Continuing with Wood Garlic saga…  I guess I am overdoing it little ,but don’t worry it will ware out soon. I spent whole morning in the kitchen today, and I had fun! Lunch turned out to be good, even though I almost managed to have green walls. Yeah,idiot me opened blender lid bit too early.. 😀

Let’s start with the Wood Garlic pesto. I used pistachios in my pesto, so whole this is really, really green! Rapeseed oil is taste neutral oil, which works well in this recipe. Ready pesto tastes fab; and I am going to be using it with pastas and bruchetta. Couple of my friends might even get ja jar to taste.

For the pesto

• 150g Wild garlic, washed and destalked
• 50g pistachio nuts
• 50g Parmesan cheese (or a vegetarian hard cheese), finely grated
• 100ml rapeseed oil
• Salt and pepper
• Garnish with Wild garlic flowers

Method for the wild garlic pesto

1. Place all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth, adding more olive oil depending on desired consistency.
2. Season and taste before serving.
3. remaining pesto can be stored in jars.

Gnocchi

Gnocchi was interesting to do. This recipe is mixture of various versions, which I found in books and internet. Instead of using wheat flour, I opted to spelt flour.

This is what you will need for the gnocchi:

• 600g red skin potatoes (or what ever soft boiling potatoes you can find), washed and peeled
• 120g Wild garlic, blanched & chopped
• 200g spelt flour
• Salt and pepper
• Unsalted butter and olive oil for pan frying

1. Boil the potatoes for 10-15 minutes until tender then drain.
2. Mash potatoes until smooth or use a potato ricer.
3. Sprinkle over the chopped wild garlic, plenty of salt and pepper and the flour. Using a wooden spoon or your hands, bring together to make a firm dough.

Knead the dough gently for a couple of minutes ,then roll out into sausages about 1.5cm thick. Cut the sausages into 2.5cm pieces and then shape the pieces into a Olivette style (this is optional of course). Use fork to flatten your gnocchi.

Place on a tray dusted with semolina, and leave in a fridge until required.

When cooking, bring a pan of salted water to a gentle simmer and place the gnocchi inside the pan. Cook for two minutes or until they rise to the surface; scoop them out as they rise and immediately place onto a tray lined with towel, then dry off.Transfer to a frying pan with a knob of butter and a little olive oil. Toss them in the butter and oil until golden brown, then serve. Gnocchi will be fine, if you want to freeze rests. Dough is quite big.. I froze the rest..

Fish..I love fish, but I am so brain-dead, when it comes on new ways to cook it.I tend to stick using same recipes over and over again. I did some surfing in internet yesterday, and found interesting idea to use parmesan to create crust for the salmon. Many of you know about Parmesan Chicken so this sounded quite exotic for someone like me, who’s grown up as Grandfather being a fisherman. Only spices what we’re used by my Grandmother were pepper and salt. And of course butter and cream! So I decided to give it a try.

Parmesan Salmon

• 800g salmon fillets (may substitute cod or other flaky white fish),which you cut into 4, about 200g pieces
• 1dl tablespoons plain Greek yogurt (fat-free or 2% work well)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives (can substitute finely chopped green onion
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 230°C .
2. In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, Parmesan, chives, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper.
3. If the salmon is skinned, place the fillets on a lightly greased baking sheet. If not, see the note below.
4. Spread mixture evenly over top of the salmon fillets.
5. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the salmon is just cooked through. I bake on the top rack which helps to brown the Parmesan mixture a bit. The mayonnaise in the topping is what will allow for the browning. If the fillets are thin, check 2-3 minutes early. Conversely, if your fillets are thick, they may require an extra minute or two. (Don’t hesitate to cut into the thickest part and take a peek. This is the best way to avoid overcooking if you aren’t sure.)