Garde Manger Platters

Pressed sushi cubes with Ahi and avocado .

Monterey squid, stuffed with a farce of squid, leeks, bacon, garlic, panko and eggs, with a pickled red pearl onion and aioli.

Buckwheat blini's with cream fraiche, fine diced red onion, and American sturgeon caviar.

Platter of Kumamoto and Malpeque Oysters with modified hogwash Mignonette.

Foie gras mousse canape, served on top of toasted brioche with apple mostarda

Platter with the pressed sushi, stuffed squid and a smoked salmon terrine

The foie gras canape served on top of my favorite platter, a redwood plank picked up for $5 at a Oregon truckstop.....

Farmers Market Lunch

Found some beautiful carrots, sugar snap peas and free range chicken eggs at the Walnut Creek farmer’s marker today. Couldn't resist to do a healthy yet delicious lunch with them. The carrots and sugar snaps are first par-cooked individually and then quickly sautéed in a little butter finished with a squeeze of Meyer lemon juice. The Egg is sous vide at 147F for one hour until the yolk become like custard.

Sauteed Black Seabass

Black sea bass is one of my favorite seafood’s, medium firm, delicious tasting and a wonderful skin that crisps up when sautéed. I purchased my Sea bass whole and fresh from Monterey Fish Market. I prefer buying a whole fish as it’s a better way to judge freshness. Look for bulging clear eyes, bright red gills, firm flesh, intact scales and a smell of the sea when you buy fish.

The dish I developed above is a pan sautéed Black Sea Bass on a truffle potato puree. The bass is placed on sautéed spinach and the sauce is a short rib sauce. The foam is orange leak foam and on top of bass is a orange leek Gremolata. I will post the recipe here shortly.

Our 2008 Garden Harvest

As the harvest season is nearing its end in our garden I thought of showing some of bounty we enjoyed during this year:

October Bounty: Lemons, Black Mission Figs, San Marzano's, Zuccini, Japanese Eggplant, Habaneros etc

More Pictures of the harvest and garden in the slideshow below:

Crabby Chef Competition Concepts

As Chen and I was entering the Crabby Chef competition in Berkeley representing DVC Culinary School and number of concept dishes was delivered the day before. The final dish for the competition was mix between two of the concepts.

Savorycook cooks at BALT fundraiser in Byron

When BALT (Brentwood Agriculture Land Trust, http://www.brentwoodaglandtrust.org, asked us to participate in the 2008 Harvest Festival at the charming Taylor Ranch in Byron we immediately said yes. BALT was founded to protect agriculture land in East Contra Costa from being developed for housing. East Contra Costa agriculture area around Brentwood is the closest farmland we have in the San Francisco Bay area. For the event we made a refreshing appetizer: Heirloom tomato tartar, with cucumber dill sorbet. The Heirloom tomatoes were donated to us by Smiths Family Farms, the Cucumbers by Dwelley Farms, Olive Oil by Ron Nunn Farms and the Eggs by Shelley's Garden. Please enjoy some of the pictures below:

Savorycook at Urban Wine Experience

In August we were invited to be the food partner for Eno Winery for the yearly Urban Wine Experience at Jack London Square. The event was arranged by East Bay Vintners Association, http://eastbayvintners.com. We made over 400 freshly baked Gourgeres filled with slow braised pork and topped with a peach-mint salsa. Please find some pics in the slide show below: