Don't Go Green On Me!

Herbs are not just essential for adding flavor into food but also given their medicinal properties are good for our body too. For that, I've been trying to include more herbs into everything I made these days. 

Starting the campaign, I tried a pretty simple pesto recipe from Simply Recipes. It used the least favorite herb in our home. So I wanted see how this will fare with the picky-eater in the house. Can they handle it? 

But first, what is this pesto thing? For those who are not familiar, according to Wikibooks pesto is :

A sauce that originates from Genoa, Italy. Basically made from basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. It can be use as meat marinade, bread spread or pasta sauce. The word pesto itself derives from an Italian word, pestello. It means pestle which is the original way to make the pesto; using mortar and pestle. 

This was super easy to make. Just get these things ready, and you'll have the pesto sauce in a jiffy! 

Easy Basil Cilantro Pesto

Adapted from Simply Recipes

1 cup cilantro leaves

1 cup basil

1/2 cup lightly toasted peanuts, grind to fine powder

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/2 green chili, seeded and chopped

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil

In a blender, put basil + cilantro + garlic + green chili + salt + olive oil. Pulse until well blended. Pour in a bowl and add in the peanut powder. Mix well with a spoon. Store the pesto in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to one week. Can also be frozen if you are making big batch! ^_^

What I did with the pesto? 

As you can see the picture above, I turned the normal dinner rolls into Pesto snails! You can use just any bread dough recipe or you can use this recipe here. Just omit the sultanas from the recipe. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, brush with softened butter and spread the pesto to cover the surface. Re-roll from the shorter side as you would cinnamon rolls, cut, arrange on greased pan, let rise until double and baked for 15 minutes at 200 C (400 F). 

I had to watched the picky eaters took a bite first to see their reaction. And when nothing unusual forthcoming and they reached for a second helping, I started doing a macarena-dance in my mind... :D

Bon Appétit!