What's cooking: lesbian chefs share their favorite recipes for holiday feasts.

Publication: Curve

Publication Date: 01-DEC-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Curve Magazine, Outspoken Enterprises, San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 863-6538

What's cooking?

What does a professional chef like to cook when she's at home in her own Kitchen? You'd be surprised. From comfort food to showy stacked creations, Three talented chefs share their favorite recipes so you can make something special this year for your friends.

Chef: Gabriela Salas Chef-Owner, With Rita Abraldes, of Charanga Restaurant 2351 Mission St., San Francisco, (415) 282-18t3

Favorite way to spend the holidays?

"We enjoy spending the holidays with our families and friends sharing good times and, of course, good food?

How long in the business?

Longtime friends Gabriela Salas and Rita Abraldes opened Charanga Restaurant in San Francisco's Mission District in June 1998. Chef Gabriela Salas hails from Costa Rica and has been cooking in the Bay area for more than 18 years, serving as chef at Cha Cha Cha for nine years, and in briefer stints at the Avenue Grill, Firefly and Don Giovanni. Partner Rita Abraldes, who is Cuban-American, happily strayed from academia into the world of food and dining to start Charanga.

Why this recipe?

Costa Rican tamales, which are found year-round, are especially traditional during the Christmas season. Gabriela remembers the excitement from childhood of everyone in the family coming together around the kitchen table, joined by friends and neighbors to make these time-consuming' but delicious tamales. Everyone, even small children, gets to play a part--from cutting the banana leaves to adding the peas or carrots to joining the abuelitas in the final wrapping of the tamales (the secret to making a good tamal navideno).

Tamales Navidenos (Costa Rican Christmas Tamales) MAKES ABOUT 20 TAMALES

INGREDIENTS: 2 lbs. masa (fine, bleached, ground corn flour available in Latin markets) 2 lbs. potatoes 1 lb. pork ribs 2 lbs. lean pork shoulder 2 chicken breasts (with bone)...

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