Foot and Fire

To say that I missed my pesto is an undestatement. I duper missed it.  Yes, recently, I made one and I used 3 kinds of basils and added brazilian spinach as extender. I have the long italian basil, genovese basil and sweet basil in the garden but I harvested a handful only. My dream of growing a lot of sweet basils and harvesting a basin of it at a time is still not coming true. Here's my lesson or motto. I willnot try any more basil varieties except for sweet basil (too delicate to grow and I didn't get to make them last into woody maturity the last time I grew a lot of them) and genovese basil (proudly grew them into sturdy woody stems now). They both smell like basil. The long basil does not satisfy my olfactory craving. Bye bye to my great expectations.  Brazilian Spinach Pine nuts, toasted Garlic Parmesan cheese Olive oil Himalayan Salt Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend until creamy. Store in a glass jar.  Use a spoonful in y...

       In the afternoon of 24 April, I and everyone in the house decided to give away food plants and trees that can be planted in the yard. We call it food plant because they are not only pretty horticultural-wise but also edible.         We gave away the seedlings we also planted in our yard. I posted Carissa Carandas , peanutbutter fruit tree , and brazilian spinach in the past blogs and I invite everyone to revisit them. We also cut leaves of brazilian spinach for cooking right away and the mint for minty water or hot mint tea.    We extended our plantree the next day, in the morning and in the afternoon as we targetted joggers and walkers in our area. It was a fun and fruitful experience.  Let us plant more trees like jackfruit, guayabano, atis, rambutan, santol, cashew, and lanzones in our yards because the deeper their roots, the more carbon dioxide they absorb down to the earth and that means we a...

My pizza toppings include wilted brazilian spinach and it went well with anchovies I really love my Brazilian Spinach. First, it is easy to grow from cuttings and it loves constant harvest. Second, it does not interfere in the overall taste of what I cook. Third, it is nutrient-rich given its lush green color. Fourth, it gives confidence for my friends who doubt their chances of growing plants.  In this blog, I would like to feature my two friends who seem to enjoy the leaves of their green thumb! My other friend loves it as salad and serve it with eggs, but I missed to save the photo she sent. The fried rice with eggs and chopped brazilian spinach by Che. The Japanese noodle soup with sardines, mushrooms and brazilian spinach by Virgie If you want some brazilian spinach cuttings, feel free to message me. 

The main ingredient to a good pesto is the fresh basil leaves and since I have a few cups, I used my brazilian spinach to enliven the usual fare. The authentic Italian pesto calls for pine nuts and I am lucky to have much of it as of this time. It was sent to me from abroad. In the Philippines, a kilo of it cost P2,000. Of course, so as not to consume my nutty sweet smelling pine nuts, I also used almonds.  For this batch, here are my ingredients: Brazilian Spinach Genovese basil Parmesan Cheese Garlic Pine nuts Almonds Himalayan salt Extra virgin olive oil (Evoo) By small batches, put ingredients in a blender and blend until all is done. Store in a glass container and top with EVOo To seal off freshness.  Use the pesto on your pasta, a spoon of it will already make two plates served in your fave resto. Or top ot on your toast and use as marinade for your fish. 

I called this my Extended Psto because I don't want to annoy Italians with my version of their well loved pesto. Well, they started it and it's their fault that pesto is so good that I came to love it. Enough of teasing the Italians! hahahaha Of course, I have to use what is in my garden. Since Brazilian Spinach abound this weekend and I harvested a lot of my Genovese Basil and a few leaves of sweetbasil, I am obliged to utilize the ever greener Brazilian Spinach.  After a brawling match with my new blender, I churned out many batches of pesto. I used it for the french bread toast and flaked roasted chicken, spanish sardines angel hair pasta. Voila, a hearty meal.   Brazilian Spinach, wilted and chopped Genovese Basil A head of garlic, sliced Pine nuts Almonds Parmesan Himalayan salt Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) Process by batch all ingredients in the blender or ideally in a food processor till pasty consistency is reached. Store in jars an...