THE NIBBLE Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
Read all of our content on TheNibble.com, the online magazine about specialty food.
Archive for Fruits & Nuts
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June 27, 2008 at 9:35 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Condiments
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If you haven’t bought artisan preserved fruits before, you’re in for a treat. Just a few fruits of these wine-and-vinegar preserved delicacies on each plate turn a regular meal into a restaurant entrée, a plain scoop of ice cream into something that deserves a fancy French name. Robert Lambert, one of our favorite artisan producers, has created another all-natural hit, using the finest ingredients.
Robert Lambert is one of America’s great food artisans. He runs a boutique operation in California, the land of plenty. Within an hour’s drive or so, heritage fruits grow on trees owned by families for generations—small amounts of fruit waiting to be harvested and turned into microbatches of delicacies for those in the know. |
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Luscious black cherries, preserved in Merlot, add instant gourmet glamour to everything from plain grilled meats to ice cream. Photography by Claire Freierman. |
| Robert preserves the fruits in wine, vinegar, herbs and spices, plus a small amount of sweetener (sugar and/or honey or grape juice). He likes to serve them on the plate next to meat or fish, like a pickle or a chutney, or in a ramekin on the side with the equally delicious preserving syrup. We like spooning both fruit and syrup over the meat or fish. It’s easy to deglaze the pan with some of the syrup and some stock to make a delicious sauce. We also love the fruits on top of ice cream, sorbet and plain cakes, where they turn something simple but good into something memorable. Add a bit of Chantilly (whipped cream), a mint or rosemary sprig, and suddenly a plain slice of pound cake becomes a “gâteau” that you can name after yourself or the guest of honor. Read the full review on TheNibble.com. |
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June 6, 2008 at 8:50 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Tip Of The Day
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Turn semi-frozen strawberries into a tasty—
and textured—frozen snack. For a more sophisticated look, freeze them in iSi Orka ice cube trays. |
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Stock up on bags of your favorite frozen fruits. You can use them for cold soups, with stewed meats, in marinades and much more. To make fruit popsicles, combine semi-melted frozen fruit and your favorite fruit juice, spritzer or juice cocktail in a blender. Press “chop” a few times until the mixture is smooth but still has visible chunks of fruit. Transfer into popsicle molds and freeze. For for more dessert ideas, take a look at THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet Desserts section. |
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May 29, 2008 at 9:31 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Snacks, Tip Of The Day
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| Peach salsa is always a top-seller, but we think mango salsa is even more exciting. It’s so sophisticated on top of fish, chicken, with pork or tortilla chips—and it’s easy to make a delicious version at home. Combine diced tomatoes, mango, red onion, chopped mint and lime juice. Add a splash of cider, red wine vinegar or flavored vinegar. Click here for a mango chile vinegar from Gennari’s that’s also splendid for fruit salads, green salads, bread dippers and anyplace else you need vinegar and extra flavor. For more salsa recipes, check out THE NIBBLE’s Salsas, Dips & Spreads section. And to learn about the different types of salsa, read our Salsa Glossary. |
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This carmelized salmon with cherry-mango salsa is a perfect summer dish. You can find the recipe here.
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February 20, 2008 at 8:37 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Kosher Nibbles, Cookies/Cake/Pastry, Daily Food Holidays, Washington's Birthday
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Do you love cherry pie…but know that you would love it even more if you could get a top-quality pie filling? Wish no more: Chukar Cherries, a purveyor of the finest cherries and cherry products made from Washington State cherries, makes the best cherry pie and cobbler fillings we’ve ever seen commercially (all natural and certified kosher). Cherry Blueberry filling is made from tart Montmorency cherries plus blueberries (think of it as the high-antioxidant pie filling). Triple Cherry filling combines Bing, Rainier and Montmorency cherries. You can these high-quality toppers on muffins, ice cream, puddings and other desserts. Since George Washington’s actual birth date is February 22nd, bake a pie or cobbler in his honor*—you’ll save so much time with these cherries that you can make a homemade crust. When you order the cherry pie filling, check out the delicious preserves, toppings and barbecue sauces—and the scrumptious dried cherries, far finer than much of what is available.- Read our review of Chukar Cherries pie fillings and other baking products.
Read our review of Chukar’s premium dried cherries.
