Catch Of The Day And A Little Plating Fun

No surf and turf here - this is all surf baby unless you count the potatoes and veggies as turf. Lately I have been experimenting with newer techniques to me and also trying to visualize plates differently than what is commonly seen. 

Experimenting with the techniques is the easy part but putting it on a plate is not.


I have a small assortment of fish here, I have a flounder roulade, a grilled salmon and a sesame crusted cod all cooked to their most juicy perfection.

My vegetables are green beans, a colorful carrot medley and both yukon gold and purple potatoes cooked in avocado oil with rosemary.

I plated everything up and garnished it with a little kiwi coulis and some sprigs of baby cilantro.


Simple foods cooked simply and plated elegantly can make all the difference in the world. Cooking With Color - I am certain it enhances the flavor.

The Color Purple - CCC challenge June = COLOR

There should be little doubt in your mind what my favorite color is. I had this fantastic purple pull over shirt in college and I loved this shirt but it was starting to get a little frayed on the edges. One day I was out in a park flying kites with my beautiful new girlfriend and her little brother and our kites were getting tossed around like rag dolls. I had a solution, and since I was wearing a t-shirt under my purple shirt I took off my beloved shirt and I tore it into strips to use as tails for our kites. My new girlfriend was stunned, pleased, confused and now more smitten than ever. She knew this was my favorite shirt and she said in a stern voice-"why did you do that?" and I said "our kites have to fly" but she said "thats your favorite shirt" and I said "it still is." We watched our kites with their new purple tails bob and weave in the afternoon sky as gently and perfect as a kite could fly.

Purple is a majestic color. I think its the only color that gets this status. So I present to you my regal fare.

Silkie roasted chicken with grilled plums and figs served with roasted purple potatoes and a warm purple cabbage and onion compote as well as a cold purple cabbage and onion slaw with a warm blueberry vinaigrette and parsley oil. Check back to check out all the creatively colorful dishes from The Creative Cooking Crew. Thanks to Joan and Lazaro for hosting these challenging events.

Creative Cooking Crew: VEGAN

I was so pleased to be asked to participate with this fine group of distinguished bloggers in their Creative Cooking Crew  brought to us by Joan and Lazaro - but when the first challenge was VEGAN it made me do a quick little back pedal. Nothing wrong with vegan cooking but if you have been poaching things in fat and butter like I have I needed nothing short of an exorcism and a colonic just to be qualified. Vegans and vegetarians always seem to be the brunt of whats wrong with things nutritionally with their very head strong ideas about what the rest of us should and shouldn't be eating, and if you had as few choices as they have you would be charismatic about your food too.

I often have to make vegan and vegetarian dishes for some of my clients so the idea of it wasnt as scary as I pretend. Anything stacked is sure to make a happy diner so with that in mind I got busy. I made a Two Potato Tofu Napoleon. Purple potatoes, sweet potatoes (yams) firm tofu, and zucchini went into my layers. I simply boiled the potatoes and let them cool before I sliced them thin, the yams were sliced thin raw and sautéed in a hot pan with olive oil until they were soft. The zucchini was flash sautéed in olive oil with a garlic clove and the tofu was dusted with salt and pepper and corn starch and fried until it was a light golden brown

I put some red chile on the plate and made my stack then I drizzled the whole thing with cilantro oil and scattered some black beans, peas and some of the chopped up roasted garlic then I garnished the whole thing with water cress. 

I made a small one for my son and sliced the edges off of his so you could get a good clean look at the layers.

I made a big stack for me, extra layers of extra flavor and packed with nutrients. I love to cook with colors - I hope you try my Two Potato Tofu Napoleon - and dont forget the chile!