TWO TAKES

Last week I made a couple of dishes for the blog, went through the whole taking pictures process, but they seem repetitive from prior posts. So I've mushed them together for you here.

TAKE ONE:


First up is the Fava Green Pesto with Lemon Chicken. It's a really easy dish to make so long as you have a food processor. First prep the chicken by slicing chicken breasts into bite size pieces and throw them into a Ziploc bag.

Then, juice a lemon into the bag and add a pinch or so of salt and pepper. Toss around to coat and allow to marinate in the fridge or on the counter while you prep the rest of the dish. Do not over marinate or the chicken will cook in the acid, no more then 15 minutes ok? PS I have this cool new juicer that you stick into the lemon and it forms a kind of spigot out of which all the juice squirts. It's kind of my new favorite tool. PPS apparently I purchased Meyer Lemons, slightly sweeter then the average lemon but worked just as well.

Next mak to make the pesto I washed and dried the fava greens and sent 2 cups of them for a spin in Tyler along with 1/4 cup of toasted walnuts, and 1 large garlic clove and 2 tablespoons of meyer lemon juice (any kind of lemon will do, but use fresh squeezed, lemons are really cheap, you don't have a lot of excuses for not just keeping them in the house).  Then, with Tyler doing his thing. I drizzled in a 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil and stirred in a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan (another staple). I put the pesto into the now empty Parmesan container for safe cleaning while I got the rest of the dish together. (why waste another bowl).

Back to the chicken, Bring a non stick skillet up to heat with about a table spoon of olive oil and throw the chicken in to cook until slightly browned and the pink is gone. Now is also a good time to boil water and cook the pasta. I would recommend Rigatoni, or Fusilli  for this kind of sauce as the ridges allow the sauce to cling to the pasta and, bonus, the pasta will be roughly the same size as the chicken pieces

Plate up for the Final Result:

THE VERDICT:

Tasted like a mild flavored pesto and it probably could have used a little bit more garlic, but overall the dish was quick and easy and made a delicious dinner. The Husband even went back for seconds so I call that a success.

The Recipe:
Recipe Credit goes to Karen Juul Wilkinson over at mypantryshelf.com and can be found HERE.

• 2 cups fava leaves, stems removed
• 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• freshly cracked pepper to taste

1. Mince garlic in the food processor. Add the fava greens, walnuts, salt, and lemon juice. 
2. With food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Blend until mixture is smooth and uniform. You will probably need to scrape down the sides. 
3. Add Parmesan and pulse until mixture is combined. 
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve or store any left over in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

TAKE TWO:

Next up for your reading pleasure is Husk Cherry Preserves. It was very simple to make and I didn't get too many pictures for you but here you go.

First I husked the cherries and got about a cup from the entire batch which I then gave a quick wash.

Then on the stove I boiled together 1/2 a cup of water and 1/2 a cup of sugar to get a simple syrup. Just heat until simmering and sugar is dissolved (takes about 2 minutes). To that I let steep a tea bag of sleepy time tea because it smelled nice and I thought it would spice things up. It did.

After 5 minutes, I removed the tea bag and brought the syrup up to a simmer before adding the Husk Cherries. I was then supposed to let everything cook down for 40-50 minutes but being a tinkerer I decided about 5 minutes in to up the anti again and added a whole hot pepper to the mixture. I just gave it a quick clean and pierced the skin a few times with a fork to allow it to infuse. I came back 15 minutes later to remove the pepper and let everything else keep cooking down.

The End Result:

THE VERDICT:

It's a very thick, very sweet preserve. I'm glad I added in the pepper, the background of heat helped to cut through the thick sweet flavor. Next time I might add a little lemon to help with the sweetness. Tasted great on a cracker with a little bit of cream cheese and probably would be even better next to a more complex brie or goat cheese. The flavor was, honey like, and surprisingly Husk Cherries have a lot of seeds so the texture was kind of like a fig jam. I liked it. The Husband hasn't tried it yet.  We will just have to see.

The Recipe:

Recipe loosely based on a recipe by Colline Levine over at cheeseandchampagne.com and can be found HERE.

• 1 cup ground cherries
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 heavily spiced tea bag
• 1 small hot pepper pierced several times with a fork

1. Remove the husks from the cherries, rinse and let dry while preparing the tea-infused simple syrup.
2. In a small sauce pan, combine sugar and water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for two minutes or until sugar is fully dissolved. Add tea bag and remove from heat. Let tea bag steep for 5 minutes, then remove.
3. Add ground cherries and whole hot pepper to the tea-infused syrup and bring back to a simmer. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally  Then remove the pepper and cook for an additional 25-35 minutes until a thick consistency is reached. Transfer to a clean glass jar and let cool completely before refrigerating. 
4. Preserves will keep for at least one month in the refrigerator.