After the fog, the rain…yes I heard more is coming our way. Today was so rainy and windy, that the wind broke my brand new umbrella!

In Europe, people have this particular image about California that it’s such a sunny place, lots of palm trees, white sandy and warm beaches, and lots of extremely fit people with six packs abs. I grew up watching American series with all those elements and when I first arrived to California with my business school, we were so excited, as excited as if we were going to land on the moon. “California here I come”…then you realize that what you’ve seen on TV, is just true on TV and not in real life. Maybe it is true in Los Angeles where the movie making machine has taken roots but not in San Francisco.

We just didn’t know that San Francisco and Los Angeles were that far apart, that the climate in those two cities was so different and that they could be two different countries speaking the same language.

I had no idea that the weather in San Francisco was most of the time foggy, cold and windy…and after a terribly foggy summer, we are entering a rainy season. When it rains outside, sometimes it rains in my kitchen and when it rains, soups are in the menu.

No I am not complaining, this is not a complaint in case you think it is, I am just explaining how California is perceived for Europeans…white beaches, sun sun and more sun and muscular men.

The great thing is that there are so many wonderful stores, exotic products, that you start to realize that fog and cold beaches do have a certain charm after all. The good thing is that you will not get a skin disease related to sun rays if we are looking at the bright side of things. I have never lived in a warm city so I cannot really miss the sun, since I never had it. My hometown was even colder, rainier and foggier. I always complained to my parents asking them why they moved from a sunny place in Italy to a overcast and rainy region in France, and the response was “we moved where there was work”. Fair enough.

In France, we have a traditional velouté made with watercress and potatoes, la soupe au cresson, but today I didn’t feel like a velouté but wanted some chunky soup texture. It is indeed a watercress soup but with more than watercress. I love the Bhutanese red rice in soups, the little thing that can be unappealing for some people, is its color, when cooked in broth, the broth turns into a brownish reddish color. If you don’t like that, you might want to cook the rice separately and add it at the end. The other option you have to avoid a reddish broth is to use a brown or round white rice instead.

Ingredients for 2

• 1/2 cup uncooked Bhutanese red rice or any other rice (or 1 cup pre-cooked rice if desired)
• 1 bunch watercress, stems removed
• 2 cups spinach, chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 6 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 thyme sprig
• 3 tbs pecorino, grated
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, brown onions in 1 tbs olive oil, add thyme. Add rice, stir for a few minutes to coat if with olive oil, then add broth. 1o minutes before the rice is cooked, add carrots, watercress, spinach.

Saute mushrooms in a tsp olive oil, and let water evaporate. Add mushrooms and garlic to the soup. Let it cook for another 5 minutes. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with olive oil and percorino cheese.

I have wanted one of those rings where you make salad towers for so long and could not find any…after digging Sur La Table, I finally found one completely random since it was hiding in the spatula and spoon section. I was as excited as if I found some gold nugget! I love that store, I can spend hours just looking at every little item. They do have a lot of gadgets but in that respect I am a kitchen utensil geek. Not that I have a lot, because I don’t have any more room in my kitchen and when you have no more space available, the rule should be “you buy something new, you throw away something old” but I cannot throw anything away, I always feel I would need it at some point, I get so attached to my kitchen tools that the kitchen is filled with everything new, old, useless, and useful, and even broken.

A friend of mine came for dinner and she brought me a couple of beautiful pomegranates, she calls them jewels…and they do look like jewels, like little rubys. So I had to use them. Besides, we went out for dinner a couple of weeks ago in a nice Italian restaurant, and we got so disappointed by their crab salad (the crab was canned, and I hate canned crab), it was sitting on top of some sad romaines leaves and sprinkled with cheese! Cheese and crab don’t go with my tastes. Some Italian restaurants should stop trying to please Americans and offer them authentic cuisine instead. I am sure Americans would love it. I think they’re the most adaptable people when food is concerned because they’re so exposed to different cuisines. Honestly that so-called “crab salad” was basically a Cesar salad with canned crab (and believe me Cesar did not eat that salad).

Actually I noticed that many restaurants do use canned crab! what a shame! (and not cheep joints, nice restaurants that I will not bad mouth but it bugs me). I would charge a little more for the salad, but would use fresh crab! Some restaurants are cutting corners where they should absolutely not do it. So anyway, I promised my friend I would make her a nice crab salad with lots of fresh ingredients that would make her forget about the precarious one we had.

I love grapefruit so much with crab, smoked salmon and shrimps in salad, that this tower has somehow become my signature crab salad. It’s fruity, flavorful and so refreshing. You can also use shrimps and smoke salmon as I mentioned if you cannot find crab. It has a different twist but it’s as good. Also pomegranate vinegar is a must, it really enhances the salad beautifully.

Ingredients for 4

• 1.5 lb king crab legs
• 1 red grapefruit, quarters peeled
• 1 pomegranate
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1 bunch watercress
• 1 endive, chopped crosswise

For the vinaigrette

• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp pomegranate vinegar
• 1 tsp grapefruit juice
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbs chives, chopped
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the vinaigrette, combine all ingredients together and mix well.

First remove crab meat from its shells. Remove excess water and set aside.

Wash endive and watercress. Cut endives and remove stems from watercress, keeping the leaves.

Cut pomegranate lengthwise and remove seeds.

Using ring, place some crab at the bottom of the plate, add a layer of avocado, drizzle with vinaigrette. Add 2 quarters of grapefruit, some pomegranate seeds, endives and watercress and add a little vinaigrette. Press firmly so that tower will stand still. Start again with a second layer of the same ingredients.

Remove ring and decorate with some pomegranate seeds and vinaigrette around the tower.