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Pesto is great. You know it, I know it. I like making it, and I like eating it. Here is my recipe. This recipe, like many of my others, is created ‘on the fly’, and I encourage you to mess with the proportions as you see fit.

This pesto originates in our garden, where we have three types of basil growing, traditional sweet basil, lemon basil (which has a serious lemon smell, much like lemongrass), and dark-side basil (a delicious dark purple leaved basil often called ‘purple basil’, however, it is clearly from the dark side of the force, hence its more appropriate name). We also have some thyme, mint, sage and arugula. We also have a bunch of dried tomatoes from the garden.

Why should these not join forces in one mighty pesto? No reason at all! It’s a vegetarian recipe, and can be made vegan through the elimination of one ingredient.

Ingredients

• 2 cups basil leaves (any kind of basil)
• 1/2 cup-ish mixed herb leaves
  • Sage?
  • Mint?
  • Arugula?
  • Thyme?
  • Rosemary?
• Spinach?
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup grated hard cheese
  • Asiago?
  • Parmesan?
  • Romano?
• A mixture of the above?
• 4 good cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup unroasted/unsalted nuts
  • Pine nuts are classic
  • Walnuts are good too
  • So are cashews
  • And pecans
• And even almonds
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 package (12.3oz) firm style silken tofu
• 1 good splash balsamic vinegar

• Big pinch of salt

  Procedure

  This is the hardest part: Take all the herb and basil leaves off of their stems, wash them, and put them in a colander to drain. It will take a long time, because 2 cups of leaves is a lot of damn branches of basil. It doesn’t matter much what your final amount of leaves is, but if its much more or much less than 2 cups after packing them into a measuring cup, adjust the rest of the recipe up or down a bit as necessary.

  Toss a handful of these leaves into a blender or food processor along with a small portion of the olive oil. Blend them. Blend them good. They’ll fight you, so be prepared to stop the blender, scrape down the sides, and fire it up again. Keep at it, slowly adding more of the basil and more of the oil as you proceed.

  Eventually, things will get rather pasty and consistent. Once you’ve integrated all the oil, and all of the basil and herb leaves, it is time to start on the other ingredients. Crush the garlic cloves by setting them one by one on a cutting board, placing the wide flat part of a dough blade or meat cleaver on them, and banging it with your palm. That will smash all the goodness out, and beats those stupid garlic presses into the ground. Toss the smashed remains of the garlic right into the blender, and make sure it gets well ground up.

  Add the nuts and cheese slowly, working them in as you grind. You can tune the amount of nuts to your liking, just add them slowly at first. Remember, you can always add more to a pesto, but its hard to get something back out.

  Now you should have a fairly standard herb pesto. Mostly basil, but with a few other herbs thrown in because they were growin’ in the garden anyway.

  I like to take things a step further with three more ingredients. First, a handful of sun-dried tomatoes. We make our own, but commercial ones are cool too. They bring a lot of goodness in a small space. It colors the pesto slightly, and you can really taste them. Its fabulous.

  Second. A box of silken tofu. Silken tofu is tofu that hasn’t had the water squeezed out of it hydraulically. It is what comes in those little ‘envelope’ boxes that look like juice-boxes. Mori-Nu is a common brand, and it can be found at most supermarkets near the ‘regular’ tofu, or in the ‘soy products’ area. Silken tofu is not as good for things like sauteing and grilling, but its great for blending. Toss a whole box of firm silken tofu into the mix. It will extend the pesto a bit, give it some nice texture and flavor, and add lots of helpful protein.

  Third. Balsamic vinegar. Since we’ve got basil, cheese and tomato, then why the hell don’t we have balsamic vinegar? It really belongs with the others, and its acids really ride that nutty wave in a happy way. Put a good splash of it in, and blend it up real good.

  Lastly, put in a big pinch of salt and mix it up, it’ll help, trust me. Taste your pesto. Is it good? Does it need more garlic? More nuts? More cheese? If it does, put them in! Every pesto is a bit different because of your starting herbs, and you’ll need to tweak a bit. Tweak the texture if you need by adding a bit more olive oil.

  Now, simply spread the yummy pesto on anything at all. I recommend bread, pizza, or pasta. You can refrigerate it for a few weeks, or freeze for a few months. Since it has no structure to speak of, it freezes and thaws pretty well.

I’ve got to say, “Wow.” Speakeasy, the service provider I’ve been using for the past few years for my ADSL service, is now offering a combination of packages that is incredibly attractive.

I’ve always been happy with their service, and especially their very forgiving use policies and support for technical individuals like myself, like fully endorsing connection sharing and multiple computers (services most DSL providers charge extra for, or prohibit entirely). They even offer technical support for Linux users!

Recently they released a service called OneLink that lets you have DSL without a voice phone line! Until now, you needed a regular phone line in order to have DSL, but with people using cell phones more often, they often wish they could do without the 30$ a month it costs to maintain a regular local line. OneLink lets you have DSL without phone service, through some incredible technical trickery and a clever installation technique. Gotta love it!

