Cooking with Aidan, Episode 1.2

Today, out of sheer boredom, I decided to allow the little dude to help me make two of my go-to sauces.  Allow me to introduce you to my sous chef, Aidan, who enjoys cooking without a shirt on. This is not conducive to cooking, however, as evidenced by the episode of the flying tahini and its subsequent landing on his belly.  Nonetheless, we got to work. 

The first step was to prune my kitchen window basil plant for the main ingredient in sauce numero uno: Pesto.

We needed to have 1 packed cup of fresh basil leaves for the recipe.

Next up was 1 TBSP of pine nuts, or pignole, as they say in Italy.  You can find these at the grocery store.  Fresh & Easy didn't have them, so I went down to Claro's Italian Market to pick them up.

Sous chef "no-shirt" was ready with his EVOO.  First, we added the basil to the Cuisinart Food Processor- this one is a mini-prep, but you can use a larger one and double the recipe to freeze the remaining pesto for later use.  I like to freeze some each time I make it fresh, so I know I have some to go at a moment's notice,  if I need it.  The basil leaves are not always ready for plucking, so sometimes you need to go with the ready-made, and I prefer to know it came from my own plant, as opposed to paying extra for the mixed pesto in a jar at the grocery store.

After the basil leaves, we sprinkled in the pine nuts, and 1 clove of garlic, minced. Note: we used garlic powder today as a substitute, because I'm out of fresh cloves.  

 Next up is adding a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese.  Here you see grated, but you can also use shredded if you have that on-hand, so long as the blade of your food processor can cut it up into small bits.

 Finally, we added 2 T of EVOO, which, we realized after the fact, was a bit under what we should have added.  I think we ended up with about up to 3 or 4 total tablespoons for the right consistency of the pesto.  It was far too chunky with just 2 T.

 Mix it up in your processor for a minute or so, until it becomes like a wet paste.  If you think it is too thick, add a bit of EVOO until it is a pasta-coatable consistency.  (Ha... I just made that word up!)

 Here's the final product, ready for the refrigerator and hopefully, for a pasta or pizza tonight or tomorrow. I have some homemade dough and fresh mozzarella in there, too, so I'm seeing a pizza in the near future with a bit of this lovely green stuff.

Next up for our experiment o' the day was homemade Hummus.  This is a middle eastern dip that is lovely on crackers ("kaki" as my son used to call it when he was going to daycare in a Lebanese home) or on vegetables or with warm pita.  First,  we needed the two main ingredients:
                                                     
Tahini is pulverized sesame seeds.  It's basically sesame butter;  like natural peanut butter, it has oil on top when you open it, and it has to be mixed well.  2 T of tahini and 1 can of garbanzos (chick peas) go into the food processor:

Then add 4 T lemon, 1 clove garlic minced, salt & pepper to taste, and 2 TBSP EVOO.  Mix until, again, you get a blended paste-like consistency.  You can add more oil if it's too thick.

 To finish off our dip, we sprinkled a little more EVOO on top and some paprika, then cut up some celery for dipping.  Yum!  I was surprised to see that Aidan even at it and wanted to try some of the "red stuff" in the middle.  At first he thought it was chili, and he got a little nervous, but he took a bite with celery and then said, "Wow! That's good!"  I love his excitement.  Everything he makes is good, even if five seconds later, he's "all done for now".  Ha!

These are two really simple dips/sauces that can be made cheaply at home, and if your weather is good for growing basil and you're overrun with leaves that need to be used up, it's great to make something different with a basil flavor that can be used in many different ways.  Pesto is great on pasta and pizza, but it makes a good steak marinade too, or a grilling baste.  Enjoy!