Hazelnut Pesto

I bought a bouquet of basil at the Boulder Farmers’ Market. When I picked it up, I knew it was large. When I got it home, the enormity of this bouquet really struck me. What’s a gal to do with so much basil? Pesto, of course.

I had raw hazelnuts in the house, so I decided on hazelnut pesto. I’d never made it before, but walnut pesto is great, so hazelnut pesto should be great, too. And, it is.

First, I roasted a couple cups of hazelnuts in the oven at 200 degrees until they became fragrant. Reminder: PAY CLOSE ATTENTION WHEN ROASTING NUTS! You turn your back for a second and they burn…

When they were cool, I peeled off the skin.

Then it’s all quite simple. I peeled some garlic from the market, washed the basil, found my olive oil.

It took four batches in my mini food processor, plus a little sea salt and freshly ground black peppercorns, and I have multiple meals-worth of pesto.

Finally, I filled two ice cube trays to freeze my pesto so I can enjoy the flavors of the summer harvest in the fall or winter. When I thaw my little pesto cubes, I’ll add some grated parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Homemade Plain Yogurt

When I first moved out to Boulder seven years ago, my mom gave me her old Salton yogurt maker and I definitely dabbled in making homemade yogurt for a few weeks.  But, it really only lasted a few weeks because the bottom line is it is MUCH easier (read: more convenient) to go to Whole Foods and buy yogurt than to make it at home.

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately in my spare time and saw a couple on plastic and, besides freaking me out, made me think about how I don’t actually use much plastic at home since I generally try to avoid it.  Yogurt, however, is always sold in plastic and, being that I have a brand new yogurt maker (I replaced my mom’s old one… though I can’t remember why), I decided from now on my yogurt would be served in little glass jars and I’d be that much less responsible for the ridiculous amount of plastic we toss out (or down-cycle).

It’s so easy… ANYONE could do this. Just takes a little time.

Step 1- Bring milk (I used 2%) to just under a boil.

Step 2- Let it cool to the right temperature- 108-112 degrees Fahrenheit- I have a special yogurt thermometer that lets me know when the milk is in the right temperature range to add the starter.

Step 3- Dissolve 5 grams of yogurt starter in a little of the warm milk. Then add that to all of the milk and mix well.

What’s yogurt starter? Well, it’s freeze-dried skim milk powder, sucrose, ascorbic acid, and lactic bacteria. I bought Yógourmet brand in the dairy section at Whole Foods.

Step 4- Pour the milk mixture into glass yogurt jars (they come with the yogurt maker) and then incubate them for at least 4 hours.  I let mine sit there for 7 hours.

I have a Salton brand yogurt maker I bought at Bed Bath & Beyond. It essentially keeps the milk and lactic bacteria mixture at a warm temperature so it thickens into yogurt.

When it is thick enough for you, turn off the yogurt maker and remove the jars.  I like to let mine sit until they reach room temperature before stacking them in the fridge. When you’re in the mood for yogurt, you have seven individual servings, all in nice glass jars rather than plastic.

We’ll see how long I keep this up.

Home Brewed Kombucha Kit by Kombucha Brooklyn

I’m a huge fan of Kombucha. Ever since my first sip of the effervescent fermented tea beverage I have craved it almost every day.  The problem for me is it’s pricey- $3 per bottle unless you find it on sale for $2.50- so I “justify” buying it occasionally as it really helps rehydrate me after Bikram yoga (which I practice at least 4 times per week). I can’t, however, justify $12-$15 per week on this stuff because my money doesn’t grow on trees.

But, now I have a new supply of my favorite bubbly beverage- I’m making it myself.  Food52 ran an offer last month on a kombucha home brew kit from Kombucha Brooklyn, so I bought one. I followed the instructions exactly and here’s a glimpse of my first batch.

You can see the original SCOBY- Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast- on the bottom of the jar and the new one that formed floating on the top. It’s like a science experiment… and it’s kind of weird, but I heart my SCOBY.

Kombucha Brooklyn sends you everything you need to start home brewing Kombucha, including your first SCOBY. The kit I bought came with this big jar for fermenting (including the cloth cover for the top), tea, sugar, and a temperature strip so you can be sure you’re fermenting within the optimal temperature range.

I don’t have air conditioning, so I checked on my ‘bucha every day to be sure it wasn’t cooking. After two weeks, I tasted my first batch and loved it. Here’s a photo of how much Kombucha I brewed-  I filled 2 amber bottles (provided by Kombucha Brooklyn) and a little more than 2 cups.

Then I started batch 2 using both the original and the new SCOBY, 1.5 cups of my first batch of bucha, and the tea and sugar mixture.