Plus, and perhaps more exciting, they just today released a service called Speakeasy Voice which is a VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) service. Instead of using an analog phone line to carry a digital signal, as is the current method, your digital line (installed as part of the OneLink service), can now carry a phone signal. Why is this different from your regular phone? Well, instead of going through the regular phone switches, your call is routed through Speakeasy’s networks until it reaches its destination, and then the call is transferred into the regular phone dispatch system, meaning every call is a local call!

Speakeasy’s voice system includes a telephone adapter that connects to your existing DSL modem, and plugs into your current analog phone. Because of number portability laws, you keep your existing phone number. Your phone dials in and out the same way that it did before, but because the voice information is now digitized and routed through the Speakeasy network, you get unlimited long distance anywhere in the country, and low rates on international long distance (because the call can be internet routed to the part of the country with the cheapest international rates before being connected to the regular phone system). How about that? Thats the beauty of digital. The bits are already there, so it doesn’t cost any more to leave them all zeros than it does to make them carry voice data. Use it once or use it every day, and the load on the system is the same.

Their system claims to give high packet priority to voice data, which theoretically means your voice calls will be as instantaneous and clear as regular telephone calls (or clearer). Downloading or browsing on the internet connection also shouldn’t affect quality of calling, because the voice data will take the higher priority.

OneLink services are 5$ a month more than regular DSL, but free you from the need to have a regular phone line. Speakeasy Voice services are 40$ for installation, and the first three months are free, with a 29.95$ charge per month after that. That is the same price as residential phone service from SBC, and it includes unlimited long distance (US and Canada), voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, three way calling and more. Plus, it interfaces with local 911 dispatch systems, so emergency calls are still routed as normal (and in some cases, better than normal, because name, address and phone number information is guaranteed to be transferred to the dispatcher via Speakeasy, which not all phone companies can guarantee).

If you sign up, do not cancel your regular phone service yet. You will be assigned a new number to start with, and then very soon, when they get the local number portability finished, you can transfer your existing number to Speakeasy. Then you can either switch to Speakeasy’s OneLink service which does not require a regular phone line, and then cancel your existing line, or switch your existing line to a ‘metered line’ service, which usually costs something like 6$ a month, and is a completely stripped down local service, enough to keep your DSL. The wait before porting your existing number will make for a good trial period, to make sure the service works the way you want before being stuck with it.

Anyway, not to sound like a goddamn commercial, I’ve just been really pleased with Speakeasy’s services and support over the years, and I’m excited that they are offering these two very hip services. If I’m going to be paying one company for my phone and internet, its sure as hell not going to be one of the bastard Bells, who’ve screwed more friends of mine than I can count, but rather a company I trust, like Speakeasy.

P.S. If for some reason you actually sign up for one of these, use us as a reference (username: ley). Thanks.

This is a recipe I was given while looking for something to do with a big tub of red lentils I have. It’s a tasty dhal (like a very thick soup, good for spreading or pouring over rice or vegetables), and its rich in all sorts of nutrients. If eaten with rice, it forms a complete protein, the type that over 3 billion people eat every day. The recipe is Indian in style, but I don’t think it is totally ‘authentic’. Thats OK though. It is also vegetarian, and can be made vegan with a single substitution (olive oil instead of the butter).

The recipe is made in one pot, keeps well in the fridge, and is great reheated. Make a big batch, and use it for lunches or snacks!

Ingredients

• 2 Tbls butter, ghee or light olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or crushed
• 1 medium onion, white or yellow, chopped
• 1/2 Tsp turmeric
• 1 Tsp garam masala
• 1 Tsp ground cumin
• 1 Tsp chili powder (or more to taste)
• 2 16-oz cans chopped tomatoes (drained)
• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 Tsp fresh lemon or lime juice
• 2 1/2 cups veggie stock
• 5 oz coconut milk (a little more than half a cup)

• seasoning to taste (maybe something spicy?)

  Procedure

  Put the butter, ghee or olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Toss the onion and garlic in, and sweat until transparent.

  When the onions are transparent, which takes just a few minutes, put in all your spices, and toss them around to get them well mixed. See the notes for some info about Garam Masala. Then its time to add the tomatoes, lentils, lemon juice, coconut milk and vegetable stock.

  Bring the mixture to a boil, and then back off the heat to a very gentle simmer, probably medium-low to low on your stove. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. As you get closer to the end, stir more often, as the thickened lentils may want to burn to the bottom.

  At the end of 30 minutes, drop the heat down to warm, and give them a taste. They probably need some salt! Give a few pinches of salt to the lentils, stir it up really well, and taste again. Lentils, like beans, usually need a fair amount of salt to activate their flavors. Don’t worry too much about going overboard on the sodium, all of our ingredients are very low sodium to begin with, so adding some salt isn’t going to make a big difference, sodium wise.

  If you like your dhal a little spicy, toss in a finely chopped chipotle pepper! Give it a few cranks of freshly ground black pepper too.

