I totally need a food processor. Now, a few years back, when I was *just* starting to cook, one of my mom’s friends bought me a beautiful Cuisinart. Well, that was 3 apartments ago and 3 roommates ago, so um, yea, the Cuisinart is in pieces. I currently possess most of the main components—except for the blades. UGH! I’d kill to be more responsible.
I’ve had to make do with a blender and an immersion blender. And it really hasn’t been that bad. I’ve been able to make soups and sauces with much success. But, um, not this go round. If you haven’t noticed, I’m really into KOD’s “Meatless Monday” feature and with about-to-go-bad kale, I took her up on kale pesto. It’s very similar to regular pesto, she just subs in walnuts for pine nuts, and well, kale for basil. I had pine nuts on hand, so I used that. My other spins on the dish: yogurt and sage.
Well, apparently my blender had ENOUGH. It just refused to blend. I must have tried every combination of low and high and grate and pulse and chop and puree. But, nothing. Wouldn’t budge.
80, feeling heroic, tried to put together my food processor, which an old roommate brought over a few months back. This is when we discovered there were no blades.
I had to transfer the roughage to a plastic bowl and them immersion blend the greens into a sauce. The sauce was super thick, but really good. Very hearty and didn’t wreak of boiled, dark greens. ( I was nervous.)
And the other big to-do was what I dressed with the kale pesto – spaghetti squash. Now that shit is weird. I baked it for over an hour at 375, pricked it like a baked potato first though. Once it was cool enough to touch, I sliced it in half to let it keep cooling off. When it was ready to handle, I had no idea what to do with it. There was so much going on. Strands of squash posing as angel hair. Grungy pulp tangled with seeds. And of course, kale clogging my blender. It was a night. But I finally separated the gunk from the strands and dumped it all into a bowl.
This was all for a small Top Chef gathering. When Liza and her bf were on their way, I quickly cooked up chunks of chicken for 80. He’s endured plenty of all veggie meals, plus I wanted to reward him for finishing his first semester of grad school. While the chicken was frying, I combined the squash and the sauce over low heat. We plated with Liza’s whole wheat garlic bread (with soy butter!) and a side salad with a Caesar vinaigrette.
Mmmm. I did taylor gourmet on H street last night.
I spy a good Hanukkah gift idea for the gans, 80P – food processor blades!
Sounds like a fun dish, Gansie. It seriously didn’t taste all bitter like kale usually does? We may have to try this.
Belmont – what did you think of Taylor? We’re loving having them in our neighborhood. Casey and David are great!
it really wasn’t bitter at all, i was shocked. it just tasted earthy and creamy – i think the addition of sage and yogurt, plus lots of salt, really helped.
It did need some salt, but it tasted like a thick pesto sauce. Eating spaghetti squash was a strange experience. Your mind was telling you PASTA, but you mouth gave mixed signals. Seems like an ingredient you would get at Minibar.
Spaghetti squash is one of my all-time favorites. Make it easy on yourself by slicing it in half, removing the seeds, placing the two halves flesh side down on a baking tray and pouring a little water around it. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Scrape the squash out (yes, it looks like angel hair pasta), add butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg and you have a wonderful side dish for any entree