The box of supplies has directions on it which are easy to follow, and Kombucha Brooklyn has a great website with flavoring ideas, questions and answers, and a shop for more bucha brewing supplies. I’m a big fan now and think you should check them out. They supply a tea blend and cane sugar, which I’m going to use at least for my first three batches.  I’ll have to decide whether or not to continue buying my tea mail-order after that, but for now, it’s a great starter kit.

I decided to leave my first batch unflavored, so stay tuned for batch #2, because I’ll definitely get a little more creative with that. Happy brewing!

Green Bean and Purple Potato Salad

I love stopping by the Black Cat Farmstand at the Boulder Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings to see what Chef/Farmer Eric Skokan is harvesting. I’ve been getting into the habit of letting him suggest I try something, and then I ask him how I’m going to prepare it. He almost effortlessly rattles off a recipe to highlight something seasonal, and I rush home inspired to try it. This past week I bought his first harvest of green beans. They were a light green color, which leads me to believe they have some special name other than “green beans,” but for the purpose of this post, they were Black Cat Farm Green Beans. Chef Skokan suggested I blanch them, cool them off, and add them to a potato saldad in a mustard vinaigrette.  So, that’s exactly what I did. I bought a pound of local purple potatoes from the market that day and boiled them after blanching 2 big handfulls of the beans. When they were cool, I coarsely chopped them, mixed them with the green beans, and tossed them in a maple mustard vinaigrette. I let this chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving with turkey burgers and corn on the cob. A perfect summer meal. For a simple Maple Mustard Vinaigrette, whisk together:

•  2 TB Grade B Pure Vermont Maple Syrup
• 2 TB Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup Walnut Oil
• 1 TB Apple Cider Vinegar
• a splash of soy sauce

Bramble & Hare, a Farmhouse Kitchen and Pub

A farmhouse kitchen and pub… I dig the sound of that and I loved the food I tried during the industry soft opening on July 1. New restaurants need to ease in to their rhythm, but for a first night of service, you’d be surprised to discover Bramble & Hare hadn’t been around for quite some time. Everything was on point, and our waiter- the esteemed Tyler Nemkov, former executive chef of Mateo Restaurant Provencal and part-time chef of Black Cat Bistro– delectably described all 14 items on the menu in a way that made me want one of everything.

 In good company, of course, we started out with the cocktail menu. I ordered A Welcomed Pause.

What’s in A Welcomed Pause? I can’t recall. Bourbon or Rye…  I didn’t snap a photo of the cocktail menu, but that’s OK for a couple reasons: 1. The cocktail program, overseen by Dev Ranjan (Sommelier of The Black Cat Bistro and Beverage Director for Black Cat and Bramble & Hare), is clearly one of the best in town. It’s so good, I’m excited to announce Bramble & Hare will be a new stop on my Boulder cocktail tours.

After clinking glasses and saying cheers, we moved on to food. Tyler recommended we order one of everything on the menu. But, we limited it to 5 plates and a dessert.

A quick note on the menu: It’s the coolest menu in town, and definitely one of the coolest I’ve ever seen. You get a mini pencil so you can write the quantity of each plate you desire to explore- it’s a sushi-style-menu.  Also, the top is hand perforated so you can tear it off and keep that “portion for your records.”

A plate of seared greens arrived first. I could eat these every day. I have three words that highlight this dish: crispy fried garlic.

Next came a beet stuffed steamed bun and a doughnut with duck liver mousse. I didn’t try the duck liver mousse… Not a big fan of liver… But the steamed bun is quite a unique vegetarian option. I’m hoping they play around with all kinds of steamed buns.

Since I was dining with Molly Browne, my Cheese Tasting Tour guide, we tried Bramble & Hare’s grilled cheese sandwich. Let me just say it was the best grilled cheese ever and I’d go there any day for a grilled cheese rather than make it on my own… It was THAT good. This particular night they used a cheese called Les Freres, a European style farmstead cheese.

We also shared the chilled roasted turnips with were served with broccoli florets.

Dessert was definitely in order, so we indulged in a sour cherry pie.

Chef/Owner/Farmer Eric Skokan has definitely introduced Boulder to a new style of restaurant and we’re very fortunate. On his Black Cat Farm, Eric raises the animals and grows many of the vegetables served at both of his restaurants, so this is definitely farm to table.  But, the price point for each plate is really reasonable (in some cases quite low), which encourages ordering multiple small plates and sharing- a style of dining I prefer.

I’m looking forward to returning to Bramble & Hare. Looks like I have a new favorite spot in town.

Bramble & Hare

1970 13th Street, Boulder CO

303-444-9110

Open 7 days a week. Lunch. Dinner. Late night (til 2 am).