Yesterday was the 17th May. To most of the world that's just your normal day, to anyone who is Norwegian or remotely a norwegianophile will know that it was Norway's national day. We experienced the whole kit and caboodle of Norwegian nationalism which is about as threatening as a warming hug from your favourite grandma. This blog is about food but I have a question to pose...how do the norwegians get it so right with something as scary as nationalism and so wrong with food?? Any genius philospohers out there feel free to step up to the plate with an answer.
Anyway onto Pesto. Tonight we experimented with avocado and pesto. I am an unreconstructed fan of both. I could write poetry about Bacon, Avocado and Hummus or pesto. The two together had me heading to cold sweat territory with the worry that 2 great things don't necessarily make an even greater combo. Just look to Dylan and the Dead.
However I am pleased to report that home made pesto (and if you're not doing it yourself why the hell not??) and ripe avocado are a great combo. We used them tonight on some oven grilled pork chops which frankly smacks of it's friday, it's been a long week my imagination has already had a few beers more than me kind of approach to cooking that I am happy to encourage and they enlivened the meal without going into overkill territory.
So here's the recipe
2 -4 gloves of garlic (remember the more you put in the hotter the pesto will taste and too hot is not a good thing)
A load of basil - some recipes I've come across say a good handfull, others a cup. Look at the state of your basil and if it's a bit tired don't be afraid to ramp it up a bit, if it's the most beautiful basil exercise some restraint.
Beat the hell out these two in a pestle and mortar.
Add parmesan and pine nuts, again be sensible...the point is to have a green crunchy paste.
Add olive oil to make it a sauce.
Finally add you avocado and make it into a lovely sauce.
Use judiciously. Remember - there is no excuse to waste food, tonights experiment came about because we have avocados that need eating up.
Apart from that we've had some good Japanese food. Try some marinated mackeral with rice and potato salad. It's good.
The basic principle of the marinade is
*Mirin
*Soy
*Rice Vinegar
*Ginger
*Caster Sugar
*Miso
Play with proportions and enjoy.
Off to Barcelona on sunday so hopefully will be inspired. However am planning a gorgeous Thai Red Curry tomorrow night.
Your going to have to wait to find out about voodoo dolls.
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3 comments:
Avocado and pesto, what a good idea!
Thanks for your comment on my blog, my boyfriend does wear the socks every now and again, which is a compliment as he prefers thinner socks. I know other boyfriends have liked them, he just doesn't really like wool that much. Photo of how unimpressed he is here. I think I might try him with a cotton sock yarn.
Jamie likes Norwegian food - pickled pilchards, salt dried pilchards, pilchards preserved in pee.... he says what's wrong with Norwegian food? I (Dyl) on the other hand think if they used more bananas and rum it would be a great improvement...
So are you going to get Deb to make you Alice's boyfriend socks? We think the pirate socks are cool too. And Jamie likes her cheshire cat socks, selvførgelig.
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