The Fergus Falls Daily Journal

Using those fresh herbs

By Allison Myhre

September 7, 2007

1 comment

Hi Tim,

Any interest in being a guest blogger for me this week? I’m so swamped with work I probably won’t get to cook much this week anyway!

Let me know.

Allison Myhre

You don’t have to ask that question to this cookin fool more than once! Cooking has been a passion of mine for many years, and I will never pass up a chance to share that love.

There was a big dilemma after receiving Allison’s email. What am I going to cook for the blog? Out to the garden, in the rain, where I found a cornucopia of ripe tomato’s as well as basil, basil and more basil. It was clear to me what we were going to dine on; a caprice salad followed by basil pesto stuffed chicken breasts.

Into the fridge for the staple fresh mozzarella for the caprice, as well as a large hunk of parmesan for the pesto. Coloration with some beautiful purple carrots, peas, and asparagus. With just a starch and sauce left to worry about I looked to the cupboard for potatoes and dried morel mushrooms I harvested earlier this year. Well there ya

have it! A caprice salad appetizer for basil pesto stuffed chicken

breasts, cheesy garlic potatoes, assorted steamed veggies, with a morel mushroom sauce!

Here is how the pesto and chicken came about.

I make a variety of pesto this time of year, as I have an overabundance of herbs in my garden. As you can see, my basil haul looks more like a Columbian drug bust than the start of my pesto fest.

This concoction consists of 5 different types of basil, as well as some regular and Italian parsley. My son Caden (3) loves to help me make pesto. We de-stem the herb together and he shovel’s the leaves into the food processor and the button, he loves pushing that button.

Two of his little hands full of pine nuts is about all it takes as they tend to overpower otherwise. I put in a third as much fresh parmesan as the basil. This batch ended up with 3 chopped cups of herbs to one cup of parmesan. After mixing all of the dry ingredients, squeeze in some lemon to balance the flavors and keep it a nice bright green. Finally slowly add extra virgin olive oil, in this case garlic infused extra virgin olive oil, to attain the desired consistency. I left the pesto rather thick as it works good that way as a stuffing and I freeze the extra, to which I can add more oil or a little cream later.

The chicken breasts need to be pounded out. Press and seal wrap works great. Fold the breast inside a good size piece of press and seal and then carefully pound out the breast making sure not to get them too thin. You don’t get chicken juices all over your kitchen and clean up is much easier. Once evenly pounded, liberally spread pesto on one side of the chicken and role it up. I use a couple of tooth picks that I had soaked in water for about an hour to keep them together. Sear each side on the grill for about two minutes, before grilling with indirect heat for 15 min.

My lovely wife and I both agreed that this meal was a smashing success! The simple salad was a wonderful refreshing start that was followed by the punching freshness of the pesto chicken breasts. The potatoes are needed to knock the dish down on the health-o-meter and the colorful veggies and morel sauce finished the dish superbly! You can find all of the recipes from this meal at cookinit.com

Thank you Allison, I am a big fan of your blog, and honored to be a part of it!