Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing my dive into the sauces of California Cuisine and this week I’m focusing on pesto. So far, I’ve featured traditional sweet basil pesto as well as almond-thyme and lemon pesto and spinach-pecan pesto, and today, I’m sharing a mint pesto recipe that is inspired by the mint chutneys and sauces of both Indian and Afghan cuisine.
California cuisine is heavily influenced by the multitude of immigrants who have made California their home for various reasons and who have brought the unique and delicious flavors of their indigenous foods with them. Both Indian and Afghani cuisines feature a mint chutney or sauce–Indian mint chutney usually does not include any acid, but Afghan mint sauce frequently does.
This mint pesto is somewhere between a sauce and a chutney:
Mr. Stone Soup and I love the mint sauces and chutneys we get at Indian and Afghani restaurants and I wanted to create a sort of a “fusion” pesto version. My goal when creating this recipe was to honor those Indian and Afghani condiments while incorporating some ingredients and flavors of California Cuisine, such as pine nuts and olive oil. If I do say so, I think I nailed it. This pesto is spicy and herbaceous like their cousins, but also light, bright and full of California sunshine! It makes a great pairing with lamb chops and Seekh Kababs:
But it would be delicious on almost any grilled meat and it would be a great salad dressing, vegetable dip or dip for bread, too. It’s versatile and absolutely delicious and I’ll tell you–after creating it, I could hardly wait to share it with you all!
This morning, I went hiking with my Indian friend and gave her the recipe. She looked at it and immediately declared “whoa! pine nuts? this really is a California fusion recipe, isn’t it?!”
Like I said–nailed it 😉
Join me next week when I’ll be sharing more sauces of California Cuisine.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
