September 6, 2007

Back to the basics: inspiring ingredients

Mom's been sick and in the hospital, so the past several days have been a bit draining and somewhat frustrating, especially since I was only able to visit the Bay Area for a few days. Thankfully, things are stabilizing with her.

It's nice to be able to take a random trip to the market and make a quick dinner with whatever ingredients happen to catch your eye. No preconceived menu... just making dishes out of whatever looks most appetizing at first glance. We found some unexpected free time to cook this evening, so we went to work with some beautiful ingredients--just the outlet/distraction I needed. Here are a few of the ideas we tried out:

heirloom tomato salad (from a previous evening's dinner)
peach, prosciutto, basil


grilled figs and peaches wrapped in prosciutto


tuna carpaccio
avocado, pickled japanese cucumber, red bell pepper, daikon sprouts, horseradish-mustard dressing, chili oil



pan-seared halibut
mediterranean mussel, caramelized onion, gigantes, olives, cherry tomatoes, sea beans, "ocean" jus

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:25 AM

    You have a very interesting blog.

    I stumbled across it because I was looking up some information about Petaluma Farms' Rosie "free range" chicken. I, too, read about that in _The Omnivore's Dilemma_, and was wondering if you had any luck finding out whether or not Pollan's estimation was accurate? I recently found Rosie and Rocky chickens at our local Co-op, and was considering switching to that brand (we, also, are trying to purchase sustainable and eco-responsible foods as much as possible).

    Anyway, any information you have would be appreciated!
    Thanks,
    Kendra and Troy

    ReplyDelete