The baked potato becomes a potato pancake; crumbled bacon, green onion and Gruyère cheese go into the pancake; and the sour cream becomes avocado cream. The pancakes are topped with toasted corn salsa.

This recipe, courtesy of Simply Gourmet and our favorite potato recipe website, PotatoGoodness.com, was part of the Amazing Appetizers Culinary Challenge at Eat, Write, Retreat. It makes 12 potato pancakes for a first course or side.

Ingredients

A potato pancake with toasted corn salsa. Photo and recipe courtesy Simply Gourmet | Potato Goodness.

Preparation

1. ADD diced potatoes to a large pot and fill with water until just above potatoes. Bring to a boil. When potatoes are done, drain the water and let the potatoes dry out in the pot for a minute or two.

2. FRY bacon and cut into small pieces. Save the grease and use to fry the potato pancakes.

3. COMBINE the bacon, green onion, cheese, egg, flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

4. RICE the potatoes into the bowl with the other ingredients, using a potato ricer. Stir to combine. The consistency will be very thick.

5. SCOOP with an ice cream scoop to portion the pancakes, then shape them into 2-inch disks. Fry the potato pancakes in bacon grease until they are golden brown (if you don’t have enough bacon fat, supplement with another fat or oil). Remove them to a wire rack over paper towels to drain.

6. TO SERVE: Top with avocado cream and grilled corn salsa.

RECIPE: AVOCADO CREAM

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE avocado, sour cream, lime juice, salt, garlic powder and onion powder into a small bowl.

2. MASH with a fork; then whip until smooth with a wire whisk. Alternatively, you can use a food processor. Makes 2 cups.

RECIPE: TOASTED CORN SALSA

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HEAT a cast-iron pan until very hot. Add the corn and toast on all sides, stirring frequently so it does not burn. Remove once it has a nice brown color.

2. COMBINE corn and the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Serve hot or cold.

Aside from a constant stream of delicious things to eat, the nice thing about working in the specialty food space is that the “discoveries” never end.

Just in time for National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (August 2nd), we came across something new at Dolce Gelateria in Greenwich Village (33 Barrow Street, just east of Seventh Avenue).

In addition to 24 appealing flavors of gelato (the cantaloupe is the hands-down winner in a tasty field), Dolce Gelateria introduced us to the gelato ice cream sandwich—on a brioche roll.

Proprietor Salvatore Potestio says that’s how ice cream sandwiches have always been served in his native Sicily. He scoops what seems more than a half pint of gelato—your choice of two flavors—onto a hamburger-size brioche roll.

We ate ours like an overstuffed sandwich, without the colorful little gelato spoon. As large as the portion was, we soldiered on, finishing every last crumb.

Then we went home and tried it with almond croissants, chocolate croissants, plain croissants and King’s Hawaiian Bread. It works with all of t hem!

Serve an ice cream sandwich on brioche. Photo courtesy Dolce Gelateria | New York City.

They are joined by “American” flavors that Salvatore created to acknowledge his kids, American college students: in Almond Joy, Butter Pecan, Nutella*, Rice Pudding and a constantly growing roster.

House-made waffle cones are about eight inches tall—the NBA of ice cream cones. We preferred them to the equally tall imported Italian cones, which are still an improvement over the wafer-like American cake cones, which have less flavor and body than a sugar cone or a waffle cone.
 
*While Nutella is an Italian bread spread, finding many more ways to use it seems to be an American pursuit.

There’s a King’s Hawaiian roll for every
purpose—including ice cream sandwiches.
Photo courtesy King’s Hawaiian.

BACK TO THE BRIOCHE ICE CREAM SANDWICH

Wait a minute. What is brioche, that most buttery and eggy of French breads, doing in Sicily?

Salvatore references the Norman conquest of southern Italy, including the island of Sicily, which spanned most of the 11th and 12th centuries. With the conquerors came the bakers, and ultimately the brioche.

The first recorded use of “brioche” in French dates from 1404, the very beginning of the 13th century. So on the great food timeline, the reference works.

Given the random survival of printed records (destruction by fire, earthquake, war, general decay, etc.), foods and any items and practices can be in use for decades before a printed reference appears.

It should also be noted that, while fruit juice-flavored ices have been around since about 2000 B.C.E., gelato was invented in the 14th century. (Here’s the history of ice cream.)

Switch the brioche for King’s Hawaiian, a line of breads based on a Portuguese sweet bread recipe. They’re made in a variety of ever-so-delicious styles: burger, dinner, hot dog, mini sub and sandwich buns and rolls, plus loaves and sliced bread.

Founded in Hawaii in the late 1950s, the company now has a bakery on each coast and national distribution. Look for them at your retailer, or ask the store manager to bring them in.

Our whole family has fallen for King’s Hawaiian, a recent Top Pick Of The Week.

King’s Hawaiian and any flavor from Dolce Gelateria (or your favorite ice cream or frozen yogurt) are a match made in heaven. Enjoy them on National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.

Biscotti means “twice cooked.” The unleavened, finger-shaped wafers were baked first to cook them, then baked a second time to completely dry them out. This made them durable nourishment for for travel and a staple food of the Roman Legions. The Roman author and military commander Pliny boasted that they would be edible for centuries.

Today we enjoy biscotti for the pleasure. They’re crunchy and delicious with coffee and tea, and made in so many varieties that the prospect never gets dull (chocolate-dipped biscotti, anyone?).

But they can be so hard, you might worry that a pleasurable nibble could turn into a whopping dentist bill.

Nonni’s has addressed the concern with THINaddictives, turning dense biscotti into delicate thins. Crunch away: no harm will befall those pearly whites.