  When the dhal is tasty enough, do what I do, put about half the dhal in a blender, and puree for just a moment. Mix the pureed dhal back into the rest of the batch. It makes for a much thicker, smoother dhal, but still has some nice little chunks in it for texture.

  I like to eat it right out of the cooking container with flat bread of some sort (naan would be good), or you can put it over rice or vegetables. Or just about anything. Its yummy, toss it around!

  Notes

  I mention in the recipe to sweat the onions. What is ‘sweating’? Well, its like a saute, but less. Your goal is not to brown the onions or fry them, it is to gently heat them to release their flavors. Sauteing seals in flavor, sweating releases it! You can tell if you have a sweat going by the fact that if you listen to the pan, you’ll only hear slight sizzling. If its a fast sizzle, or your onions are browning, the heat is too high. It is a common technique for situations where you are trying to release something’s flavor, like sauces, soups, or stews.

  When choosing stock, I like to buy the powdered kind bulk from the health food store, use about 1.5 tablespoons of powder per cup of water. You can also go with quality pre-made liquid stocks, but choose the low-fat, low-salt kind, you can always add more salt to a recipe, but if the stock is too salty, you can’t subtract saltiness. Avoid bouillon cubes, as Alton Brown says, they are just salt licks.

  The one weird ingredient I list is the Garam Masala. Garam Masala is a very savory little spice blend common in Indian cooking, and acceptable in many forms of cooking. It can be found at your local international grocery store, or you can cheaply make it yourself with bulk spices from the health food store or spice shop. Check out my Garam Masala recipe for the big info.

Garam Masala is a handy Indian spice mixture. It is good in lots of foods, with a very rich flavor and heady spice. Even if you don’t cook Indian, you’ll probably like it mixed in with other things to give them an exotic burst of goodness.

Most of all, its a handy intro to the world of making your own spice mixtures. Bulk spices are cheap as hell, and with very little effort, can be combined to produce fresh spice mixtures that blow anything you’d buy at the supermarket out of the water. Also, spices contain flavors that are very aromatic, which means they leave the spices and go away into the air. Meaning they won’t be in your food! Once a whole spice is ground, the surface area goes up by many orders of magnitude, meaning they begin to lose their punch immediately. In a few months, most ground spices are flat and dead. Keeping them well sealed in a cool dark place extends your time, but once ground, a spice has an expiration date.

Most spices can be purchased in a whole form, whole cumin seeds, whole nutmeg, whole coriander, etc. In these whole forms, the flavors are locked in, and shelf life is almost indefinite. When making a spice blend, just mix up what you need in whole form, grind it, and use that batch for the next few months. When you need more, just blend more!

Garam Masala Ingredients

• 5 teaspoons coriander seed
• 1 tablespoon cumin seed
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or an inch of cinnamon stick)
• 1 teaspoon green cardomon pods

• 1 teaspoon nutmeg (about a 1/4 of a whole nut)

  Procedure

  In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the coriander and cumin for a few minutes. The color should just begin to change, it should smell delicious, and a few of the coriander seeds should just start to ‘pop’ like little popcorns, trying to leap out of the pan. Pour the toasted seeds into a spice grinder, mortar and pestle, or what I use, a blender. Add the other spices to the blender, put on the lid, and blend the hell out of it at high speed for a minute or two. If you need, stop the blender now and again, and mix things up in there for a good even grind. Don’t worry if its not super powdery, this is a hearty spice, and smallish chunks are OK.

  Put it into a spice bottle (this recipe makes enough to fill a small bottle), seal it well, and use it happily!

  Wasn’t that easy? Making your own spice blends is very easy, and the spices pack so much more kick now in their fresh form than anything your mega-mart would peddle to you. The spices will keep 3 months in that bottle, or longer if you refrigerate it. Its not that they will go ‘bad’ persay, they’ll just lose some of their punch, so if four months have gone by, don’t throw it away, just know that they aren’t as fresh, and use a bit more to compensate.

  What should you use it in? Well, my next post I’ll give a nice recipe for a lentil dahl that uses this very Garam Masala! You’ll probably like it. It’s easy to make too.

I have returned from Black Rock City. Actually, I haven’t gotten all the way back, I’m still in Santa Cruz, CA. Tomorrow I take a plane from San Jose back to St. Louis, but for now, I’m sleeping at Zubeyir’s house.

I have a whole crap-load of pictures, but I’m not uploading them from this little laptop, so I’ll tempt you with this one.

I have just gotten back into the bus after traipsing around for hours in the open desert during a vicious dust storm. I’m talking complete white-out. You can even see the raccoon eye pattern my goggles left on my face. Despite being filthy and windburned, I’m still smiling. Welcome to Burning Man.

And before anyone asks… Yes, those are furry ass-less chaps I’m wearing, and no, they don’t actually belong to me.

More pictures coming, some more scandalous, some less. See you St. Louisans tomorrow.