Tuesday, February 23, 2010

HAIKU

Harvesting radishes,
he points the way
with a radish
-Issa

JAPANESE PHASE



Well, Wild Abandon has taken a turn as Pete gets up to speed on Japanese food....as he heads off for a month of cooking for several Japanese Rock musicians at a recording studio up in Petaluma....This is eggplant with ground pork and pea pods...side of green beans with ground sesame miso ...yum!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
















BEET SOUP

4TB olive oil
1/2 red onion sliced
2garlic cloves
1lg teaspoon cumin seeds
Several Beet root finely diced
Large potatoe diced
5 cups cold wAter
3 T red wine vinegar

Garnish with parsley (or cherry blossoms) and yogurt thinned with a lttle milk and seasoned with garlic paste, salt, pepper

Sauté the onion in olive oil, then add the garlic and cumin. Next add the beets and potatoe, water and cook for 15 minutes. Purée and season with salt & pepper and vinegar, garnish!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

HAIKU

Under the trees
into the salad, into the soup-
cherry blossoms
-Basho

Tuesday, February 9, 2010


Our morning visitor on Tomales Bay...I think he wanted our purple potatoes for breakfast....he landed with a thud right outside our window!

On the edge of Tomales Bay....windy rainy night...get the fire going and heat up the cauliflower and carmelised onion soup with truffle oil.....warms the bones and delights the senses!

Sometimes the simpler the better....bread and butter with good honey.....a sublime desert.

On vacation....a baked purple potato for breakfast!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Eating leftovers....up at Point Reyes...roasted beets, squash, fennel.....carrots....

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Gorgeous mushrooms

.....ready to roast in olive and
truffle oil. They are headed for some broccoli salad with a Vietnamese vinaigrette. We are making some pic nic type food today to take up to Point Reyes.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Monday, February 1, 2010


spicy, peppery and cumin laden pappadams accompany the wine as we start the dinner..with raita dip and tomato chutney which Pete has made.

Ron about to partake of pappadams and raita.

Our friend Kate getting ready to enjoy the pappadams and cucumber and mint raita!
the mise en place for the Biryani.....The rice and onions, ginger, garlic spices sautéd in oil ready to add the coconut milk, Kafir lime leaves (from my garden) sausage and shrimp. So good I forgot to take a photo of the plate ready to serve!

Making Biryani...one of my mother's standby's for a company dinner. Basmati rice is spiced with fresh ginger, garlic, turmeric, curry powder, kafir lime leaves and coconut milk......later we add some sausage and shrimp, garnished with coriander leaves. Beautiful and delicious.

We finished our dinner last night with Smoky Creme Bruleé, which is infused with Lapsang Souchong tea giving it a smoky interesting taste. One of the best jobs in the kitchen is putting the sugar on top and blasting it with a blow torch to brown and carmelise the top!