where the image is meant to titillate and inspire the cook
Firm, lean, meaty, mild, and slightly sweet. Bright white flesh Halibut is often best cooked with moist methods like poaching, steaming, or braising. Inspired by Cantonese technique, here a beautiful piece of Alaskan halibut is cooked in a bamboo steamer then served in a big shallow pool of soy-ginger-garlic-sesame sauce. Each flake is drenched in the flavorful sauce before each bite. It’s quite heavenly.
These delightful soufflés are perfect for a springtime luncheon! 36 month-aged Gouda from the Netherlands adds nutty, butterscotch flavors and an interesting salt crystal crunchy texture. This flavorful cheese pairs well with a full-bodied complex Alsatian Pinot Gris.
The soufflés are super easy to prepare, and bake up to a puffed golden brown in 35 minutes. Served with a pretty side salad, they make a lovely light lunch…or easily double the recipe and serve them on a platter as part of a buffet because, as a bonus, the soufflés hardly deflate so they are excellent for entertaining.
Spring is just around the corner but…No need to wait another month to serve this super-easy, spring-inspired soup! It is made with frozen peas and just a handful of ingredients.
Frozen peas are simply delicious, inexpensive, and convenient. They are picked and flash-frozen at the peak of freshness so they are always sweet and tender. Turn a bag of plain ol’ peas into something extraordinary, a soup that is quite pretty and awfully tasty.
And if fresh edible flowers are not readily available, you can serve the soup with a (still fabulous) goat cheese crouton topped with fresh herbs like mint or dill.
Continue reading “Cream of Pea Soup, Goat Cheese Flower Crouton”
The year was 1978 at The Chart House in Aspen, Colorado. My date, Jeff, was instructing me on how to eat the curious appetizer that he had ordered. It was something I had never encountered before. It was an artichoke.
He happily showed me how to pull the outermost petals from the globe and dip each one in the ramekin of melted butter, how to scrape the meat from each petal with my bottom teeth. The nutty-earthy flavors, the divine melted butter, the fascinating method for consuming this unique vegetable…I was hooked.
Fast forward to today and it is hard to believe that I’ve been living in Las Vegas for two years now. In addition to the swimming pool, one of my favorite outdoor amenities of the new home is a built-in Blaze Grill.
After having a propane BBQ at my home in LA for all those years, it is such a pleasure to know I will never run out of fuel! And the fabulous Blaze is so much more powerful, the total grill BTUs equal 66,000! It’s hot. And awesome.
So we grill, and eat in the pool ALL THE TIME…today an amazingly good and very popular appetizer of grilled artichokes with our favorite Hatch Chile garlic mayonnaise.
Continue reading “Grilled Artichoke, Hatch Chile Garlic Mayonnaise”
Ah springtime! Surrounded by vibrant colors, fresh herbs and flowers, a bowl of Meyer lemons, fresh English peas and asparagus…a pasta dish was just bound to take shape. A tangy, lemony, fresh, green, bright, herby fettuccine that is. Perfectly balanced, a perfect springtime meal for lunch or dinner alfresco…