Last week, we made basil pesto and I had an epiphany: seaweed pesto! What a great way to get rid of my two remaining packages of kelp noodles! I have seen variations of pesto using roasted red peppers, mushrooms, butternut squash, etc... as the base, so why not seaweed?
My two favorite specials ingredients at Bruce's Burritos are chorizo and their own pumpkin seed pesto. I'm looking forward to the day when Erin and Bruce combine those two things into one perfect burrito or quesadilla. I decided to use pumpkin seeds instead of pine nuts in my seaweed pesto. Not only are pumpkin seeds much cheaper, they're also a more local ingredient. I was liking the Maine synergy in my "seaweed pumpkin seed pesto". Erin recommended that I use raw pumpkin seeds and not the roasted kind because they had found them to be too salty. They make their pesto using cilantro, by the way, which is something I'm going to try with my left-over pumpkin seeds. As an added bonus, I believe cilantro is also much cheaper than basil.
Last night, my kelp noodles were thawed so I rinsed them off and then got as much water out of them as I could with paper towels. Two 4oz packages gave me exactly 2 cups of seaweed, which was the same amount that my regular pesto recipe called for with basil. I dry-toasted my pumpkin seeds in a skillet. I blanched and minced my garlic. I grated my parmesan. I tossed it all in the food processor and ran it until the seaweed was finely chopped, scraping the sides a few times with a spatula. Due to the salt-wateriness of the kelp noodles, I skipped the salt and didn't immediately add the recommended amount of olive oil because I wanted to monitor the consistency pretty closely. Instead, I ran the food processor and drizzled in the olive oil until it looked like pesto. The color wasn't great - kind of grayish-green. That should have been my first warning.
I took a bite and found it bland and watery. I added some salt and some more grated parmesan. Still not great. OK, I thought, maybe this will be ok when it's on the pasta. My oldest never eats pesto because the garlic is usually too strong for her (I hadn't tried blanching the garlic first until last night), but the little one loves it. I made up a bowl of rotini for each of us and mixed in the pesto. It looked ok. She ate hers and ended up asking for seconds. I took one bite of mine and could barely get it down. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it, but not in a good way. From that point on, everything I tasted: smashed potatoes, cookies, granola and yogurt, toothpaste - it all tasted awful and I by the time I went to bed I was sure that I was going to be sick in the night. Thankfully, my stomach had recovered by morning, but just typing this post is making me feel queasy all over.
I really hope that I haven't given myself a revulsion towards pesto, because it's my favorite pasta sauce that doesn't contain lethal doses of heavy cream. I think the best way to get back on the horse would be to pick up some cilantro and give Bruce's variation a try, but I'm having a hard time psyching myself back up for pesto. On the bright side, I'm all out of kelp noodles.
Hmmm...there just has to be a way to make this seaweed product work. Sea vegetables are so healthy, and this is a great local commodity. I wish their website gave more cooking suggestions/recipes. Maybe it's worth sending them an email?
Posted by: Lisa Belisle | April 09, 2008 at 01:24 PM
The pesto was the only way I found it to be inedible, which was just a dumb idea on my part. I thought it was pretty good when simply mixed with my pasta.
My biggest problem with it is the current price. If I have a choice between spending $4 on a 4oz package of frozen kelp noodles OR a pound of fresh asparagus, asparagus is going to win every time.
Posted by: Jason Raven | April 09, 2008 at 01:43 PM
yeah but doesn't asparagus do bizzare things to your urine? Like odor and color? hahahah..sorry had to go there.
Posted by: March | April 10, 2008 at 02:37 PM