. dash of food .

Photograph by kaishin chu © 2009 . The Bonus - Basil Pistachio Pesto Well, after lamenting over the loss of production from my basil plants, I had a colander full of uninfested basil leaves that were rescued one by one from the culled stalks. J washed and cleaned these one by one to make sure there were no hidden baby scale bugs still attached. I had never before made fresh basil pesto before, but seen many different recipes, so figured I couldn't go too wrong. One thing missing though, was Pine nuts. I haven't seen pine nuts here yet, though I know China produces them and does eat them in the north country. I figured I would try substituting with the excellent pistachios we had on hand for sake of experimenting. It turned out great and was delicious :) Ingredients: Phase 1: 2 cups fresh basil, packed 2 med - large cloves garlic, peeled, roughly chopped (about 2 tbsp, or half this, if you prefer) 1/2 cup pistachio nuts, shelled 1 tsp fresh lemon juice 1/4 tsp.fresh lemon...

Photo posted by Kaishin Chu © 2007. Finally got around fine tuning the Glaze recipe. Sorry for the wait Heather! Sesame Soy Garlic/Ginger Glaze 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce (or any other soy based sauce, Memmi or Teriyaki works well too) 1 Tbsp Cooking wine 1 tsp Crushed garlic 1/2 tsp crushed ginger (optional) 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tsp brown sugar (if you are using Memmi or Teriyaki sauce, omit the sugar) 1/2 tsp sesame oil 1-2 tsp of sesame seeds Add all ingredients together in a bowl or cup. Let sit. After pan frying fish filets that have been lightly salted and peppered, remove from fish from pan. Remove pan from stove and add 1/4 cup water to deglaze pan and cool down a bit. Use your spatula to scrap up any flavour goodies on the pan. Stir up your soy mixture, so that cornstarch is stirred up, then add mixture to pan. On med. low heat, stir constantly till mixture thickens and clears up, then remove from heat. You can now either place your fish back in the pan to coat pieces, or plate t...