couples cooking class, July 28

Thursday July 28

7 pm

$100/couple

limited space for 4 couples

for more information or to register, vegshaku8 at gmail

A cooking class for couples taught by a couple who cook together all the time.

Open for 4 couples (can be a pair of friends or romantic partners). Learn some rather delightful dishes that are easier to prepare if 2 are involved

Cori and i have been cooking together for 2 and a half years, both at home, for the catering/personal chef business and at the underground dinner/concert series! It is a great source of fun as well as our profession and we love to share some of this.

-gazpacho. Chilled Spanish tomato/pepper/cucumber soup.

-yuba wraps. Cherry/smoked tofu and snow peas wrapped in yuba with mustard dressing

-Laab Thai style salad with stir fried tofu and lots of spices along with chopped herbs  served in lettuce leaves

-cold noodles with sesame sauce. Homeade noodles are much easier to roll out with a partner! A special sichuan dish of iced cold noodles served with a spicy sesame sauce.

-chocolate pistachio blackberry cake with truffle frosting

peach class July 17

Every summer, i rave about this farm and their peaches and eat and cook with case after case of these prized fruits. By demand i am offering a class showing some of my favorite dishes using the finest peaches grown in California.
David "Mas" Masumoto is a third generation Japanese American farmer. He is a renowned author and speaker as well as extraordinary farmer. The family tradition is being continued and extended as his daughter Nikiko will soon be running the operation of one of California's most treasured small farms.

As always for all my classes, this is entirely hands on with all students taking part in preparing and consuming the dishes. Come and learn new dishes, ingredients, techniques and meet other food lovers.

Some of the dishes we will be preparing are:
-Roasted peach salad with salted daikon and cucumbers
-peach roasted tempeh (a match of my homemade tempeh with Masumoto peaches in a marinade of pomegranate molasses, red miso, spices and more!!)y
-eggplants rolled with peaches and almond ricotta and basil sauteed in brandy
- peach sorbet
- peach buckle

more to be added

for more information or to make reservations, vegshaku8 at gmail

Sunday July 17
noon
$50/person
limited space for 8

lunch for 15 vegan challenge day 5

5th and last day for this office's vegan challenge. We have been blowing taste buds and misconceptions through the roof so far.
Today is a Japanese menu.

tea/cherry smoked tofu (tofu marinated in sake, mirin, shoyu, star anise and sichuan peppercorns, smoked with oak and cherry wood and tea leaves)
chiraishi sushi (brown rice bowl with hijiki, wood ears, shitake, asparagus and carrots)
burdock kinpira
long beans with ginger miso glaze
seaweed salad
Masumoto Farms Gold dust Peach

lunch for 15 vegan challenge day 4

day 4 of 5 is a middle eastern menu

homemade pita bread
hummous
mushroom barley pilaf
ratatouille
salad with creamy herb dressing

lunch for 15 vegan challenge day 3

today's menu will be Italian

Lasagna: homemade noodles, homemade almond "ricotta", homemade red sauce, mushrooms, eggplant, basil.

Rappini sauteed with garlic and olives

green salad with creamy herb miso dressing

strawberry-pistachio-chocolate cake with truffle frosting

lunch for 15 vegan challenge day 2

Returning to the same office today with their second lunch in their week long vegan challenge. As i said, this idea is new to me, of a group of people trying to go vegan for a short amount of time. They raved about yesterday's Mexican lunch and i think today will be even more satisfying as i present a few Thai dishes for them.

-Thai Green curry: curry paste (homemade, coconut milk, tofu, asparagus, carrots, snow peas, eggplant, lotus root, basil, thai basil
-Rice: short grain brown rice
-Green Papaya Salad : green papaya, long beans, purple cabbage, peanuts, cilantro, lime, chili, ginger, garlic, shoyu, fermented chinese bean curd
-Stir fried choy sum with garlic, fermented black beans, shaoshing, shoyu, mirin

lunch for 15 vegan challenge day 1

a business in San Francisco has decided to take a vegan challenge. I was not familiar with this concept, before but 15 employees have decided to go vegan for one week. Nice! And they hired me to cater lunches for 5 business days. So i decided to offer 5 different ethic lunches, Mexican, Thai, Italian, Middle Eastern and Japanese. Today is day 1 and  i am preparing some mexican dishes:

Black bean stew
Mexican Rice
Salad with lime cilantro miso dressing
Anadama bread
Sauteed veggies (snow peas, cauliflower, carrots and brocolli) with cumin, chili lime and olive oil

Tomorrow is Thai and i will be pounding out some green curry paste

dinner for 19 in Berkeley, June 18

Returning to our favorite client, this Saturday. Some finger foods, a buffet and a wonderful dessert for 19, this time.

Finger foods:
-cherry cabernet kanten. Made with Wild Hog 2004 Red Hill, Sonoma County Cabernet avgnon
-cherry/tea smoked tofu and steamed snow peas and asparagus wrapped in yuba with cherry karashi (mustard) sauce
-Sope: homemade tortilla bowls fried with black bean puree, roasted vegetable salsa, guacamole,

Buffet
-Massamum curry with tofu, lotus root, peas, heirloom potatos, pineapple and thai basil.
-3 kinds of heirloom rice: black forbidden, jade pearl and red bhutanese rices
-Grilled peach salad with gold dust peaches from Masumoto family farm, salted daikon and cucumber, fried parsnip and cherry coriander dressing
-gai lan stir fried with ginger, lemongrass and sichuan peppecorns
-choy sum stir fried with shitake

dessert
cherry pistachio cake with truffle frosting
peach roswater walnut sorbet (masumoto farms peaches)

cherries

Quite excited about presenting a 7 course cherry menu, this Friday!
Sadly, due to rather odd weather patterns, the Northern California cherry harvest is not up to par with recent years. Still uncertain what varieties i will be using as no particular varieties of cherries have stuck out in particular so far. Depends on what i find at the market on Thursday!

Some of the ideas i have been messing with and will be presenting are:

Cherry blossom infused karigane tea will be served through the evening.
Cherry wasabi sauce. This will be served with a yuba wrap filled with cherry smoked tofu and snow peas.
Cherry chipotle sauce. For a black bean pattie and anadama bread.
Cherry relish. Also for the black bean pattie.
Cherry mustard sauce.  still working on where to fit this in
Cherry balsamic dressing. for a roasted beet and endive salad.
Cherry roasted tempeh. Homemade tempeh marinated in cherry juice, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, tamarind paste, cumin, cardamom, paprika, then smothered in crushed tempeh and roasted.
Cherries stuffed into homemade truffles.
Cherry cabernet kanten. Using our friends at Wild Hog's amazing 2005 Cabernet, we will do our take (an alchoholic and gorgeous appetizer). on a Japanese classic sweet using kanten (a gelatin like substance made from a seaweed, agar agar).
Cherry walnut sorbet.
Cherry Chocolate Pistachio Cake

Thank you to our regional growers and providers of many of our very high quality ingredients:
http://www.wildhogvineyard.com/ for producing the cabernet
http://chadoen.com/ for importing the amazing tea
http://www.ranchogordo.com/ for growing the  beans
http://lotusfoods.com/ for growing the rice
http://massaorganics.com/ for growing the flour

and, of course, thank you to all the sustainable farmers and farm workers who make cooking and eating, real food possible!