sauces Archives • Ant & Anise

Tarragon Pesto

Pesto is a small treasure. At least that’s how I think of it.

Isn’t it though? It’s a concentrated intensely flavorful sauce, similar to chimichurri, that lends itself to a variety of dishes. Tarragon pesto, like its more traditional sibling made with basil, can be spread on sandwiches, dobbed on top of soups, whisked into a vinaigrette or spread on grilled fish and meat. Top marks for versatility.

When I look inside my fridge and see a small container of tarragon pesto, like I did this morning, it makes me happy. It makes me feel like no matter how rushed I get during the work week, I can make a decent dinner in under 30 minutes.

Or I could pack a wickedly good lunch.

I’ve been focused lately on what to bring for lunch during the work week. I haven’t been doing it yet, mind you. I’m still at the thinking stage, and dashing to the closest salad joint at lunchtime. New routines, settling in and figuring out what will work for actually bringing a lunch. Sigh. I’ll get there.

What I have realized is that unless I, ahem, up my weekend organization a notch or two, the quality of eating during the week has a high probability of spiraling downward into grabbing whatever’s fast, which isn’t typically what’s healthy.

I know it’s smart to make a big batch of something — a stew or soup or casserole — on the weekend and portion it out for a week of lunches. I may come around to this, but it’s not my regular habit. Perhaps it should be, though: There is science behind decision fatigue for lowering stress levels. And, as you’ve no doubt seen examples of Steve Jobs and Barack Obama wearing the same thing every day, reducing decisions could also point the way to being more productive. Hmmm…

That’s where tarragon pesto comes in. It’s a start to making it easier for me to put together a healthy lunch.

To start off, I used a spoonful of tarragon pesto as a base for a vinaigrette and had it as you see below, with seared tuna on top of some greens. Basically it’s a tarragon-y twist on salade niçoise, sans the egg, potato or anchovies.

Yes, this is rather fancy for a weekday lunch. In fact, it made a lovely dinner and took practically no time at all, once the pesto was made.

The best thing about it? I have leftovers to pack tomorrow for lunch. Wicked.

Tarragon Pesto

Yield: 1/2 cup

A sauce as simple as it is versatile, tarragon pesto adds a lovely flavor à la française to sandwiches, salads or soups. Try using it as the base for your next vinaigrette or pasta sauce, too. Endless possibilities!

Ingredients

1 cup loosely packed tarragon leaves (15g)
2-1/2 cups loosely packed parsley (45g)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Instructions

In the bowl of a food processor, place tarragon and parsley leaves together. Pulse a few times until the leaves are chopped well.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the walnuts, lemon juice and olive oil. Whirl it around, scrape the bowl down again and taste it. Add salt and pepper to taste.
You may prefer to add more lemon juice or olive oil -- if so, add it a teaspoon at a time until you reach the flavor you want. If you like the flavor but like a thinner consistency, add a few teaspoons of water.

Notes

TARRAGON VINAIGRETTE: To make the tarragon vinaigrette, I took a few spoonfuls of the pesto in a small bowl and whisked in 2 teaspoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of water. You could also add additional lemon juice if you like. You're basically aiming to get a thinned-out version of the pesto, so play around with adding whatever combination of olive oil/lemon juice/water you prefer until you arrive at the consistency you like.

Favorites of 2013

Wow, it is that time of year again. The calendar is running out on 2013, and fast.

I feel like I’ve eaten my weight in sugar in December, from recipe testing and tweaking. With the copious, rich food (savory and sweet) over the past few weeks, I’m happy to take a little time out of the kitchen.

So to close off 2013, here are a few of our favorite posts from this year:…

Pico de gallo

If you can handle a little chopping you can make one of the freshest tasting summer sauces ever, and one of my favorites: Pico de gallo.

I bought some prepared pico de gallo in July at Whole Foods. I was scurrying around getting groceries because I had house guests arriving and was running short on time.

Vacuuming up cat hair tumbleweeds trumped spending some time in the kitchen.

You would think with a dark brown/black cat, his clumps of light-as-air fur would blend right into the dark wood floor. But they don’t. It’s a disappointingly unforgiving surface that shows everything. (And while I am the family neat-freak I don’t follow the Unclutterer’s advice on taming fur tumbleweeds. I usually just try to ignore them for as long as possible. 4-5 days is as good as it gets before I’m yanking the vacuum out.)…

Chimichurri sauce

¡Olé!

With this gorgeous summer weather the last few weeks (can you believe it?) my tastes have turned to south of the border flavors. Specifically, chimichurri sauce.

I’ve seen chimichurri pop up on several menus lately and it’s a taste I love, tangy and vinaigrette-y.

Okay yes, it’s true, I do like some creamy sauces. In fact, Béarnaise is probably my most favorite sauce in the world, ever. If I get a chance to order it out, I do. (I’m also very lucky that Bob makes a great Béarnaise sauce too.)

But mostly, when it comes to sauces and dressings, I’m a vinaigrette kind of girl. And that’s vinaigrette on the side, too. Yup.

Chimichurri is one amazingly tangy fresh herb explosion. I’ve been thinking of it as pesto’s bad-ass cousin that goes great with a simple grilled steak (no surprise) but it really shines when the whole meal has a Latin twist, like with steak tacos.

I could be saying this because I’m on a bit of a taco kick right now. Bob and I recently got around to trying La Taqueria on Cambie, and we’re officially hooked. Also, lately we’ve also been catching up on a lot of episodes of Breaking Bad, which is filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

These tacos are far different from the ones I remember having as a kid. Mom would get a package of Old El Paso taco shells and we’d fill them with ground beef (probably seasoned with Old El Paso spice mix), tomato slices, shredded cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce.