Finish with a look at their cherry preserves and dessert toppings. |
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Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy? Anyone can bake one, easily, with Chukar Cherries gourmet pie and cobbler fillings. |
| *Historical note: George Washington did not chop down a cherry tree in his youth and then say, “Father, I cannot tell a lie.” This story and others, like throwing the silver dollar all the way across the Delaware River, were fabricated by an earlier biographer. Learn more cherry facts. |
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February 20, 2008 at 8:16 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Recipes, Tip Of The Day
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 Gourmet dates from Dateland.com. From left to right, counterclockwise: Medjool Dates, Khadrawy Dates, Halawi Dates and Honey Dates. |
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For quick hors d’ouevres that are also perfect for tea parties, after-dinner petit four plates, or delicious with a cup of coffee instead of a cookie, fill dried dates with rich, creamy mascarpone cheese and dip the cheese end in chopped green pistachios. If there are any leftovers (not likely), they make great breakfast treats and midday snacks. Kids love them, too (they’ll also enjoy them stuffed with peanut butter). Dates are the oldest fruit cultivated crop by man. More than 30 varieties are grown today. The most famous to Americans is the Medjool, considered to be the finest variety grown—in ancient times, they were grown exclusively for royalty. Succulent and velvety, Medjool dates are fragile in nature and must be harvested by hand. They can cost 50% more than other varieties, so most people enjoy them for eating only, not for cooking or baking. |
Other familiar varieties include:
- Halawi dates, medium sized and soft golden brown, with a rich, creamy sweet flavor and a caramel-like texture. Originally from Iraq, “halawi” means sweet.
- Honey dates are a soft, creamy-textured and sweet-tasting variety that “melt in your mouth.” They are used for snacking and cooking.
- Khadrawy dates, small, dark-mahogany colored dates with a dry, flaky skin. Originally from Iraq, they have a high moisture content and less sugar, with a mild flavor.
- Thoori dates, originally from Algeria, are dry with a hard flesh and a chewy, nutty flavor. They are used for snacking, baking and cooking.Dates are mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible; in Biblical times the fruit was considered sacred. Today, they are a healthy sweet snack alternative: low in fat and sodium, high in fiber and magnesium, more potassium then bananas, rich in iron and cholesterol-free. Dates are grown in the U.S.—the Arizona climate is similar to many areas of the Middle East where dates are cultivated. You can buy quality domestic dates from Dateland.com. Stuff them with our favorite mascarpone, from Mozzarella Fresca. Find more ideas in the Hors D’Oeuvres and Snacks sections of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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February 16, 2008 at 4:26 pm
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Recipes, Daily Food Holidays
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Go nuts—it’s National Almond Day. This versatile nut is not just a snack or baking ingredient but a flavor-enhancer in sandwiches and salads—and of course, slivered on green beans. Almonds can purchased whole, slivered, chopped and in stick form (we like the elegance of slivers). Try smoked almonds, too: They really perk up egg, tuna, chicken and green salads. Almonds are high in vitamin E, magnesium and manganese. Our favorite foods with almonds:- Almondina low-calorie cookies
- Enstrom’s Almond Toffee, our favorite toffee (it’s kosher, and also available in sugar-free)
- Lake Champlain Almond Buttercrunch (also kosher)
- Dolcielo’s Amureo Brownies, made with apricots marinated with Amaretto Di Saronno plus large chunks of almonds
- Frontier Soups Asparagus Almond Soup
- Minnie Beasley’s Lace Cookies- Natasha’s Health Nut Cookies, made with almond flour, low carb, low cal, gluten free |
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Dolcielo’s Amureo Brownie, laden with
Amaretto-marinated apricots and large chunks of almonds. |
- Pariya Foods Almond Nougat, our favorite nougat
- Peeled Snacks Fig-Sated, our favorite healthy snack with figs, dates, almonds and pistachios
- Poco Dolce Almond and Coconut Almond Chocolate Tiles with sea salt
- Recchiuti Burnt Caramel Almonds
- Vosges Chocolate Barcelona Bar, dark milk chocolate, roasted almonds and sea salt
- Sophia’s Sweets Panforte, gluten free
- Terra Medi Green Olive and Almond Bruschetta
Recipes:- Almond Biscotti recipe from Mario Batali
- Almond Hummus
- Chocolate Almond Beet Torte from Michael Recchiuti
- Mulled Wine With Almonds |
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February 7, 2008 at 10:03 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Recipes, Tip Of The Day
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Dried tart (Montmorency) cherries from Chukar Cherries. |
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It’s National Cherry Month. Even though fresh cherry season is in July, you can guess that National Cherry Month in February honors George Washington. Celebrate with delicious dried cherries, made from last summer’s harvest. We put them in everything from breakfast yogurt, cereal and pancakes; to luncheon salads; to sauces for meats and poultry at dinner. For snacks, make cherry caramel corn by tossing hot popcorn with sweet butter and adding dried cherries and honey-roasted pecans; then drizzle with caramel. There are more than 1,000 varieties of cherry tree. The cherry is believed to have originated around the Black and Caspian seas, which may explain why Russians prefer cherry preserves to sugar in their tea!
