I was in New Seasons the other day buying some halibut and as I was walking through the produce sections I saw the cutest thing — garlic tops.

“Oh!” I thought to myself, “need to buy! Cuuute!”

Then I got home and realized I had no idea what to do with them. I did a little online searching and found this page — Mary Jane’s Farm about garlic scapes, which I think are slightly younger versions of my tops but I figured it was close enough.

I made the pesto, using half parm and half feta. I also added some pine nuts. Wow! The garlic! It burns! (But in a good way). I mixed about a tablespoon into a big bowl of hot pasta with some olive oil to start, as it did seem a little strong. But — by the middle of the meal, jwa and I were spreading the extra pesto on bread and mixing more of it into the pasta. So, so good. Just make sure you really like garlic.

Garlic Tops Pesto
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/4 lb scapes (garlic tops)
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Puree the garlic tops and olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Add the Parmesan, feta, lemon juice and pine nuts and process it all until nice and smooth.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on bread, crackers or with pasta (or all of the above).

So what else did we have with our garlic top pesto and pasta? Grilled halibut with this awesome marinade.

Awesome & Simple Halibut Marinade
4 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Let fish marinate in the fridge for about an hour. Salt and pepper liberally, then grill in the ol’ grill pan.

It turned out really nice and moist and was excellent with the side of pasta, tossed with cherry tomatoes, spinach and garlic top pesto.

I even brought out the balsamic glaze and drizzled a little over the fish and pasta to make it all look pretty.

See? Pretty!

***
In wedding news, I made the lodging reservations for most of the honeymoon in Victoria here. It’ll be nice to have a kitchen while we’re there. We’re also going to rent a car and drive up to Tofino for 3-4 days. We’re going to splurge and stay here. So very excited!

Also, I finished making the save the date cards and I should be able to get them in the mail in early/mid June (waiting on vellum envelopes and nifty return address stamp).

This is another one of those cleaning the cabinets type of projects. This time it was a big can of tuna and a small can of black olives. Oh and I also got to use an avocado that really needed to be used. Not bad — a tasty meal and room in the cabinet for more cans of things I won’t use for six months. Hooray!

Since the sauce is nice, cool and creamy this also makes a great light meal when it’s hot out.

For sauce
Based on a recipe from Gourmet magazine
1 medium avocado, pitted and peeled
1 tbsp low-fat mayonnaise
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 jalapeno chile (including seeds), stemmed and quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup fat-free milk

For tuna cakes
Based on eating frugally in grad school and jwa’s love of olives
1 12 oz can tuna in water, drained and flaked into a bowl
1 egg
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (+ 1/3 cup more for coating)
1/4 cup black olives, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional garnish: 1 tomato, sliced

Make sauce:
Pulse avocado with mayonnaise, lime juice, salt, sugar, and one fourth of chile in a food processor until chile is finely chopped. Add milk and purée until smooth. Add more chile if desired, processing until smooth. Transfer sauce to a bowl and chill until ready to eat.

Make tuna cakes:
Stir together tuna, egg, chives, lemon juice, mustard, salt, pepper, olives, red bell pepper, garlic and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs in a large bowl until blended well. If needed, add the other 1/4 cup of bread crumbs. You want enough bread crumbs to be able to make cakes that will hold together nicely.

Form into four patties and dredge in the remaining 1/3 cup bread crumbs. I used panko (Japanese bread crumbs) for the coating but normal breadcrumbs will work fine too. I just think the panko crisps up better and I had some on hand, so that’s what I used.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and cook tuna cakes until heated through and nicely browned. About 5-6 minutes per side over medium heat. You can also bake the tuna cakes in the oven on an oiled baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Just flip them over about halfway through cooking time.

To serve, put a couple of tomato slices on a plate, two tuna cakes and then top with the chilled avocado sauce.

This month’s Sugar High Friday 31 is hosted by Seven Spoons and the theme is — “Shades of White.” Fun! Of course, it would have been nice if I had realized that my post was supposed to be up at the beginning of the week but I read the announcement wrong…Hopefully, I can sneak my entry in!

This is a neutral shade and S-I-M-P-L-E to make. Chocolate. Nuts. Assorted flavor whatnots (lavender + orange zest). That is all.

White Chocolate Clusters with Lavender & Orange Zest
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup cashews (edited to add: I used roasted, lightly salted)
1/2 tsp dried lavender
1/2 tsp orange zest

To begin, put the chips, orange zest and lavender in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each time, until the chocolate is melted. You could also, of course, use a double-boiler for this.

Add the cashews to the melted chocolate and mix until all the nuts are coated.

Scoop 3-4 cashews out in a cluster. I found using two spoons worked well for this. Drop the clusters on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Let cool for about 15 minutes, then pop into the refrigerator to completely firm up — about 30 more minutes.

Because of the orange zest and Spring weather, I would store these in the fridge. I doubt they will last longer than a few days (because you will eat them all, not because they will go bad).

Thanks again to Seven Spoons for hosting SHF31!

This is based on a recipe by Michael Chiarello that used potatoes instead of white beans. I thought white beans would go really well with the lemon, garlic and rosemary, as I love white bean dip with all those ingredients. My hypothesis was correct.

