THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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RECIPE: The Reverse Steak Salad (Or Grilled Chicken Or Fish Salad)

July 3, 2012 at 5:00 am · Filed under Meat & Poultry, Recipes, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs


Add the salad on top of a skirt steak. Photo
© ChickenFriedGourmet.com.		   We recently discovered Louisiana chef Michael O’Boyle, who writes the blog ChickenFriedGourmet.com. The photo gallery on the site is an inspiration to lovers of nouvelle cuisine, and has inspired us to cook up a storm based simply on his concept.

Lucky people in the Shreveport area can take part in Chef O’Boyle’a Gulf Pig Underground Dinner Club, with changing locations and menus. (Next up: a dinner in late July/early August and two in September/October.)

Chef O’Boyle is a consulting chef to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, which acquainted us with him by sending one of his recipes.

While most home cooks may not want to take on his Tomato Gelée, it’s easy to whip up his reversal of the conventional steak salad, greens topped with sliced steak.

Here, the positions are reversed.

 
Chef O’Boyle topped a skirt steak with pickled green tomatoes and a baby arugula salad, garnished with Parmesan cheese. Create your own variations with this template:

Ingredients

  • Protein. Take your pick: beef, lamb, pork, poultry or tofu.
  • Pickled Vegetable. It’s easy to pickle your favorite veggies: asparagus, bell peppers or hot chiles, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, jicama, mushrooms, onions, summer squash, tomatoes, etc. Here’s a quick and easy recipe; you can pickle in as little as an hour in advance.
  • Salad. Look for “flexible” greens that can be mounded atop the protein, as opposed to stiff lettuces. We like baby arugula and spinach, mâche and mixed baby greens. Toss the salad lightly in vinaigrette right before serving. A good recipe: Whisk together 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon Dijon or whole grain mustard.
  • Garnish. Choose from croutons, freeze-dried vegetables (see Crunchies), dried berries, cheese (crumbled blue cheese, grated Parmesan), slivered nuts, etc.

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    Preparation

    1. Pickle the vegetables (this can be done up to a week in advance).

    2. Cook and plate the protein.

    3. Top the protein with the dressed salad.

    4. Garnish and serve.

      

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    PRODUCT: Yummy Cookies From New Yawk

    July 2, 2012 at 1:18 pm · Filed under Cookies-Cake-Pastry

    New Yawk Baking Co. was founded by the husband and wife team of Stephanie and Christopher DeMark, who named their company after their accents—they’re New Yawkers and proud of it! (They were born and raised in the Long Island suburbs and currently live in Queens.)

    Both food service professionals (Christopher is a pastry chef and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America), they can be commended for their excellent palates as well. The two varieties of cookies we tried were winners.

  • The Peanut Butta n’ Jelly Cookies are a delight: large thumbprint cookies with a grape jelly filling. The peanut-buttery goodness comes from a triple infusion of peanut butter, peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts.
  • Mishmosh Cookies have sweet and savory inclusions: potato chips and pretzels joining chocolate chunks, hazelnuts, marshmallows and peanut butter chips.
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    Cookies packaged with the New Yawk skyline. Photo © New York Baking Co.
     

    With next week’s cookie and calorie budget, we’ll look forward to working on the rest of the line: Big Apple Caramel Cookies (with dried apple slices and butterscotch chips), Black n’ White Cookies, Chawcolate Chunk Cookies and Dulce de Leche Cookies, sandwiches of two cinnamon and clove cookies filled with the milky caramel spread.

    Shop online at NewYawkBakingCo.com or call toll-free: 855-NEW-YAWK.

    Find more of our favorite cookies and recipes.

      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Star-Shaped Ice

    July 2, 2012 at 7:58 am · Filed under Cocktails & Spirits, July 4th/Independence Day


    Make star-spangled drinks with star-shaped ice. Photo courtesy Promo-Wholesale.com.

    		   It’s the little touches that make guests smile. Like star-shaped ice in their July 4th drinks.

    Make each soft drink or cocktail more special with star-shaped ice, made in a silicon mold.

    No time to find ice cube trays?

    Head to the market for carambola, star fruit, to garnish the rims of glasses.

    Then, find some special cocktail recipes.

    Here are options in addition to the Star Spangled Banner and Patriot cocktail recipes we published last week:

    JULY 4TH DRINK RECIPES

  • American Flag Cocktail: Individual red, white and blue tequila shots. Recipe.
  • Fruit Cocktails: Red, white and blue cocktails made with blueberry purée, peach purée and raspberry purée. Recipe.
  • Sangrita: Tequila, triple sec and ginger ale with white ice cubes and blueberries. Recipe.
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    COCKTAIL SPARKLERS

    Serve glasses of red, white or blue Prosecco or other sparkling wine:

    The red sparkler has a base of cranberry juice, the white is plain and the blue uses blueberry juice. Add two inches of juice to a Champagne flute and top with the sparkling wine. Don’t stir: It breaks up the bubbles.

    You can make a non-alcoholic version with with lemon-lime soda.
     
