Endive and pear salad with pecans and blue cheese

May be the only upshot of being stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic is the opportunity to cook more at home. We were supposed to have a dinner party last night which didn’t happen but we still decided to dine in style.

Crab salad with avocado and grapefruit

When life gives you lemons, you make a lemonade; and when friends give you a Harry and David grapefruit basket, you … keep making dishes that involve grapefruit: Braised endive and citrus salad, Caramelized fennel and grapefruit salad, and now crab salad with grapefruit.

Caramelized fennel and grapefruit salad

This dish is a faster and easier variation of the braised endive and citrus salad. This salad still has the great color and freshness of the citrus, but the fennel has plenty of its own aroma, so doesn’t need the addition of spices. 

Brussels sprout salad with sun-dried tomatoes, almonds and feta

I copied / reverse engineered this recipe from one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco – L’Ardoise where Chef Clement serves it with goat cheese and Balsamic reduction. My version pays homage to Bulgaria with the feta cheese. This is a perfect winter salad when your choices of fresh produce are limited. The almonds give…

Bulgarian tomato salad (with a twist)

No nation loves tomatoes as much as Bulgarians do. And for the record, the Bulgarian tomatoes are the best, and so is the Bulgarian feta cheese and the Bulgarian yoghurt! The national dish is shopska salad (шопска салата) which is chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta cheese.  My version is somewhat of a departure from the…

Dungeness crab salad

This is probably the only crab salad that is not doused in mayo. I have done this many times over the years, and it is one of my all time favorites during the “r” months – i.e. when we have Dungeness crab in San Francisco – November through April (although it is best December through…