"Piehole" in Midwestern means "mouth," as in "Shut your piehole." Preferably we shut it on some tasty home cooking. We love to grow, market, buy, cook, bake and grill so we can feed our faces, chow down, pig out, scarf & whatnot. I'm a born Midwestern home cook posting foods and recipes that show up in front of me, because like all Midwesterners I eat what's put in front of me. Pull up a chair. What can I get you?

Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Rainbow Trout with Herb Sauce

Okay, I didn't catch the trout, I bought it; so sue me. It was already cleaned and I had it beheaded and wrapped in brown paper. At home I rinsed its fat shiny body and patted it dry because otherwise the fish won't broil: It'll steam.

Next I cut some fresh herbs from the garden: Parsley, basil, a bit of arugula. This I ran through the mini-chopper with olive oil and salt. Not too much oil; you don't want to overwhelm the flavorful meat.

Then I opened the trout so it was butterflied and laid it skin side down on a lightly greased broiler pan, and painted each side with herb sauce and broiled it for 8 minutes. Any small bones left in it melted during broiling.

I cut some lemon wedges, and had some greens and roasted potatoes ready, and lunched like royalty on half of it, and had the other trout filet for next day's lunch. You should too. Fresh fish does not smell fishy. It seems pricey until you realize it takes only about three-quarters of a pound to serve two people, and it's all protein and no waste except skin, and infallibly delicious. Really, the sauce just gilds the lily. Don't wait until you catch a trout to eat one.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Basil-Walnut Spiral Dinner Rolls

I have way more pesto than I can use on pasta, so I had my bread machine stir up some half-white-half-whole-wheat dough, and then flattened the dough to a rectangle, massaged it with olive oil, cut it in half, paved each half with pesto and walnuts, rolled it up, and cut the tubes in two-inch pieces. These I flattened with the heel of my hand so the pesto-and-walnut spiral showed, placed them in pans and let them rise (outdoors! It's plenty warm there!) and baked for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. It made 14 rolls.

Machine dough, handmade dough, okay; but frozen bread dough, although convenient, has less texture and  high-fructose corn syrup in it, and it probably can't stand up to the taste of basil pesto.