Served on Cauliflower Gazpacho.

2 boneless halibut filets
1/2 one ripe mango, cubed
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 ripe avocado, cubed
4 large garlic cloves, minced
juice of 1/2 lime
good olive oil
salt & pepper

Mix the salsa ingredients together, adding avocado last, and giving one final turn over gently to coat in lime juice and prevent browning. Salsa can be made up to one day in advance but I ate it immediately after making and it was great too.

Dress halibut in cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Grill on medium high heat, skin down. Do not flip over. Keep lid on while grilling. When steaks seem firmed up and seemingly flakey along the thinner parts and up to but not yet into the thickest part, it is finished. Remove from skin in one movement and serve atop cauliflower gazpacho, polenta, quinoa, or other grain, and top with the mango garlic salsa fresca.

Fresh green beans or blue lake green beans (haricot-vert)
Lots of fresh, firm garlic, peeled & minced
Great olive oil
1-2 T butter
salt & pepper

Wash & trim the green beans. Cut into smaller, uniform pieces.

Bring a skillet to medium high heat. Add butter. Once melted and water cooks out, but before browning, add minced garlic. Reduce heat to medium low.

Once garlic is softened but not dark, turn heat back to medium or medium high, add green beans and a touch of olive oil to wet the pan enough. Add salt & pepper. Cook at this heat until bright green, then reduce heat to medium low until beans are softer but still crisp. Turn heat off, top with more excellent, fruity/light olive oil, and serve.

Salt & pepper good quality grassfed steaks of your choice, and toss them on a hot grill. Grill until medium rare.

Meanwhile, slice 3 large white mushrooms or other hearty variety, and sautee in butter until shrunk. Add salt & pepper during this process. Raise heat to high, and add 1/2 C rioja or other dry red wine. Reduce by 1/2, add fresh marjoram. Turn heat off once further reduced (to 1/4 original liquid, enough to fill a bit around the mushrooms and the mushrooms have plumped again). Let sit a few minutes, then add 2 T very cold butter, flipping or lightly stirring to mix in and thicken the sauce. Serve on top of the steaks.

Wine: with Rioja, of course!

DRY:
1 2/3 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1.5 C walnuts
1 tsp baking soda
1 C sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

WET:
2 eggs
4 overripe bananas
1/2 C melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a large souffle container (2 qt) or two 8×3 inch loaf pans.

Chop walnuts in food processor until they become like flour/meal. If you do not wish to include walnuts, add 1/3 C flour. Whisk the dry ingredients together so that there are no lumps, or sift. Reserve.

Roughly cut bananas and then mush with fork or whisk into a pulp. Add eggs, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves. Mix until combined. Stir in melted butter and vanilla, then fold flour mixture until combined into batter. Pour into the cooking pan of your choice.

It’s done when a toothpick/skewer is inserted to the middle and comes out relatively clean (read: almost completely clean). Let it cool 10 minutes or so before you remove it from the pan. Should come out easily. Stays for about a week at room temperature.

Would be tasty served warm with Calvados and sour cream.

1 head cauliflower, cleaned and coursely chopped
1 carrot, clean and chopped
1 bosc pear
1 ripe yellow peach
1.5 C water/vegetable stock
1 small heirloom tomato
1/4 C olive oil
salt & pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor–it’s best to add a bit at a time in proportion to the liquids for the smoothest consistency. At the end you should have a thick sauce like consistency. If not, add water or more ingredients. Everything is raw.

Transfer to a saucepan and cook on medium low for 30 minutes. Alternatively, blanch the cauliflower and carrot before chopping or pureeing. It will be a smoother consistency this way, but I enjoy the texture of not cooking it first.

Be sure not to over salt, or it will taste strange with the fruit’s sweetness.

Serve warm with olive oil and slices of heirloom tomato, or cold with tropical fruit or tomato.

This can also be used in place of polenta or mashed potatoes, and I intend to use it with grilled halibut and mango or papaya & avocado salsa tomorrow evening.

1 large block Maguro sashimi grade tuna, sliced in 2/3 and 1/3 blocks
1/4 English cucumber, trimmed and sliced thinly
Several heirloom tomatoes of varying color, ripe
Mixed greens
Live sprouted beans
Sesame seeds (regular toasted and black)
Lemon
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

Heat olive oil in a pan to medium high heat (just before the smoking point). Roll the smaller peice of tuna in black sesame seeds, the larger one in tan. Pan sear the fish in the oil, using your hands to hold the fish side by side in the oil and cook evenly on all sides. Make sure your hands are dry so the sesame seeds do not fall off.

Whisk juice of 1/2 lemon a

nd 1/3 as much olive oil as lemon juice together with salt & pepper. Dress your mixed greens, live beans, and anything else you’d like in the salad.

Slice the heirloom tomatoes evenly and assemble in short stacks with the cucumber slices (I did not do this but am determined it is a preferable presentation).

Assemble on a platter and let everyone tear in.

A great way to end a meal or delay the need for one, a cheese course is one of my favorite courses and also a quite versitile one. Manchego (a somewhat dry, usually aged at least 4 months but often for a year or more, sheepsmilk cheese from Spain with some air bubbles) with membrillo paste (smooth quince jam without too much sugar) is a traditional Spanish tapas pairing for dessert or for appetizer, though personally I discourage utilizing much cheese as an appetizer at least when you plan on serving a meal–it’s too filling, and too strong in flavor (if you’re doing it right).

So two cheeses I often keep in my fridge are some kind of brie or camembert (delices de bougogne and le chatelain are my top picks), and some pecorino (sheepsmilk cheese without air bubbles from Italy, semi-firm, sometimes with a slightly sweet flavor but also available as hard and dry as asiago–I prefer the younger versions).

With these two and other things sitting around you can present some interesting combinations.

Camembert with pear or apple is a classic pairing, it is also good with spicy orange marmelade. Actually, most things you can pair with camembert go equally well with an aged English cheddar (less creamy than the common Canadian counter part, Wednesleydale or another bandaged English cheddar are good ones to try).

For the pecorino, my favorite pairing is that of honey. Drizzled on top, or in a chunk including some honeycomb it compliments the pecorino well and brings out the ‘tang. Chestnut honey–which, unlike the trend of specialty honeys, does actually taste different from others, is a common Italian pairing usually served in small quantities in the afternoon with a glass of Vermintino or Vernaccia white wine. You can also serve the cheese with preserved or fresh roasted and skin removed pepperoncinos.