     
    Find more cocktail recipes.
      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: July 4th Menu Ideas

    July 1, 2012 at 5:00 am · Filed under July 4th/Independence Day

    There’s plenty of time to create a star-spangled menu for July 4th. Here are recipes for foods and drinks:

    BREAKFAST

  • Yogurt Parfait: Start the day with plain or vanilla yogurt, or cottage cheese, topped with raspberries and blueberries.

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    LUNCH & DINNER

  • Patriotic Cheeseburger: Cut cheese slices into star shapes and tint the pickles blue. Recipe.
  • Potato Salad: Make red, white and blue potato salad with your favorite recipe. If you can’t find purple Perurvian potatoes (pretty close to blue!), keep the skins on red-jacket potatoes. Sprinkle top with crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese, and decorate the bowl with a perimeter of blueberries or a dice of cooked Peruvian potatoes.

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    SNACKS

  • Bean Dip: Make a white bean dip and garnish the perimeter of the bowl with chopped, seeded tomatoes. Serve with a mix of blue corn, red corn and white corn tortilla chips. Recipe.
    		•   
    Red, white and blue cookie pizza. Photo courtesy California Strawberry Commission. Get the recipe.
     

  • Fruit, Cheese & Crackers: Spread crackers with goat cheese and garnish with a strawberry slice,
    topped by a blueberry. For a sweet version, use graham crackers and cream cheese.
  • Goat Cheese Stuffed Celery: Crunchy, creamy and accented with pomegranate arils and blueberries. Recipe.
  • Tortilla Chips: Use blue and red tortilla chips with your regular nachos recipe, along with white Cheddar or other good white melting cheese. Sprinkle some blue cheese or goat cheese (it‘s very white) atop the red salsa.

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    DESSERTS

  • Angel Food Cake: White cake with red and blue berries. If you’re grilling, grill the cake first. Recipe.
  • Parfait: Layer vanilla ice cream with strawberry or raspberry purée; top with whipped cream and blueberries.
  • Patriotic Cookie Pizza: Sugar cookie dough (from the supermarket), whipped cream, vanilla yogurt, strawberries and blueberries. Recipe. Similarly, you can top a white-iced cake or vanilla pudding pie or tartlets with red and blue berries.
  • Patriotic Cupcakes: Red velvet cake, white frosting and blueberries. Recipe.
  • Patriotic Toll House Cookies: America’s favorite cookie is cut into star shapes with a red, white and blue icing and garnish. Recipe.

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    If you have a favorite July 4th recipe, please share!
      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Make A July 4th Cocktail

    June 30, 2012 at 7:17 am · Filed under Cocktails & Spirits, July 4th/Independence Day


    A star-spangled cocktail (photo © Congress Hall).    		   We serve Bloody Marys, Margaritas and Martinis year-round. But we love occasions that merit special cocktails.

    So we were more than pleased when this red, white and blue “Star Spangled Banner” cocktail recipe arrived from Congress Hall, a 200-year-old classic American resort on the ocean in Cape May, New Jersey (so charming, we wanted to make a reservation—see the photo gallery).
     
     
    RECIPE #1: STAR SPANGLED BANNER COCKTAIL RECIPE FOR JULY 4TH

    This drink delivers delightful flavor from the two orange liqueurs and fresh raspberries.

    Ingredients Per Drink

  • 3 tablespoons fresh raspberries, macerated and muddled
  • ¾ ounce orange liqueur (Cointreau, Curaçao, Grand Marnier, GranGala, triple sec)
  • ¾ ounce blue Curaçao
  • 2 ounces vodka
  • Coarse sugar or drink rimmer with red or blue flecks
    		•
     
    Preparation

    1. Moisten the rim of a Martini glass and dip it a half inch deep in sugar (use a shallow bowl for the sugar).

    2. Combine the muddled raspberries with the orange liqueur. Add to the bottom of the glass.

    3. Combine the vodka and blue Curaçao. Blue Curaçaos vary in color. If you want a darker blue, add a scant drop of blue food color (Curaçao is colored with food color. Cointreau, Grand Marnier and other high-end orange spirits are based on Cognac or other aged spirit, which yields a natural rusty orange color.)

    4. Shake with ice and strain into glass. Serve.

     

    RECIPE #2: THE PATRIOT COCKTAIL
     
    For a red, white and blue effect, you can also use whipped cream and blueberries atop a red drink. You don’t have to sweeten the whipped cream; unsweetened, it provides a more sophisticated contrast atop a sweet drink.

    Adapted from a Congress Hall recipe.

    Ingredients Per Drink

  • 1 part vodka
  • 3 parts cranberry juice or pomegranate juice
  • Whipped cream (how about Bourbon whipped cream?)
  • Garnish: blueberries
  • Ice cubes
  • Straw

    •  
    Preparation

    1. Shake vodka and juice with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour over ice cubes in a collins glass.

     
    2. Top with a small amount of whipped cream. Garnish with blueberries and serve with a straw.
    Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.

    		 
    Whipped cream and blueberries turn any sweet red cocktail into a patriotic one (photo © Congress Hall).

      

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