Very thin biscotti are easy on the teeth. Shown: Cranberry Almond. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

 
While we liked all three flavors, the Cinnamon Raisin, inexplicably, had less depth of flavor than the other two. It could have been the batch.

You can enjoy all flavors with anything from cheese to yogurt to ice cream.
The “skinny biscotti” are cello-wrapped in two-piece portions. That’s good, because as the name says, they can be addictive.
The line is certified kosher (parve) by MK, a Montreal certifier (the product is made in Canada). Look for THINaddictives at your retailer, or click the links above to buy online.

And the next time someone invites you over for a cup of coffee, bring a box.

Here’s a new approach to “soup and salad”: a chilled soup with a salad garnish.

We were inspired by this concept from Chef Scott Conant of Scarpetta restaurants in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Miami and New York City.

The idea is to create a substantial garnish that contributes eye appeal and compatible flavors to the bowl of soup. The photo shows microgreens, herbs and flowers atop tomato gazpacho. The greens are not dressed.

It‘s a summer idea: a new way to serve a bowl of refreshing chilled soup.

You’ll be eating the salad garnish with a spoon, so anything that can’t be easily scooped up should be diced, shredded or torn into navigable pieces.

You’ve got a lot of opportunity to mix and match. Pick three or four ingredients with different shapes and colors. A starter list of suggestions:

Soup garnished with salad. Photo courtesy Scott Conant | Scarpetta.

MORE SOUP GARNISH IDEAS

Whether your recipe is hot or chilled, check out all of these options for soup garnishes.

*We‘ve heard people call this “mescaline,” pronounced MESS-kuh-leen, which is a psychedelic drug. Mesclun lettuce mix is pronounced MESS-klin. The term comes from the French verb mescler, to mix, and refers to a mix of tender young salad greens.

But not all beer could withstand the long journey to India in a hot ship’s hold. A style evolved—India Pale Ale or IPA—that had higher levels of alcohol (7%-8% ABV, alcohol by volume) and hops, both of which act as preservatives to help the beer withstand the voyage of up to six months.

The two components created an assertive beer, strong from the alcohol and both bitter and aromatic from the hops. The style paired well with robust food—the red meat and strong cheeses that were popular British fare.

Today, there’s fast transportation to the Pacific Rim, and plenty of bottled water and Coca-Cola for travelers. The IPA style has evolved (or devolved, in the case of British IPAs) to 5.5% ABV, but are still highly hopped. American IPAs tend to stick with the old style, higher alcohol.

Whenever we’re handed a craft beer list, we look for the IPA. But you can do well in supermarkets, too. Boston Beer Company, brewers of Samuel Adams, has embraced the IPA style, with eight different IPAs.

Some of the IPAs from Boston Beer Company, brewers of the Samuel Adams brand. Grumpy Monk is a Belgian-style IPA. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

The Samuel Adams IPAs below differ in different styles, ABV and IBUs, International Bitterness Units, reflecting the bitterness from the hops.

Samuel Adams Dark Depths (Baltic IPA, 7.6% ABV, 60 IBUs) is a dark and fierce bottling. The brewers reimagined Baltic porter as an IPA, combining the big and contrasting flavors of dark roasted malts and six varieties of bold citrussy hops with the smoothness of a lager. Dark Depths is available year-round, nationwide.

Samuel Adams Grumpy Monk (Belgian IPA, 6.5% ABV, 55 IBUs) is a spirited reinvention of the traditional Belgian ales brewed by monks, reimagined as a complex IPA. The brew combines six hop varieties with the traditional spicy clove and fruit flavors of Belgian ale yeast. It’s a bold new twist that might make a conventionally-minded monk a bit, well, grumpy. Grumpy Monk is available on draft year-round, nationwide.

Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA (IPA, 6.0% ABV, 60 IBUs) is brewed with five different hops from the 48th latitude—the prime hop-growing territory in the Northern Hemisphere, also known as the “hop belt.” The result is a distinctive, layered IPA hop character. The 2013 batch is inspired by the new Mosaic hop variety from Washington, which imparts a bright, citrusy flavor. Latitude 48 is available year-round, nationwide.

Samuel Adams Tasman Red (Red IPA, 7.0 % ABV, 60 IBUs) is a bold and lively red IPA that combines the grapefruit, piney and earthy character of Topaz and Galaxy hops grown around the Tasmanian Sea. Smooth and roasty malts and hints of coffee also shine in this balanced and smooth brew, which has a dry, citrussy hop finish. Tasman Red is available year-round, nationwide.

Samuel Adams Third Voyage (Double IPA, 8.0% ABV, 85 IBUs) is a bright and intense double IPA with a vivid hop punch. Inspired by Captain James Cook, whose third voyage made him the first to navigate a treacherous route from England to New Zealand to the Pacific Northwest, this brew combines hops from three growing regions, uniting for a citrussy, earthy and bold character. Here’s an example of the hop profile that the brewers have chosen:

 
Here’s a list of all the different types of hops.

Third Voyage is available year-round, nationwide.

Samuel Adams Whitewater IPA (White IPA, 5.8% ABV, 61 IBUs) draws inspiration from the crisp wheat character of a white ale and the intense hop flavor of an American IPA. Fusing these two styles together, American and Australian hop varieties impart bold grapefruit notes balanced by a crisp wheat malt while the subtle addition of apricots and orange peel provides a slight sweetness and zest to round out the brew. Whitewater IPA is available year-round, nationwide.
CHECK OUT ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BEER IN OUR GLOSSARY.