Have you seen the price of pine nuts lately?

 Admittedly, one can use walnuts in a basil pesto, but one day way back when, I was feeling whimsical and I ground up some salt & pepper pistachios and tossed them with olive oil and pasta and loved the result. More recently, I bought some pistachios and thought I'd try to find a recipe that could improve on that impulse, and Food and Wine had the perfect solution:

• 7 ounces unsalted roasted shelled pistachios (1 1/2 cups) (get help shelling them, this took me about 49 minutes, or one episode of the Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 cup finely shredded pecorino cheese, plus more for serving
• 2 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths and julienned
• Salt
• 1 pound orecchiette (I had spaghetti in the pantry, so that's what I used)

In a food processor, chop the pistachios. (I recommend doing this in batches because the smaller bits of nuts will sink to the bottom. You can probably use a blender. I have a small food processing unit that came as an accessory to my stick blender) Add the olive oil, mint and garlic and pulse to combine. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the 1/2 cup of cheese and the scallions; season with salt. 

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente; drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot. Add the cooking water and the pesto and cook over low heat, tossing, until coated. Serve, passing more cheese at the table.

I recommend a bit more of the cooking water because it will help prevent the cheese from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Here's my final result:

I might have put on more cheese after I took the picture. This is a deeply satisfying dish. The mint leaves a coolness at the end of a bite. The Romano gives a bit of a feel of cacio de pepe, but elevated with the pistachio for richness, and there's a tiny bit of bite from the scallions. I can't find anything I'd change, which, if you've been reading me for while, is damn rare.

What's your favorite pesto?

It's only a little bunny rarebit

 I am not massively familiar with common British foods. I've never visited, and in my murky past I was more likely to visit an Irish pub than I was an English one. Authenticity, as you can imagine, varies. 

When I lived in Nashville there were a couple places I enjoyed and I really enjoyed bangers & mash. I found myself with a craving for it a couple months ago and met up a friend at an English pub uptown. For an appetizer, we enjoyed a Welsh rarebit.

Why the hell I haven't made this before I don't know.

A few weeks later, a friend posted this link. I hadn't heard of Two Crumbs up, but I found the concept fun, and then I came to their Scottish Rarebit recipe. It intrigued me because it used whiskey instead of beer, and I just had to try:

• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1 tbsp Flour
• 1/4 tsp Mustard Powder
• 1 tbsp Whiskey (I used Jameson's)
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp Heavy Cream
• 2 cups Grated Scottish Cheddar (I might have used Irish, St. Andrew forgive me)
• 2 slices Sourdough Bread, cut in half

The method very simple:

Begin with a roux-- melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat until foaming, then add flour. Stir and allow to cook for a minute or two, until the smell of flour fades and you have a popcorn-smelling wet sand texture.

Add your remaining ingredients (except the bread, you silly K-nig-hts), and stir over medium-low heat until melted.

Keep your cheese mixture warm while you lightly toast your bread. Pour cheese sauce over bread and summon fire without flint or tinder-- ie toast the cheese with a blow torch or under a broiler. To avoid burning the toast, I suggest counting to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.

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The cheddar I had was a bit oily, so I ended up playing with the sauce a bit. A little more flour to soak up the oil, then a little more whiskey and cream to keep the right texture. I used Colman's mustard powder. I like that this had mustard powder so there wouldn't be acid from the vinegar in the sauce. I want more of that flavor next time. And there will definitely be a next time.

The tomatoes were tossed with a little salt, black pepper, olive oil, and thyme, then roasted at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes before I put the oven to broil for the rarebit.

Have you made rarebit? Share your experience! 

Seeking perfection: Salmon Cakes

I have been cooking, I just haven't been blogging. Sometimes because I'm making old favorites, sometimes from laziness, and sometimes because dishes don't turn out the way I want them.

Case in point: This is my second attempt at salmon cakes and I've gotten closer to what I want, but more importantly, I'm pretty sure what I want to do next.

Preheat over to 350 F

Ingredients for this batch:

• 1 14.5 ounce can of salmon (who the hell decided on 14.5 ounce cans?), drained.
• .5 Cup Ka-Me wasabi flavor rice cracker crumbs (I used a coffee grinder, more on that in a bit)
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 teaspoons Penzey's Wasabi powder (thank you Gina!)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 Tablespoons plain yogurt (I'm a fan of Fage Total)
• 1 Tablespoon mayonaise

Vacate salmon from can with a fork, breaking up the chunks until it is more flaky than chunky, stir in the green onions, cracker crumbs and egg until everything is mixed to the point where you don't see cracker crumbs. Stir in yogurt and mayo.

You could form these into balls or patties, but I decided to use a muffin tin to help me get six cakes, with the idea of 2 as a main dish serving:

I baked these for about 20 minutes and then broiled for about 4 minutes to get a nice crunchy top. They didn't come out of the pan in one piece because they were just too wet. Still tasty and a nice warmth from the wasabi. I'm not sure if wasabi paste would give the same, but if I try, I'll let you know.

For a condiment, I mixed up some garlic-chili sauce with some plain yogurt and on the side were some sliced cucumbers with sesame seeds.

So, my critique:

• I should have crumbed (yes, that is now a word) the crackers in a food processor or used a rolling pin or my favorite mallet to get bigger pieces. I think they would have absorbed the liquid better if they were closer to the flaky fluffy consistency of panko.
• I probably also needed at least 2 Tablespoons more of crumbs
• More green onions. At least two more.
• Peppers of some kind? Maybe, I'm not sure. Red bell might work. Or well-drained peppadew. These were creamy, with the crust being where a different texture is. A little crunch might not be a bad idea.
• Just yogurt, no mayo to get more of a tang.

So we shall see what happens next.