Be careful to rinse, drain and pat the beans a little with a paper towel or the extra moisture on the beans could cause the olive oil to splatter a bit. The beans don’t get crunchy per se, but they do get a little dry and golden brown. They definitely gain some flavor from the heat of the pan.

The sauce is indeed lemony. Add the butter, it will be good. Also, a little feta cheese on the top of the plated chicken is tasty. Trust me on that one.

Chicken with White Beans, Rosemary & Lemon
(Serves two like this; double for four)
1 lemon
salt & pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 15-oz can white beans, rinsed, drained, and patted dry with a paper towel
2 small cloves garlic, minced (or 1 large clove)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (I think I added a little more than this)
1 tbsp unsalted butter, optional
Rosemary sprigs, for garnish

Preheat the broiler. Cut the lemon in half crosswise and then arrange, flesh side up, in a flameproof nonreactive baking dish. Brush with olive oil and season with salt.

Broil the lemon halves about six inches or more from the heat until browned and soft, about 5-8 minutes. Cool slightly. Squeeze the lemon halves over a sieve suspended over a bowl. Push and stir the pulp through the sieve with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to get as much juice out as possible. Discard the lemon peels.

Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the chicken, lower the heat to medium, and cook, turning once, until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate or baking sheet.

Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the beans, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring and tossing, until a bit golden, about 3-5 minutes.

Arrange the chicken breasts on top of the beans and place in the oven until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the chicken to a platter and the beans to a bowl — cover both with foil while making the sauce.

Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the garlic and rosemary, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. If the pan is pretty dry, add about a teaspoon of olive oil. Add the chicken broth and reserved lemon juice. Stir and scrape up all the browned bits that cling to the bottom and sides of the pan. Bring to a simmer stir in parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. If the sauce tastes too lemony, add a tablespoon or two more of broth and stir in the optional butter.

To serve
Add a few big spoonfuls of white beans to a plate and then top with a chicken breast. Pour the sauce over the chicken and beans and serve immediately, garnished with rosemary sprigs.

One of the things I really like about working downtown is the Wednesday Farmer’s Market in the Park blocks. This week, I hiked up there with the intention of finding ingredients for a pizza, as I had just come across a dough recipe in Fine Cooking that I wanted to try out.

My trip was a complete success as I scored some fresh green garlic, a big spring onion, local Mozzarella, tomatoes on the vine and some spinach. And I’m happy to report this dough experiment was also a complete success and I am becoming less and less afraid of yeast bread making. Hooray!

Easy Pizza Dough
From Fine Cooking magazine
1 package (2-1/4 tsp.) active-dry yeast
1-1/2 cups very warm water (100-110°F)
18 oz. (4 cups) all-purpose flour; more for dusting
1-1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. olive oil

First, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for a few minutes (5-10). Then, put the flour and salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade; process briefly to mix. With the machine running, add the water-yeast mixture in a steady stream. Turn the processor off and add the oil. Pulse a few times to mix in the oil.

Now, I did this in my small-sized food processor and it just fit. If you don’t have a processor, I don’t see why you couldn’t just use your hands or a spatula to mix it and get it into a dough state. But, again, I used my processor, so I could be assuming too much about the hand/spatula thing. Maybe a stand mixer with a dough hook?

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, quickly knead the dough into a mass, incorporating any bits of flour or dough from the processor bowl that weren’t mixed in. Cut the dough into four equal pieces with a knife or a dough scraper. Roll each piece into a tight, smooth ball, kneading to push the air out. Here, mine were not perfectly smooth but they seemed to be smooth enough, as it worked fine.

Freezing:
If you want to save all or some of the dough, at this point, take the dough you want to freeze and lightly dust it with flour and pop each one into a freezer bag. The recipe says it will keep in the freezer for about a month. To defrost, put it in the fridge about 8-10 hours before you want to use it. Then, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes before shaping the crust. I haven’t defrosted mine yet, but when I do, I’ll give a recap as to how the frozen dough worked.

Using right away
To rise the dough right away (without freezing), put the dough balls on a lightly floured surface, cover them with a clean dishtowel, and let them rise until they almost double in size, about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees (make sure your oven is clean or it may smoke). If your oven can’t quite make it to 500 without complaining (smoking, shaking, etc…) try for 475-480 degrees.

Shaping the pizza
Put the ball of dough on a lightly floured wooden board. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the ball. Using your fingertips, press the ball down into a flat cake about 1/2 inch thick.

Flour your fingers — and the board — for easier handling. Stretch the dough to a thickness of about 1/4 inch by using the backs of your hands or a rolling pin. Transfer dough to your lightly oiled baking sheet (or use a pizza peel then transfer to a baking stone in the oven after topping).

Garlic, onion and spinach sauteeing away.

Top the pizza
Well, just scatter the ingredients around to within 1/2 inch of the border. I brushed the surface all over with garlic olive oil, then used fresh basil leaves and then the sauteed spinach, green garlic, spring onion; tomato slices, mozzarella and little dollops of nicoise olive spread. Oh and a quick sprinkle of dried thyme.

Everything was from the Farmer’s Market except for the olive oil, basil and olive spread — not too bad!

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 500 degrees until the top gets golden and the crust puffs up a bit around the edges and turns a delicious, toasted color.

I made two small pizzas and froze the other two balls of dough, so there will be more pizza in the near future. Maybe we will start a Wednesday Night Farmer’s Market Pizza tradition…