A PESTO PASTE

The problem with classic pesto, bought from an upmarket source or home - made is the cost.

It is so delicious that it barely gets put away so I have devised a way of making lots and now make well over a kilo at a time without it costing an arm and a leg.

Pesto etymologically means something that is ground and the generality of pesto recipes definitely invokes just that ie  the use of ground pine nuts. Pesto then can be quite reasonably refer to any spreadable condiment that has a largish single ground component.

Pesto, often called pesto sauce, is indeed just that, runny and eminently spreadable and flowing over your pasta..

However I want to offer some variation on pesto; I want it to be a  paste, stiffish but easily
spreadable. This allows one to do so much with it in terms of handling for fillings, and spread on your good bread it will hold so much other stuff like finely chopped vegetables, grated cheese or pulled chicken etc.

At the outset I realise there are many recipes and replacement of the basic components of basil, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil.

I shall tell you mine but ask that you think of making it as a paste and not of a sauce consistency. This doesn’t detract from its use as a sauce as at the time one simply decants some of the past and adds some olive oil.

Amounts of ingredients.

This is almost unimportant. Other than the ground nuts being the largest single component the rest is up to you. It is impossible to not end up with something nice.

The nuts.

Pine nuts are expensive and I replace them with sunflower kernels. It is wise to grind at least half of the amount you choose very finely almost like flour. It is this then than makes the paste. The rest can be course ground for a crunchy texture or as you please. I add ground linseed, walnuts and almonds but patently it can be whatever you want and as fine or course as you want.

The basil.

This can be fresh but I use dried basil. Any herb you fancy will do as long as you sense the
outcome. For fish of course dill, fennel tops or dried versions of these anise (including anise) like plants. I use very fine parsley and/or celery tops to offer something fresh.

The garlic.

You want this to go through you mix so make sure some of it is finely crushed. Short of garlic? Really finely chopped onion can bolster this.

The oil.

I stick with olive oil but patently any oil you like and have confidence in will do - don’t go berserk with this till you sense how it will come together.

The cheese.

Classically it’s a hard cheese, pecorino or parmesan but again these are pricey items and I find feta just great but a little harder to handle. Below I tell how I cope.

Salt, pepper etc.

These are to taste but spices are great and offer a more or less endless choice.

Mixing.

People these days have electrical devices which chop mix and blend. Except for a coffee grinder I don’t - but I do have a sharp knife and cutting board.

Use really a big bowl - something you can get you hands into and to lift and rub. Using a silicone spatula to decant you will lose nothing.

Put in all the dry ingredients and mix well. Break the feta into small chunks and with your very dry hands rub them into the mix like fat into the flour for a pastry- do this till is of fine texture.

Then add the finely chopped basil or other leaves. When the mix is consistent use a broadish spoon and dribble, mixing continually till you get the paste you want.

Decant and enjoy on and in anything.

WARVS :- Warm and Raw Vegetable Salad

In English this acronym doesn’t run easily off the tongue but it does summarise what I hope will become a kind of staple.

With a little care and attention this dish, even on its own,  can be as flavoursome and welcome as a steak. .The spectrum of colour, taste texture and what it can contain and  contribute to health is incalculable. A little time consuming at first it is the easiest dish ever to make.

This truly subserves the preservation of goodness and natural roughage of vegetable.

You need any vegetable except potatoes (but sweet potatoes are just fine), some sort of pot or pan to warm them in, a sharp knife and a chopping board.

WARM  means just that never heated beyond baby bath temperature. This means the components will not be damaged  yet will be welcome when it is cold and that the flavours therein will radiate and move through the mix.

AND

RAW

Having laboured the point that cooking is akin to the rotting of food, raw takes on a better light. It means the food will have a pleasing crunch and a texture to stimulate your guts. Some things you add as you experiment might not be so crunchy  - cooked pulses, quinoa, brown rice etc can be used as expanders and that means furthering tastes, textures and appearance. However their use should be modest as the real health benefits come by way of nutrients and complex carbohydrates in the raw vegetables

VEGETABLE

This can be anything that can be eaten raw and, apart from potatoes and aubergine, this is just about all vegetables. This does not exclude fruit but what is not wanted is sweet and soft fruit. Unripe, or barely ripe is the order of the day - they should be sharp in taste and firm.

SALAD  There is no need for recipes-the word speaks for itself.

Preparation:-  Yes this is a little time consuming but it gets easier and easier all the time.

washing:-
a vegetable brush and  water do well. Remember to keep and use the skin. On  some it will not be intuitive to save the skin eg pumpkin, swedes but they really do add texture, taste and importantly fibre. It is remarkable too that the paper thin  skin on say carrots, turnips and parsnips manages to keep at bay a myriad of earth insects and bugs so don’t scrub hard so hard as to lose them. Some use vinegar in the water. I think it’s most important to remove any bits that look  touch fungal. It and the underlying vegetable will be soft and spoil the taste and  no one wants to eat an unknown fungus.
 A little salt in the washing water might take your fancy.

cutting up:- 
This is so important. Smallish is important - apart from just coping with it in the mouth it offers an enhanced surface area for your additives. As nice as Juliened vegetables can be they mustn’t be so long as to be difficult to manage. Beware chunkiness too, also slices be they ever so thin. Grating and fine chopping is just fine. Naturally for the kids use a finer grating.

mixing:-        
For this use a pan, pot or anything that will hold what you have cut up but with enough spare  room to allow you to lift and mix easily. A thick based pan is good   as it will offer better control over getting things ‘just warm’. Greens discolour rapidly so I tend to add these last- though just defrosted ones might go in earlier.

