Oh Honey Honey!
There’s something to be said about the satisfying crunch of sugar. I must, for example, have sugar on my cornflakes in the morning- otherwise, I’d rather pass on the cornflakes. But there’s also something to be said about honey. Not only is it thick and golden and sweet, it’s a natural product, made from nectar by bees. And it’s good for you, generating heat, energy, and even promote wound healing through tissue formation.
Yes, honey is a winner. My favorite way to have honey is drizzled over some pancakes or french toast (instead of maple syrup), as an ingredient in the best caramel popcorn you’ll ever taste, and as a necessity in homemade Baklava. But here’s another way to have your honey: with your salad.
Divine Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise (the good stuff. Hellmanns or Best Foods)
1/3 cup raw honey
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2/3 cups vegetable oil (Sunflower, Olive OIl)
1 tablespoon red onion or shallots, minced fine
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced fine
2 tablespoons mustard
salt & pepper to taste
Whisk all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Toss into your favorite green salad, or serve on the side.
Make It Yourself: Pesto
Once you make your own pesto at home, you will never again buy pesto in a jar, bottle, or tube. I guarantee it. Making pesto is so unbelievably simple- see the photo above? That’s all you need to start making pesto. Really.
Like most simple recipes, of course, it matters that you use the best ingredients possible. In the case of pesto, this means fresh, bright green basil, young garlic, good extra virgin olive oil, parmigiano reggiano, and the freshest pine nuts you can buy.
Pine nuts, by the way, go rancid horrifyingly fast- so you probably don’t want to use that bag you’ve had in your pantry for a year. Get fresh, well-packed pine nuts. And if you can’t, use walnuts. Or pecans.
On to the pesto making: I like to use a mortar and pestle mostly (after all, pestle and pesto are derived from the same word, “pesta”, which means “to pound”) but have been known to pull out the trusty food processor- especially when there’s company for dinner and/or we’re making a lot of pesto.
Finally, here is my no-fail, you’ll-never-use-store-bought-again pesto recipe. Mix it with pasta, serve as a dip… you know what to do with it.
Pesto
3 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (or, use regular Parmesan or Romano)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts or pecans
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
Start by pounding the basil leaves and pine nuts together. Add (in this order) the garlic, olive oil, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Either buzz this all in the food processor, or grind in your mortar with pestle.
And that’s it! This pesto keeps beautifully in the fridge.
Tips for Painless Breadmaking
In my last post, I sang the praises of my favorite Crocs shoes for baking, which never fail to ensure that my legs and feet are taken care of during particularly grueling baking marathons. What I didn’t pay enough attention to, apparently, was what all the kneading was doing to my back and shoulders.
Until last night. I awoke at 3:30 a.m. in agony. My left shoulder burning, I could barely move my arm. Pain, pain, pain. I remember thinking, groggily, that “pain” meant “bread” in French- and how appropriate it was. Yes, I ordinarily think this way.
It was my fault, of course. I hadn’t done upper-arm exercises in weeks months, so what was I thinking jumping right into half an hour of kneading extremely heavy dough?
I’m much better today, thanks to visualization techniques (and a good dose of painkillers), and I’m chalking it up as another lesson learned.
Tips for Painless Breadmaking
- Be smart about kneading. If I had more upper-body strength (and, I’m sure, less butter-fat), I would have breezed through the hardcore kneading session yesterday. I should have waited until my heavy-duty mixer got back from the shop (tomorrow!) before attempting a breadmaking spree.
- Make changes carefully. Despite having made that bread recipe nearly a hundred times perfectly, I decided yesterday to replace more than half of the usual all-purpose flour with some nice, gluten-rich bread flour. It made the dough extra heavy, and a little too dense.
- Timing is everything. Because I wanted to serve at least one of the loaves of bread for lunch, I didn’t let the dough rise enough on its first rise (it’s a double-rise recipe). This, too, probably contributed to its heaviness.
- Get help. When I was nearly done kneading the dough, my husband walked into the kitchen and asked if I needed any help kneading. He took over for the last few minutes, but I should have had him take over much earlier. He does, after all, have all those “guy muscles”.
Do you bake bread regularly? What are your tips for easy homemade breadmaking?
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My Favorite Baking Shoes
I’ve just prepared two loaves of bread. Because my heavy-duty mixer is off being repaired, I did it the old-fashioned way- by hand, kneading for half an hour, blasting Nirvana on the kitchen speakers to get my mind off the burning in my arms. My hands are sore, my back is aching- yet my legs and feet are surprisingly fine. Why? Because of these shoes:
These are the crocs Women’s Tully Clog
I used to favor open-toed shoes, until I spilled one too many hot liquids on my feet. These are close-toed, but with little holes to ensure your feet stay cool in them. Plus, they’re much prettier, imho, than the regular “clown-y” looking Crocs. I’ll even admit that I’ve worn these out of the house a few times- to run to the grocery, or to grab an after-dinner Haagen-Dazs with the husband. The subdued color of this style means they don’t draw too much attention to themselves.
Do you wear special shoes for baking or cooking?
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
When life hands you lemons, do as the Moroccans do, and preserve them!
The truth is that there are few things in life I love more than a bowl full of lemons. They’re such a beautiful, versatile fruit- zest them, juice them, slice them up thin… I can think of a dozen things I can do with a fresh lemon right off the top of my head. And one of those things is to preserve them.
If you’ve never cooked with preserved lemons, be forewarned: you’re likely to become addicted, seeking out their singular goodness in every stew you make from hereon out. Yes, they’re that good. And so easy to make!
Homemade Moroccan Preserved Lemons
You’ll need a lot of lemons, the number of which depend on the size of your container. My husband and I purchased a large glass jar for this, but any airtight container should do. I recommend glass, ceramic or stone- not plastic or metal.
Scrub the lemons clean, then quarter them, but make sure to leave them attached on one side, sort of like a blooming flower. Sprinkle each lemon generously with sea salt, rock salt, pickling salt or kosher salt. Don’t use fine table salt.
Pack the lemons tightly into the container, adding spices if you like (totally optional)- examples would be bay leaves, a cinnamon stick, some coriander seeds… whatever you like.
Or leave them plain. Which is what I like.
You want to push the lemons down constantly so they release their juices, and ultimately become completely covered in their own juices. You can also squeeze some more lemon juice on top of this.
Keep in a cool, dark place (I am forced to use the refrigerator). They will be ready in about a month.
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