- Learn all about cherries
- Find cherry recipes in the February issue of THE NIBBLE online magazine: Caramelized Salmon With Cherry Mango Salsa, Carrots With Cherry Glaze, Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cherry Turkey Chili, Curried Cherry Chicken Salad Wraps, Pork Chops With Orange Cherry Sauce, Sweet Potatoes With Cherry Glaze |
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January 26, 2008 at 5:15 am
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Snacks, Daily Food Holidays
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| We’re the last to make light of Fundamentalist Islam, but we do have better pistachios for it. Prior to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979, there was no pistachio industry in the U.S. A series of political events ensued, beginning with the fundamentalist Islamic revolution of the Ayatollah Khomeini that ousted Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. It was followed by the Iran Hostage Crisis, in which the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was stormed and 66 hostages were taken. This led to a U.S. trade embargo against Iran. Since a majority of the pistachios eaten by Americans were imported from Iran, California farmers saw the opportunity to plant the crop. A better pistachio resulted, since the U.S. has the benefit of more modern farming methods. When there are delays in processing the harvested nuts, the white shells begin to stain and blemish, which is why pistachios from the Middle East were often dyed a cover-up red. (Later, pistachios were dyed red to stand out in vending machines; today, some pistachios are still dyed red for marketing purposes.) |
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 Perfect pistachios from Santa Barbara Pistachio Company. |
| Now that you have some historical perspective, go nuts and celebrate. Our favorite pistachios come from Santa Barbara Pistachio Company. They have regular pistachios plus wonderful flavors (Crushed Garlic, Hickory Smoked, Red Hot Habañero Lemon Zing and more) plus gift assortments in case your valentine doesn’t like chocolate. Ready about more of our favorite gourmet salty snacks in the Snacks Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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January 23, 2008 at 8:43 am
· Filed under Vegetables, Fruits & Nuts, Daily Food Holidays
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| Rhubarb is a vegetable, not a fruit. The giveaway might be that it looks like red celery stalks with cabbage-like leafy tops (some can be dark green like spinach or kale). By the time it gets to market, the leaves have been cut off, and we only see the red stalks. Native to Asia, rhubarb has long been used in Chinese medicine. As anyone knows who has cooked rhubarb, it needs copious amounts of sugar to offset its natural bitterness; thus, its use as a food didn’t come into play until sugar became widely available in the 17th century. But since then, what a joy! Stewed rhubarb is a delight, as is a rhubarb or strawberry-rhubarb pie or crumble. We’ve made rhubarb ice cream too—terrific! The reason you don’t see more stewed rhubarb or pie is that it’s relatively laborious to work with the vegetable. It’s fibrous, so after you cook it, you need to process it through a Foley food mill. But we learned the joys of cooking rhubarb from our Nana, and assure you, it’s worth it. |
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 Rhubarb—it’s pretty, and after you add lots of sugar, it’s tasty. Photo courtesy of OurOhio.com. |
| We’re not certain why today is National Rhubarb Pie Day, since the vegetable isn’t harvested until April/May in the Northern Hemisphere; and Southern Hemisphere readers have missed the October/November harvest. So, enjoy a piece of seasonal fruit pie—apple or pumpkin, perhaps—and start perusing recipes in advance of pumpkin season. Plan to make a pie or crumble for your own Nana for Mother’s Day.
How can you tell the difference between a fruit and a vegetable? Fruits carry their seeds on the inside—think apples, bananas, melons, pears, and plums. The only exception is the strawberry. By the same token, the following “vegetables” are botanically fruits; we just think of them as vegetables because they are not sweet: avocados, eggplants, olives, squash, tomatoes and zucchini. (Avocados and olives are tree fruit, just like apples and oranges.) |
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January 18, 2008 at 3:25 pm
· Filed under Fruits & Nuts, Gourmet News, Recipes
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 Raspberry-colored flesh and raspberry flavor nuances make blood oranges a very special fruit. |
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From the name, blood oranges should be in season at Halloween. But these wonders are in stores right now. Even our local supermarket has them (but if you can’t find them, you can order them from Melissas.com). They look exactly like regular oranges on the outside, but their inside flesh is a deep rosy red color; and the flavor is a cross between orange and raspberry—some people call them “raspberry oranges.” There are three main varieties; the Tarocco, native to Italy, tends to have a partial raspberry flesh rather than the full-raspberry-hued Moro shown in the photo (the third variety, the Sanguinello, discovered in Spain in 1929, has a reddish skin, few seeds, and a sweet and tender flesh). Whatever you call them, be sure you buy some before the season is over. The Tarocco and Moro are now grown in California—no need to hope for imports. Buy them up and go bloody crazy. |
| Eat them for breakfast instead of grapefruit (or squeeze them for heavenly juice); add them to fruit salads, green salads, and seafood and chicken salads for beautiful color and flavor; use sections to garnish grilled fish or to create a concasse; enjoy them for dessert and snacks; and make a memorable blood orange sorbet (Ciao Bella Gelato has one available year-round for sale, and we buy plenty of it).
Favorite blood orange recipes:
- Blood Orange Mimosa
- Blood Orange Almond Vinaigrette
- Lamb Chops With Blood Orange Sauce & White Bean Purée
- Blood Orange & Chocolate Chunk Soufflé
Favorite blood orange products reviewed in THE NIBBLE online magazine:
- Kee’s Blood Orange Chocolates
- O Olive Oil Blood Orange Olive Oil
- Italian Volcano Blood Orange Juice
- Palazzolo’s Blood Orange Sorbetto
- Perfect Purée Of Napa Valley Blood Orange Juice
- Robert Lambert Blood Orange Syrup |
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