And then, one or maybe two bites into it, the hard taco shell would explode into shards. The tomatoes would slide out the top and the ground beef would drip out the bottom, until all you were holding was a remnant of taco shell and a few shreds of cheese and lettuce. It was fun though. I mean come on, eating with your hands is always fun, right?

No, these are quite different tacos: Fresh, soft tortillas that don’t crumble. Steak instead of ground beef. And oh-so-tangy chimichurri sauce. They still are super messy, and leave us licking our fingers after every bite. A perfect summer dinner.

Aside from steak tacos, there are a lot of ways to use chimichurri sauce. Here are some ideas:

sauce for grilled meat, chicken or fish
sauce for grilled vegetables
dipping sauce for bread
spread for sandwiches, on its own or combined with mayo
sauce for pasta: reserve some cooking liquid from the pasta to thin it out a little

Chimichurri Sauce

Yield: 3/4 cup

There are a ton of variations on chimichurri sauce out there, but this is one I put together that we particularly liked. The cilantro and lime juice are less traditional, but go well with a Latin-themed meal. Feel free to substitute all parsley for the cilantro and use red wine vinegar for a more traditional chimichurri -- either way it still packs a punch!

Ingredients

1 cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh oregano leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar or fresh lime juice
kosher salt to taste

Instructions

In a food processor with the blade attachment, place the parsley, cilantro, oregano, garlic, shallot and chili pepper flakes and process until combined.
Scrape down the sides of the processor with a spatula, then add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 3 tablespoons of vinegar/lime juice Process until combined.
Add a little salt and taste for seasoning. If you want a little more tang, add the other tablespoon of vinegar/lime juice. If you want a runnier sauce, add the other tablespoon of olive oil.
Pour sauce into a serving dish.

Notes

You can make this the day you're serving it, but it also keeps well in the fridge for about a week. We found the garlic flavor intensified after a few days.

Blackberry Apple Relish

My aim was to make a good, savory blackberry sauce. One that would creatively accompany a main course like grilled fish or meat. I tell you, it’s been a windy road to get there.

I think it comes down to the color.

Blackberries are, well, black. Very, very dark. For dessert, this is not a problem — a dark purple sorbet or pie filling that’s inky blackish purple come off as fun, like a whimsical finish to the meal. But when you’re aiming for a savory sauce, such dramatic dark purple poses a challenge.

First I tried a blackberry beurre blanc for a salmon filet I’d bought. I’ve adored beurre blanc since I went to cooking school, where I was first introduced to its buttery goodness. A perfect accompaniment to poached fish, if I remember the lesson correctly.

Beurre blanc is a rich, delicate sauce that requires a good amount of attention to keep the heat just warm enough, and the butter cold enough, so that the emulsion doesn’t break into an oily mess. I thought that adding blackberries would add a seasonal punch of summer, an interesting twist to a traditional sauce.

The flavor came through wonderfully. Packed with intense berry flavor, and enough tartness from the vinegar to balance with all the rich butter. When I closed my eyes and tasted, all was good.

But when I looked down at the plate to see the shocking dark purple sauce next to my pale spring salmon — white spring, no less — I was a little horrified.

…

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 9

I’m trying to keep a phrase from The Paleo Mom in mind today: It’s only effort until it becomes routine.

How very true. When I reframe my thinking from egads, this is hard to looking at all the foods that are Paleo friendly, I realize that much of my pre-challenge diet was, in fact, not so far off from Paleo. (Well, the less strict versions, anyway.) Lettuce substitutes for bread for a quick lunch — like julienned ham or chicken wrapped in butter lettuce leaves, with a touch of mustard. Yum. Main course salads with grilled chicken or salmon on top, along with other vegetables or some nuts. We do that already. So what’s so hard about this again?

With this mind shift, I set out to make a Mexican-themed dinner, something we do pretty regularly. Guacamole (always homemade) is a regular pre-dinner nibble, and assemble-your-own quesadillas or fajitas let even the pickiest eater find a combination of ingredients that work. With no crispy corn tortilla chips to help, ahem, hoover down the guacamole like we normally do, I decided it would work as an accompaniment to the main dish: Deconstructed steak fajitas. With the strip loin, and a few grilled peppers and asparagus that we had kicking around in the fridge begging to be used up, this felt like a 4 star dinner in an upscale Mexican cantina. I honestly didn’t miss the tortillas at all.

Kris' Guacamole

Yield: 1/2 cup

I've been making this for years and really don't measure the ingredients anymore, so use this recipe as a general guideline. The keys to success are to start with fresh ingredients -- bottled lime juice or prepared garlic are definitely out -- and make it just before you eat it.

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado, cubed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 fresh lime
dash of Tabasco sauce (or substitute a pinch of ground cumin and chili powder)
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
optional add-ins: a couple tablespoons of minced red onion, chopped cilantro, or chopped tomato

Instructions

In a small mixing bowl, combine the avocado and garlic with a fork (or spoon, if you prefer a chunkier consistency).
Squeeze the lime into the bowl along with a dash of Tabasco sauce and mix together. Season with salt and pepper and taste it. Don't be shy with the salt.
Once you're happy with the seasoning, feel free to add in some minced red onion and cilantro, or some chopped tomato. Serve immediately.

Notes

It's preferable to make guacamole just before serving, as the surface will start to oxidize (turn brown) as it sits. If you do make it ahead of time, refrigerate it and cover the surface directly with parchment to minimize oxidation. This recipe easily doubles as written but if you're making a big batch (over 3 avocados), scale back the garlic a little...unless you're looking to ward off all the vampires in your neighborhood.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days