Skip to main content

two easy end of summer recipes, slightly spicy minty marinated japanese eggplant & over the top crop of basil pesto


 slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant & over the top crop basil pesto



Two Summer recipes and I know it's October  🎃 , but with the smokey 💨  skies and hot 🥵 temperatures, aka: red-flag  Warning ⚠️ end days of Summer I still have recipes to make and share with you.  Japanese eggplants are fun because they're easy to grow and very purple, a beautiful color.
I like the way the long slender eggplants hide in their compact little bushes making you lift up their leaves and really search for your harvest.  I like the lushness of the sweet basil plants 🍃and their confidence to grow and grow right up into October.  Tomatoes are basically done and I have one more apple tree to harvest, maybe this weekend.
I would make falafel and cover it with slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant.  I would also make potato gnocchi and smother it with over the top crop of basil pesto, thank you very much. hmmmm..

Ingredients and Recipe for slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant
serves 4

4 Japanese eggplants, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 small Serrano pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 generous tablespoon capers
1/4 cup minced fresh mint
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put eggplant slices in a mesh strainer and generously sprinkle with sea salt.  Let drain for 30 minutes.  Remove to a paper towel and blot the excess moisture.
Heat a heavy cast iron grill pan and add the eggplant slices in batches grilling until soft in the center and nice grill marks on both sides.
Combine the pepper, garlic, capers, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Gently stir the grilled eggplant into the olive oil mixture, mixing well.
Pour into a glass jar with lid and let marinate for at least 6 hours in the fridge before serving.

Ingredients and Recipe for over the top crop of basil pesto
serves 4

4 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to pour on top of pesto in jar
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place the basil, garlic, pine nuts and salt in a food processor and pulse, about 12 times, until chopped.
With the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil until the basil mixture forms a paste.
Transfer the basil mixture to a bowl, stir in the lemon juice and the cheese. 
Scrape the bail pesto into a glass jar, pour about a spoonful of olive oil over the top and cover.
Basil pesto can stay in the fridge for a day or so before using.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

springtime chamomile tea cake with strawberry icing

 Good grief, Easter is in the rear view mirror and we are deep into this new year.  And once again it's tea time at my house.  This chamomile tea cake is a beautiful sweet addition to any tea ritual, especially my favorite, chamomile tea, which I rediscovered in my hotel room in Carmel earlier this fast moving year.  I highly recommend a slice of chamomile tea cake with strawberry 🍓 icing with a cup of chamomile tea to just take a moment and slow this year down.  Baking with tea is both creative and fun.  Earlier this year I made Earl Gray sugar cookies which are made using the same method of infusing the butter with loose tea.  For my tea cake I also rubbed the lemon zest into the sugar -another way to lend a pop of citrus to your baking. The strawberry icing is made using freeze dried strawberries, I pulverize them in my spice mill and then they are pressed through a fine sieve into the confectioner's sugar.  In addition to using lemon zest rubbed into the sugar for the cake

pear jam with saffron infused honey and cardamom

  Pear Jam with Saffron Infused Honey and Cardamom The summer after high school I worked sorting Bartlett pears at the Scotts Valley Fruit Exchange in Lake County California.  I thought I would never touch or eat another pear again in my life. But, here I am years years later making pear jam in my kitchen with pears, honey and saffron grown in Lake County.  A few weeks ago My husband and I went to visit friends in Kelseyville at their finca, they generously supplied me with the pears from their orchard-Finca Castelero- for my jam.  I will never forget getting up early in the morning and riding my bike across the valley from my cousin's house to work a long hot day sorting pears.  I remember thinking whoever came up with the idea of creating a cooperative to sort, pack and send pears from family farms, including my cousin's family farm on what is now called Hendricks road, to markets all over the country really had a good idea!  I never looked at pears in the grocery store the s

chocolate dipped toasted almond-coconut financiers

  Easy peasy chocolate dipped French style cookies for a crowd made in a 24 cup mini muffin tin and I can't think of a better use for that pan....don't you just love the perfect pan for baking?  I do.  These wonderful chewy but soft and cake like cookies are perfect baked up for a party 🎉  I'm always looking for individual desserts to serve for a festive event and the more French like, the better.  I used the toasted almond flour from King Arthurs Flour for this recipe but you may toast your own almond flour along with the sweetened shredded coconut used in the recipe.  I also used Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Chocolate 🍫 for my dipping, which is my go to chocolate for baking.  This recipe is best served on the day it's made. Ingredients and Recipe for Chocolate Dipped Toasted Almond-Coconut Financiers Makes 24 1 cup, 2 sticks- unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut 1 cup toasted almond flour, or plain almond flour 2/3 sugar 4 tabl