sauces

A Summer Basil Vinaigrette

~ agustinaskitchen ~ Leave a comment

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Basil is the herb of summer.  It’s refreshing, light, and has that wonderfully cool scent – perfect for a late summer evening. You can throw it in a salad, top it on pizza, turn into pesto for pasta, even put in water with sliced strawberries to drink. Recently, I saw it turned into a vinaigrette,  and immediately had to give it a try!

We went through two batches in one week. Currently, I have a bunch more basil sitting in the fridge that I’m going to turn into this vinaigrette to use for dinner tomorrow. We used it as the sauce for pizzas (it was better than pesto!) I also drizzled it over salmon a couple of weeks ago, and used it for a mozzarella tomato panini.  It’s so easy to make, versatile, and so good for these summer months.

Without further ado:

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INGREDIENTS:

2-3 heaping cups of basil

2 garlic cloves

1 shallot

juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

*salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place all the ingredients in a food processor/grinder/chopper/blender until it comes out smooth – about a minute or two.

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 Cheers!

Lemon Curd For the Win

~ agustinaskitchen ~ Leave a comment

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At some point in my early life I fell in love with lemon desserts.  I’m not sure when it happened, which dessert it was, where I was… I’ve always loved lemon desserts.  Lemon curd straight up, or served on anything, lemon bars, lemon pound cake, lemon icing, lemon cake, lemon with blueberries, lemon bundtinis.  I even cook with lemons! In chicken, fish, dressings… you get the idea.

The other day I needed a quick little something to help me say “Thank You” and show my appreciation.  I had heard through the grapevine that they enjoyed lemon curd as much as I do, so I decided to whip some up since it’d been a while.  I used this recipe as a guidepost. I added a little twine and a quick “Thank You” stamp on some cute paper.  That evening, after Chris came home, we put the kids in the car and drove out for our little delivery.  Nothing like a drive to get the kids to sleep, get a Thank You out, and have a little one on one quiet time to chat and connect – everyone wins!

P.S. This takes 5-10 minutes to cook!

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This is how I “strain” it after it’s cooked, in case you were wondering! *See recipe below
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This is how you want the curd to coat the wooden spoon, and you’ll know it’s done

INGREDIENTS:

3 large eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. I used a double boiler, but you can improvise by putting a heatproof bowl over a pan of water. Cook the eggs, sugar, and lemon zest and juice, by whisking it until it becomes thick (like in the above photo, where the curd coats the wooden spoon). This should take no more than 10 minutes, be sure the water is hot hot hot – boiling even!
  2. Remove from heat and strain the curd (as seen in the picture above). Add the butter, cut into pieces, and whisk until it’s melted and mixed in.
  3. Cover, by placing saran wrap right on top of the curd, and refrigerate for 4-6 hours.
  4. Enjoy! Especially, on pound cake with a cup of tea 😉

Cheers!

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