Honeydew Cocktail from Martha Stewart

Honeydew Cocktail from Martha Stewart

(Substitute gin, rum or even champagne for the vodka if desired)

1 large honeydew melon, seeds and rind removed - cut into large chunks
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
6 mint leaves
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup vodka (optional)
1 cup crushed ice

Place everything but the ice into a blender, blend until smooth, about 45 seconds, pour through cheesecloth strainer into a pitcher.

Serve over crushed ice.

Succubus
(8/22/04)

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Pesto (for freezing, possibly blasphemous)

Pesto (for freezing, possibly blasphemous)

Here's a recipe for pesto to freeze that I got from my shepherd friend tonight. My few (4) basil plants have grown to a size to rival a California redwood, so I need something to do with it. They must like rain. Thought the recipe might appeal to some of you. I'm not a pesto expert, so don't blast me if it's a blasphemous recipe :-)

To fill one ice tray for freezing:
3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 lg garlic cloves
1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts or almonds or combo of all
3/4 cup packed fresh parsley
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 melted butter
Salt to taste if desired

Smash all into a blender and battle to get to a rough paste. Once at rough paste stage, fill ice tray and place in freezer. After frozen, slip knife around edges to free and dump into a freezer bag.

Of course, I had to fiddle with the recipe. First I didn't have any parsley, so I substituted more basil. Then I had a little basil left over, so I added that. There were a few more cloves of garlic left, so they got added. Then it seemed to need a bit more olive oil. Then there was this inch chunk of parmesan, (oops, I only had romano) romano left over, so it got grated and added. Then I saw the bottle of lemon juice and thought a splash of that would be great. And then there was this half stick of butter left over, so it got added.

It still tasted great and filled 2 ice trays instead of 1.

Jola Gayle
(8/17/04)

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Joy's Curried Chicken Salad

I had just read the tuna salad recipe and was thinking I should post my curry chicken salad recipe when Linda's post came in. The curry chicken salad was my attempt to reproduce one that Alice Waters came up with many many years ago for a mutual friend's wedding buffet. It was so good we nearly cried (so was the vinagrette on the asparagus which I've also tried to duplicate.) I went home and experimented until I had something close enough to get those kinds of reactions. Unfortunately, my measurements are approximate - this is one of those "to taste" recipes where you keep adding pinches until you like the balance:

Joy's Curried Chicken Salad

2 good-sized boneless and skinless chicken breast halves
     (avoid using frozen bulk chicken for this one)
1/2 cup peeled and diced apple - preferably something tart and firm
1/2 cup chopped pecans (walnuts will do in a pinch)
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup good quality mayonnaise (homemade is best, but any good brand will be okay)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1-3 tsp curry powder (a sweet type)
1/2 to 1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
salt to taste

Braise the chicken breasts in as small an amount of water as possible until just done and still very moist. Set aside and chill while reducing the liquid from braising to a half cup or less. Chill the stock while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Cube the chicken into approx 3/4" cubes. Mix mayo, applesauce and all spices except salt until creamy and then stir in pecans, celery and apple chunks until well coated. Add chicken meat and salt to taste and mix until just blended. Taste and add more applesauce or spices as needed. If mixture is too dry, add some of the chicken stock a tablespoon at a time until moistened to your liking. When adding ingredients, mix as lightly as possible so that chicken stays chunky rather than shredding or getting mushy. This shouldn't have enough mayo to actually appear creamy, but it should be moist. Serve well chilled on a bed of lettuce.

Joy
(8/01/04)

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