Hello Friends,

This week as you know we changed the name of the box to “The Chef’s Stash”. We are working on a new website and ordering system to make things easier for all of you. We also have some new ideas we are working on and excited to share including some new box options and some fun add-ons.

The fish this week is something special. It’s a type of halibut but caught yesterday afternoon off the northern CA coast. It is more similar to Alaskan halibut than our typical local variety. It is so fresh I recommend making a ceviche and eating it raw today or tomorrow. You could slice it and marinate it in some lemon juice or lime juice. Then add some serrano chiles, some tomato, some cucumber, some avocado, onion, and some nopal cactus.

Nopal is a favorite salad ingredient in the summertime. It needs to be cooked so either boil it in salt water about 8 minutes and then cool and cut into small cubes or you can oil it and grill it until soft, then cut it into cubes. Those cubes could go in the ceviche as mentioned above, or you could make a salad with nopal, cucumber, tomato, onion, lemon juice and oil.

Golden Raspberries are my favorite raspberry, they have such a delicate and sweet flavor and the Borba family grows the best ones I’ve had.

The Blackberries come from a new farm for us and they grow tons of great berries as well as amazing apples in the fall. We certainly will feature their fruit again soon.

Corno di Toro peppers are an Italian sweet pepper. They are great raw in salad, cooked until soft in oil, or tossed into a pan and fried. They would be great cooked in olive oil and garlic and spread on toast with the Schoch fromage blanc if you still have some from last week.

I thought it might be nice to use the tomatoes that are so beautiful this time of year and make a tomato salad with fresh basil

Chef Brandon’s Chicken pate is made using the livers from the fogline chickens. It is covered with a bit of duck fat to help preserve the color but dont worry if it turns a little darker color, it still will taste great for at least a week. I recommend it on toast or crackers, maybe with some cornichons if you have some or some pickled onions. If you still have some onion jam left over from last week that would go well too.

This is my first time trying the Snake River franks. They are made from American Wagyu beef and should be quite rich and delicious. Let me know what you think.

Tomatillos are great for making salsa. You can use them raw or cooked with onion, cilantro, lime, salt, pepper, and serrano chiles to make a great fresh green salsa.

Duck eggs can be used the same as regular eggs, they have larger yolks and are a little richer but very similar in flavor and texture to chicken eggs. I was thinking about making a duck egg salad with red onion and some celery