                

Your additives:-  
This is the crux of making the whole thing work 
- making what can be a nightmare to eat into something scrumptious and welcoming.. Please do your level best to avoid buying ready mixed flavourings and sauces.Learn to make your own-they will be fresher, and have the quality of ingredients you choose and none of the preservatives they need to maintain shelf life. Also the variety is infinite.

At the outset the thing that pulls everything together is oil but as this will added the very end  we shall discuss this later.

Patently additives are your choice and taste. Many spices are in the league of superfoods like turmeric and cinnamon and herbs, fresh and dried,  can be like this too. A squidge of lemon juice adds a marvellous fruity sharpness as do sour apples like Bramley. Finely chopped lemon pulp adds a mild bitterness and good fibre. Amchur, powdered dried green mango, adds a fruity sharpness.

Salt and pepper are good; I use a high potassium salt to keep the sodium intake down and fairly course ground black pepper. Ground mustard seeds are good.

It’s almost insulting your intelligence to suggest any more as you will know what you like already.

Nut butters, especially almond butter, used sparingly and ground sunflower seed  give interest and texture.

I use good quality olive oil and this will not be damaged by low temperature of the mix - be generous for it is this that makes it go down so well. Rice bran and cold pressed rapeseed oil works well and occasional coconut oil is good too.

I keep one or two ‘expanders’ in the fridge already cooked. Brown rice, quinoa, cracked buckwheat, millet, and some from dried beans and peas - butter beans and blackeye beans are favourite.

This might irk some readers but now and then I buy turkey breast mince, cook it so its free to separate into course granules. I freeze it in very small quantities and add one of these occasionally for a change.

A hard boiled egg finely chopped also bumps up the flavour and the protein content.

Mostly against using bought sources I keep some Tamari or Bragg’s Aminos on hand.

I hope you get the hang of warvs and keep some at hand all the time by making a little extra.

Good luck.

How can we introduce a new stratagem for better bread.

At the outset one has to point out the cost of not having a new stratagem. To point out the cost in the personal health of the nation, the massive cost to the country from that by way of underwriting that country’s health service, lost working days and other inherent costs to industry, and the ever and ongoing  entrenchment of poor food tastes and practices.

The present cost per person per year of the NHS is £1710 and with an increasing population, age issues, increasing expectations and more sophisticated treatments this can only increase.

An aging population is a credit to medicine but we want a healthy aging population, thinking and mobile.

If the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat were good then this bodes well.

But this is not the case.

Of these probably clean water, at least in the UK is a partial success but vigilance is needed there.

Air clean of industrial pollutants is necessarily still monitored and people in countries and near those where this is poor suffer still such as in China and even some parts of the USA.

It is however food that needs most attention. Where there is good food enough  is not eaten and where it is poor it is eaten overeaten.

Sadly it is food which is at the interface of big business and its hold over governments because of the sheer wealth made from it and what they pay in taxation. This is one boat the government will not want to rock. What is consumed by way of sugared and preserved food is probably 60% of the entire food stocks in our supermarkets. Eating wholesome food takes a long time to pay off by way of improvement in the health of the masses and governments need cash now and are not prepared to bite the bullet and take the long view.

What I want to see is the establishment of a food advisory board, FAB for short, and moving the

Food Standards Board into its jurisdiction.
This means focussed caring of food at every level, not just hygiene, preparation, and care in production including imports but pressing by unending advertising the importance of good food, how to buy and make it, how to avoid rubbish foods and show what these cause.
Coding of food doesn't work very well and detailing content is exhausting to many.
Big red writing on all food labels to indicate presence of sugar, refined carbohydrates, salt and other bad preservatives and potential allergens. Big green writing for products with real benefits like fibre, class one protein, vitamins.

We are never going to stop rubbish food from being eaten. But legislation can improve the quality of the components of that rubbish food.

Reducing the gluten and increasing the fibre content for starters.

The bread industry has not got your health in mind, more their pockets. The health services of the country have to pick up the tab to resolve the effects of chronic constipation, the diabetogenic effects that the refined flour they use and the challenging and probable long term effects of contained protein and amino acid complexes on the immune system.

The bread industry has abandoned the low gluten and spelt like wheats in favour of the present high gluten wheats. And why wouldn’t they. High gluten means less wheat and more water in your bread and as another bonus for their pockets it increases the shelf life considerably.

Fortunately most of the vitamins added by way of legislation to bread flour are reasonably heat stable. This is definitely a good thing.