Thank goodness for the acidity in the cranberries to help cut through the richness of the rest of this meal. I beg you not to make this dish too sweet. I’ve added some minced ginger root which provides a gentle heat as well as ground cloves and cinnamon. All are pleasantly warming ingredients to cook … Continue reading CRANBERRY COMPOTE
To me stuffing (or dressing) is the best part of Thanksgiving dinner. It’s rich, earthy, savory and insanely good. Comfort food at it’s finest! I make my stuffing with a variety of local mushrooms, lots of fresh herbs and brioche bread. This year it’s been pretty dry so we haven’t had many black trumpets yet. … Continue reading WILD MUSHROOM STUFFING
This past weekend in San Francisco we had our annual Thanksgiving Training Camp cooking class. Every year the biggest question for home cooks is whether or not they should brine the turkey before cooking it. This year we decided to cook two sixteen pound organic turkeys, one brined and the other not brined side by … Continue reading THANKSGIVING TURKEY: BRINE OR NO BRINE?
These are the last peaches of the year so I had to serve them. Since they aren’t at their peak, they aren’t as sweet so a cooked preparation is best. And this salsa will keep for a few weeks in your fridge. We’ll be serving them with pork tomorrow. A platter of pork shoulder, belly … Continue reading GRILLED PEACH SALSA
For the first dessert recipe, here’s an easy but delicious one. Chocolate mousse; basically Pastry Chef 101. Most home cooks are intimidated by pastry and desserts. Heck, half the time we host dinner parties (when I actually have a weekend night off) I just put out some seasonal fruit and Haagen Dazs. Okay, actually we … Continue reading DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
It’s summer so I want to share another tomato recipe with you. If you have a glut of tomatoes, why not make a large batch of this tomato jam to store in mason jars in your refrigerator. You can double or even triple this recipe. I like to use a few different colors and varieties … Continue reading CHERRY TOMATO JAM
Tomato season is just getting going and the heirloom varieties have been superb. My favorites so far have been coming from Balakian Farms. Here’s my recipe for tomato gazpacho. Did you know that in Spain the original gazpacho was  essentially a bread soup? That’s right, it was before tomatoes had even been imported from the … Continue reading Tomato Gazpacho Recipe