Green Bean Salad with a hint of Asia

In getting my kids to eat more vegetables I came up with a simple salad of cooked and chilled blue lake green beans. Beans are good with any type of vinaigrette, but I have a lot of Asian products in my pantry, so I made a simple vinaigrette with rice wine vinegar, Mirin (sweet rice wine) miso paste, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and olive oil. The cooked beans are tossed in the vinaigrette then placed on a mound of mixed greens, a little drizzle of dressing on the greens and its done.

Grilling on the Water

It might as well be summer with absolutely flawless weather, its sunny and warm with rain as only a distant memory. Today I took my two girls out for a late afternoon sail and dinner on my boat. My youngest daughter likes to sail and helps me with handling the boat, she also had taken on the role as the head bartender, my older daughter is different, she went below and slept during the whole sail. When we got back to the dock at sunset it was time to fire up the stern mounted grill, the easiest food to cook on the boat is sausage, which cooks with little mess. Our menu today were sandwiches made with grilled Italian sausages, roasted peppers, Fontina cheese and arugula. I also had made some Yukon gold potato salad earlier in the day to serve as a side. A couple of bunches of grapes to finish (note: seagulls eat grapes) It was all good and a good day with my girls.

Fresh Pasta with Mushrooms and Arugula

I made a big batch of fresh pasta sheets for a lasagna that my kids are going to have for dinner, I took some of the extra sheets and cut them into wide pappardelle noodles. These fresh noodles cooked very fast, I combined the cooked and drained pasta with sliced mushrooms, garlic and arugula that were quickly sauteed in extra virgin olive oil. Its very good and the only fast food I will eat!

The Best of Spring Vegetables

Farmers markets are loaded with beautiful spring produce right now and many of the stalls have big bins of fava beans, artichokes and asparagus. I loaded up on fava beans which I love and have a short growing season. When buying favas, remember that one pound of the bean pods will yield only about half a cup of cleaned beans, so buy a few pounds. I also bought really nice central coast baby artichokes and wild arugula for a salad which I was planing on making. The artichokes are cleaned and trimmed then cooked till tender, the favas beans are removed from the large pods, then quickly blanched in boiling water, the thin skin on the beans will come off very easy after this brief cooking. Next I slice ciabatta bread and grill the slices with olive oil to use as a base for the salad. The washed and dried arugula, cooked fava beans and artichokes are then tossed in extra virgin olive oil, fresh pepper, sea salt and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. The salad is then arranged on top of the crostini. It doesn't get any better then this, except with maybe Parmesan cheese shaved on top.

Pan Roasted Sea Bass

I have a special dinner coming up in a few months and I wanted to try out some Sea Bass ideas. This Sea Bass is known as Mexican bass, in a month or two when summer comes and the Mexican waters warm up, these fish will swim North to cooler American waters and then the fish will be known as California Sea Bass. I really want to cook and serve the fish with the beautiful skin on, not only will it be golden and crispy but it will help retain the moisture. I pan seared the simply seasoned fish fillet skin side down in a mixture of olive oil and butter. Adding the olive oil brings the smoke point up, which means the oil and butter mixture will reach a higher cooking temperature before it starts to smoke (burn) After a few minutes of cooking on the stove, the pan goes into a 400 degree oven to roast for about 6 minutes.

I served sauteed spinach and garlic and a mixture of wild mushrooms with the Bass. It turned out moist and flavorful, I have a few more ideas to try but this might make the menu.

Asian Inspired Noodle Breakfast

Its six AM and the first hour of work in the kitchen is the most peaceful, everything has been cleaned and put back in its place the night before. At this time I can relax a little before the deliveries and morning kitchen crew shows up. Today I decided on something different to eat when I found some pre cooked udon noodles, shredded bok choy and mushrooms from the previous days special. It all went into a hot saute pan to cook, then to finish I cracked a egg into it, tossed for a minute and it was done. Hot sauce would have been good but it was 6:20 AM after all.

Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant

I had this idea for a vegetarian dish borrowing some of my favorite Mediterranean flavors from Italy and Greece. To assemble, I first sliced eggplant very thinly which I then brushed with extra virgin olive oil, then grilled, the filling was made with cooked sliced baby artichokes, spinach, cannellini beans, feta cheese all tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. After placing a spoonful of stuffing on each piece of eggplant they were rolled up and baked at 375 degrees for about ten minutes. I placed two eggplant rolls on a roasted tomato and olive vinaigrette and added crispy fried shallots for a crunchy garnish.

