Homemade: Fresh Basil Pesto

I originally wrote this post as a guest post over on Red Parka Diaries about a year ago. Since it's that time of year again, and I'm looking at basil plants with a limited lifespan left, I thought I'd share it here. One of my all time favourite things to make is fresh, homemade basil pesto. Yum.

For some reason, whenever I grow basil [every year], I'm always cautious to use it up too soon, so I end up being overly sparing with it. And then, of course, the plants go to flower, the season comes to a close and I have all this basil that didn't get used. It's like clockwork. The best way I know of to use up excess basil is to harvest it in big chunks and make pesto. It's super easy, it tastes delicious and you can adjust the ingredients so that it's perfectly to your liking [hello too much parmesan]. Here's what I do.

Ingredients:

fresh basil - a good handful, torn or chopped

garlic - 1/2 clove, crushed

pine nuts, lightly toasted - 1/4 to 1/2 cup, more or less

sea salt

cracked black pepper

parmesan cheese, finely grated - 1/4 to 1/2 cup, more or less

olive oil - 1/4 cup, more or less

optional: fresh lemon juice

You may note that I'm a bit vague with the quantities in this list. That's because I don't tend to use set quantities, rather, I just start out with however much basil I have, and make it to a consistency and flavour that I like. You can taste it and adjust as you need to along the way. 

Method:

I use a mortar and pestle for making pesto. You could use a food processor, but I prefer the rustic, homemade appeal of using brute force. So pop your basil leaves into the bowl, along with the garlic, pine nuts and some salt and pepper to taste, and bash away. You want it to form a paste, and you can either leave it more chunky or keep on bashing it til it's a bit smoother, your call. Next add your parmesan and give that a good stir through. Then pour in some olive oil and stir to get your paste nice and smooth. At this stage, you'll want to have a taste and see what you think - is there enough parmesan added? Is the balance of flavours about right, or is it too heavy on the basil? Is it too dry, in which case you'll need more oil? So many variables, but I find that it changes every time I make it, and it's very easy to adjust ingredients on the go. 

So basically, make whatever adjustments you think it needs, and you're done. Homemade basil pesto! Something to note, if you intend to store it for a day or two you'll need extra oil, and make sure that when you put it in a jar, the top is covered in oil. You can also add a dash of lemon juice to help stabilise the colours if you're making it a bit ahead of eating time. This gives it a nice fresh lift too.

Three of my favourite ways to eat fresh homemade basil pesto:

1. stirred through cooked pasta with extra pine nuts and parmesan for good measure.

2. as a dip, along with crackers, a sharp cheese and a chilled white wine [you could substitute pine nuts for cashews if you're planning on serving it this way].

3. as a base on homemade pizza - fresh basil pesto on Turkish bread, topped with roasted sweet potato, spinach, feta and topped with more cheese of your choice. 

I honestly think that fresh homemade basil pesto is one of life's loveliest treats. And it's so easy! I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I do it.

What's your favourite way to use up lots of basil?

Homemade: Plum Jam

I had totally forgotten that this place we've moved back to has a plum tree. And even in the first month or so that we were back here, it hadn't dawned on me that there would soon be plums. But as November progressed, I watched and saw the little green plums being formed on the tree. I have a wonderful view of it from our sunny afternoon sitting spot where we read books. And I kept thinking to myself, I must get out there with the camera and capture some images of the plums turning from green to red. And it still never occurred to me that I could make plum jam. And I didn't really get any good images either.

Once the plums started ripening, and I started harvesting lots and lots of plums, it became a matter of urgency to make the jam before they got too ripe. I'm new at this jam-making business, and I've had a few attempts with the plums now [with varying success], but I'm hooked. I love that those delicious plums won't go to waste now, as so many of them have been turned into jam that can be eaten for months to come. Actually I think I've made more jam than we're likely to eat in a year. I could give it away, and probably will, but I want to be sure of the quality of my work before I go handing it out. Obviously mum gets a jar regardless.

So we have plum jam. We've been eating scones and pikelets and we had to make jam drops [my favourite biscuits]. I am yet to master the art of jam making, but I'd like to think I'm learning more with each attempt. The first attempt was a total fail, it was too set and we could barely get it out of the jars. The second attempt was much better, it is spreadable but still a little on the too-set side of things. The third attempt is cooling in jars as I type, and I'm concerned that I've over-corrected and it's now too runny. Time will tell. Fingers crossed it sets well as it cools. I think I need a lot more practice at this jam making caper. 

Here's the recipe I followed. 

Plum Jam

Ingredients:

900g plums [prepared weight]

150ml water

900g granulated sugar

Method:

Put plums into a heavy based saucepan. Add water and bring to the boil. Lower heat, and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes. The fruit should be soft. 

