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.

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.

1 large plantain, ripe (slightly soft to touch)
1 1/4 inch thick slice of pancetta, cubed
4 leaves kale, chiffonade
1/4 C raw pistachios
1 T butter or vegetable oil
creme fraiche
salt & pepper

Dry heat a non stick skillet to medium high or high. Add pancetta cubes when hot. Let cook most of the way; add evenly sliced plantains, salt, pepper. Flip them over when golden on one side. Let cook 1-2 minutes at medium high heat, add kale. Don’t let kale cook too much. It should be crisp and somewhat raw tasting, but with improved color.

Place on serving platter, add raw pistachios on top, serve with creme fraiche.

1/2 C buckwheat flour*
1 1/2 C unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp kosher salt
1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
dash baking soda
6 T unsalted butter, cubed the size of dice
roughly 1 cup milk, buttermilk, or almond milk (do not use soy)

Preheat to 425 degrees. Mix dry ingredients with a whisk; add COLD butter cubes to the dry and quickly use your fingers to smudge the butter into the flour to make it look like an uneven collection of breadcrumbs. Don’t let the fat get too warm, as the pockets of it are what create the air bubbles that make the biscuits airy/flakey.

Make a well in the center of the bowl, add milk and mix quickly but not too thoroughly until its a sticky but not too wet mess. Use floured hands to handle as little as possible into biscuit shape and toss onto parchment or silicon lined baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes until cooked through and golden on top.

*alternate white flour here for regular southern biscuits and make sure to use whole milk or buttermilk (sub partial yogurt to reg milk for same volume if you want)

Bulgogi marinade for the flank steak (skirt steak would be OK too) roughly .7 lbs:

1 T red pepper flakes
1/3 C olive oil
4T balsamic vinegar
1/4 C soy sauce
6 cloves minced garlic
fresh ground pepper
1/4 C Jack Daniels or other whiskey

Marinade overnight or up to two days, grill on medium high heat until well cooked outside (do not serve rare or it will be too chewy). Preferably medium or medium well.  Slice thinly on the diagonal grain and serve.

1/2 C quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 C water
pinch cayenne, ground dry ginger, salt

Bring quinoa and water to boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer for 12-15 minutes until water absorbs completely. When almost finished, add chopped broccoli and let cook until just brightened but still very crisp. Mix together with spices.

3 large carrots, cleaned and peeled
2 inch peice of hawaiian young ginger (or less of other, stronger ginger)
toasted sesame & sea salt mixture in a sesame grinder (gomasio)
olive oil
salt & pepper

Cut the carrots on the diagonal, grate the ginger over them as they are finishing cooking (tender but still crisp) in the olive oil, put salt & pepper on them at the beginning of cooking, and serve topped with gomasio.

For the Crepes:
1 C minus 2 T Buckwheat Flour
3 Eggs
2 T melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 C (about) almond milk

Whisk dry ingredients, whisk wet seperately, combine to minimize lumps. The batter should be the consistency of light cream. Let batter rest for at least 30 minutes, ideally 2 hours. Cook on medium high heat in a non-stick shallow skillet or sautee pan, browning on one side until the edges pull away from the pan, and then the other side. Do not add too much batter at once, the crepes should be relatively thin (one coating on the pan).

For the Filling:
2 chicken cooked chicken breasts, cubed (we BBQ’d a whole bunch at once with just oil & vinegar)
1/4 onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 crown broccoli, chopped bite size
5 leaves purple kale, chiffonade
1/4 C raw cashews
1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1/4-1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
4 T grated parmesan-reggiano cheese
olive oil
salt & pepper

Sautee onion and pepper in olive oil with salt and pepper. When soft, add broccoli. Let cook a bit, get bright green. Add cream, nutmeg, and parmesean. Let simmer until reduced a bit. Add kale, cashews, chicken, cook until chicken warm but not hot. Turn off heat and reserve to fill crepes.