass chicken dinner. Very good. It is nice to still enjoy some produce from the garden while this year’s harvest is starting its journey in the seedling trays.