Tip in the sugar and stir over a very low heat until sugar has completely dissolved.

Raise the heat [gently] and bring back to a rolling boil, then rapidly boil for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, skim off any excess scum from the top and allow to settle for a few minutes. Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal.

Making jam is one of those things that connects me to my grandmother, and her mother. I'm learning how to do something that was common knowledge a few generations ago. And it's one more thing I can make from scratch, instead of buying as a processed product at the supermarket. 

Have you made jam? Are you a pro? Or a novice like me?

Homegrown: My Potato Harvest

You probably know that I like to grow my own food as much as possible, and this summer just gone, I tried my hand at growing potatoes in the garden. I've never grown them before so it was a bit of an experiment for me, inspired by Wilma next door with her massive mounds of dirt and sprawling potato plants [and 40+ years experience...]. So I got my hands on a $2 bag of seed potatoes from a farmers market in late October, and ended up planting out 17 seed potatoes.

Anyway they all eventually sprouted, and grew in to lovely lush plants. Not as big as Wilma's mind, but hey, in years to come I think they will be [as our soil improves, the more we condition it]. I cared for them lovingly, and piled up extra pea straw around the plants to provide extra coverage for the potatoes growing close to the surface, so they wouldn't get exposed to light and go green. And Charles did most of the watering to keep them alive and well in the heat, when my motivation was lacking.

We've had a couple of tasters now, where we would sacrifice a plant here and there and dig up all the potatoes from the soil under it. Some of them were huge. And they tasted really good, really very different from store bought potatoes. I couldn't tell you what variety we actually planted out because I don't know, but they are beautifully soft and creamy when cooked. And the really big guys are great for making potato chips [fries] with. And I made these Crispy Sage Potatoes with Fried Eggs to feed the in laws [I can say that now] - divine.

Apart from the odd small harvest though, I had just let the plants go. A few reasons for this - the physical work started to be much harder on my body with this growing belly, and the relentless heat had me cowering inside, and the total lack of rain was leaving the ground baked like clay. Actually that's exactly what it was, baked clay. Not good for digging in. But I finally thought I'd better go out and harvest what I could. I left it a bit late really, some losses to bugs and grubs but it's still a good harvest.

At a guesstimate [which is part actual and part made up] I'd say we've come in with around 20kg of potatoes. As in, I was weighing the harvests and keeping a list to get a total for the season, but right now there is a massive bag of potatoes and I'm not in the mood for weighing them. It was hard enough digging them all up. And some of those are green, so they can't be eaten [can you pick it in the image above?] and some have been munched on by garden critters. But there are again some really big, good looking potatoes!

What I want to know is, is it possible, or even desirable, to grow enough of our own potatoes to be able to sustain ourselves through the winter? How many potato plants would we have to have in order to achieve this? Is it something that would be worth doing? And I'm assuming we would be able to store them appropriately. What did people do before mass production farming? I would love to be able to grow enough to not have to buy store potatoes ever. Without turning into a full time potato farmer in the process.

Do you grow your own? Have you got any tips to share?

Homemade: My First Preserve

Something I'm very passionate about is making food from scratch, at home, preferably with produce grown in the garden. It's just better, you know? It looks better, it tastes better, it's better for you, all that stuff [I've a confession to make here though - I prefer tinned beetroot to fresh... there, I said it]. One thing I've not tried until now, is using up the excess produce by making preserves. It always just seemed too hard, what with sterilising jars and all. A few months ago I gifted myself with a book on making preserves [similar here]. I gave it a go this past weekend, with a Caramelised Onion and Beetroot Relish. And I only broke one jar in the sterilising process.

I started out by harvesting beetroot from the garden [I still grow the stuff, even though I prefer to eat it out of a tin]. I'll be honest here - the hard work is in the scrubbing off of dirt, and peeling and grating of beetroot, and the slicing of onion. I was up to my elbows in the stuff. Beetroot stains. Wear gloves. The actual process of cooking up the preserve was really easy. I sterilised my jars by standing them in low oven for 30 minutes while the preserve was cooking, I'm hoping that was enough to kill off any nasties. 

And the finished product? Well it looks good! But now it has to sit for 3 weeks before opening, so I can't tell you yet how it tastes. I'm quietly confident that it will a] taste amazing and b] have a total lack of mould because my sterilising process was perfect. We shall see. 

I'm slightly concerned about the condensation on the tops of those jars. My recipe did say to seal immediately [while still warm] so I can't see how you wouldn't get condensation. I guess the testing will be in the eating. Have you ever made a preserve or relish? I'd love to get some tips!