Posole Soup

Posole is one of my favorite Latin soups, it has layers of flavor and different textures from all the different ingredients. It can be made with your choice of meat, such as poultry, beef or pork, it can alsobe made as spicy or mild as you wish by adjusting the amount of chili you add. I like the hominy which gives it the familiar flavor of corn tortillas.

Ingredients:

1 pound pork butt, diced

1 can white hominy

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 tomato, crushed

2 dried New Mexico chili pods, crushed

2 cloves garlic, crushed

cilantro to taste, chopped

juice of one lime

Method:

1. Season and brown the pork in a heavy pot.

2. Add the onions, tomato, chili and garlic, saute for a few minutes.

3. Add 1 quart of water or stock and the hominy, bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer.

4. Skim surface of soup for any access fat as needed.

5. After simmering for about an hour and the meat is tender,its done and can be ladled into bowls.

Garnish with the chopped cilantro, crispy tortillas strips and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Mushroom Risotto

Oyster Mushroom Risotto

Spring has finally arrived here and the weather is dry and getting warmer, I wanted to make a winter style risotto again one last time before I would get into the summer warm weather food I love. I found these really cool giant oyster mushrooms and thought they would be perfect. Again just keeping it really simple with only a few ingredients, arborio rice, garlic, mushrooms, vegetable stock, Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. It turned out really good and the meaty mushrooms were perfect in it. The next time I make risotto it will be with all the amazing summer produce from the local farmers market.

Spring Time Asparagus Pizza with Fontina Cheese

I had this style of pizza at Cucina restaurant & Wine bar in San Anselmo, California and it was so good that I had to recreate it at home. Very simply made with just a good fresh pizza dough, fresh sliced asparagus and imported fontina cheese. My pizza was good and could only have been better if I used white truffle oil and had a wood burning oven like Cucina restaurant. Make it yourself or have the restaurant make it for you.

Mini Tamale

While I was making chicken tamales the other day, I had the idea to make a very small one to serve as maybe a first course, I discovered mini bamboo baskets at my favorite Asian cookware store in San Francisco, I think they were only a few dollars each, so I picked up enough to serve at each place setting. I served a green chili dipping sauce in a spoon next to the tamales. Other small foods like Dim Sum would work really well too.

Chicken Tamales

Assembling the Tamale

Steaming Tamales

Chicken Tamale with Green Salsa

My kids gave me the idea of making tamales and it was a great idea, they are really not that labor intensive and the filling ingredients can reflect the seasons. I slowly simmered chicken thighs in a red chili sauce till very tender then I shredded the meat, I took a short cut and used instant masa dough with the addition of the chicken broth from the cooking chicken thighs. Fast to assemble with the kids help and into a multi layer bamboo steamer to cook for about 30 minutes. I made a green salsa with lots of chopped cilantro to serve with the tamales.

Dining on the Water

While putting in a full day of sailing around San Francisco bay, you can get pretty hungry. With a propane gas grill mounted on the back of the boat it is easy to grill lunch while on the go. The perfect food to do on a boat is grilled sausage on a toasted roll, I used lamb sausages which are a little different, but really good, the classic drink that goes with sausage is of course beer, being different again I had ice cold Singha lager from Thailand. It was a perfect day with good wind, amazing views and great food.

Saute Garlic Prawns

Its not often that you will find "fresh head" on prawns, most seafood that is sold has been cleaned with there heads removed. I like cooking seafood whole when ever I can, it retains a lot of its natural moisture and is a lot more flavorful. These prawns were simply sauteed in a hot pan using extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt and fresh chopped parsley.

Mushroom Stuffed Potatoes

I made a little snack of roasted Yukon gold potatoes with a filled of garlic sauteed mushrooms. I served them on a bed of hot rock salt, the salt helps keep them from rolling around and the heat of the salt helps keep them warm. To make I cut the potatoes in half and scooped out the center with a melon baller, next I seasoned and roasted till golden brown and tender, the next step is to saute a mixture of mushrooms with chopped garlic and herbs in olive oil then I placed a spoonful of mushrooms in each cooked potato, finish with a small dollop of sour cream.