Excellent chocolate truffles from Cacao
Cuvée. Photo by Katharine Pollak |
THE NIBBLE.
Most chocolate lovers can’t resist chocolate truffles, balls of ganache (chocolate mixed with heavy cream) that melt in your mouth.
Many chocolate truffles are pure chocolate-on-chocolate—ganache enrobed in cocoa or a hard chocolate shell. That’s fine for some people, but we need more excitement. Chocolatier Susan Pitkin has provided it.
She makes more than 20 flavors of truffles, from Coconut, Espresso and Lemon to newer flavors like Chili Pepper, Matcha, Saké and Sesame. And yes, there are classic Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate; and Peanut Butter truffles for Reese’s fans.
Many companies make truffles. The difference here is the quality of ingredients that makes the best ganache and a deft hand in flavoring it. We often find chocolate truffles boring, but we couldn’t stop eating these.
Read the full review, which includes suggestions for serving truffles after dinner.
October is Fair Trade Month. If you don’t know about Fair Trade, it’s important enough to devote a minute to read this.
Small family farmers in developing-world countries grow much of the world’s cacao, coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, cotton, flowers, ingredients for beauty products—more than 3,000 products in all.
The vast majority of family farmers must take whatever brokers or other buyers offer for their crops, which can be less than market price and less than what it costs the farmer to grow them. Conventional trade practices traditionally discriminate against these poorest farmers.
Fair Trade policies address these injustices. Fair Trade establishes practices that provide these farmers with fair terms of trade: fair prices—so they can make a small profit and send their children to school—decent working conditions and local sustainability.
Fair Trade Certified, the logo of Transfair,
is one of the global Fair Trade certifying organizations.
Manufactured products that sport a Fair Trade logo participate in these fair practices, enabling poor farmers to improve their financial position and send their children to school (instead of needing them as farm laborers). There are several global Fair Trade certifying organizations, the logos of which ensure that standards have been met, including Fair Trade Federation, Fairtrade Foundation, Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), Transfair and The World Fair Trade Organization.
When you’re making a choice at the retail shelf and see a Fair Trade logo, think of the good that you’ll do by purchasing that brand.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The producer of this video has decided to remove it from circulation.
It finally feels like fall: our local farmers market is full of our favorite Honeycrisp apples.
For a dynamic duo of flavor and crunch, pair crunchy apples with crunchy celery root, also known as celeriac (and céleri in French).
Celery root, a relative of celery, is a root vegetable. Leafy stalks somewhat like celery grow above the ground, but the part that is eaten grows beneath, looking like a large, bulbous, misshapen turnip. (Use the stalks, which are hollow, as straws in Bloody Marys; they’ll add a bit of celery flavor.)
Like celery, celery root is very low in starch.
Enjoy it raw in green salads and fruit salads, cut into matchsticks.
Celery root can also be roasted, alone or in a melange of root vegetables. They can also be boiled and mashed—a delightful alternative to mashed potatoes.
Added it to soups and stews, or make hot or chilled celery root soup.
Make one of our favorite appetizers, Céleri Rémoulade (here’s a recipe).
In this week’s cooking video, Amy Topel of The Green Guide combines apples and celery root in a salad with turkey and a Dijon-yogurt dressing. Use this as an opportunity to try a new vegetable.
There’s a delicious brownie underneath the
ghosts and pumpkins. Photo
courtesy Browniepops.
Want to do something special this Halloween? Serve these memorable and delicious Browniepops: ghosts, goblins and other “seasonal buddies.”
This week, Browniepops—a NIBBLE Top Pick of the Week (read the review)—is giving three lucky readers six of their Halloween brownies-on-a-stick.
The concept behind Browniepops is, like many big ideas, quite simple: Take a scoop of brownie, coat it in hard chocolate and add festive decoration.
Then put it on a stick—because food on a stick is always that much more special—and you’ve created something that will have children and adults out-maneuvering each other to get to them.
We won’t blame you if you refuse to share!
To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Halloween Candy page and click to enter your email address for the prize drawing. Retail Value Of Prize: Approximately $35.00. This contest closes on Monday, October 25th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!
For more information about Browniepops, visit Browniepops.com.
Savvy party-givers always provide some low-calorie snacks. A platter or basket of crudités (croo-dih-TAY, French for raw vegetables) attracts dieters, vegetarians, the generally health-conscious and those who are reminded that they should be eating more veggies.
While there’s nothing wrong with the standard repertoire of baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks and broccoli florets, you can dazzle by trading up to specialty produce:
EAT THE RAINBOW
Look in farmers markets and specialty produce stores for maroon and yellow carrots; green, purple and yellow cauliflower; baby broccoli (a cross between broccoli and Chinese broccoli); baby heirloom tomatoes (the size of grape tomatoes in colors from yellow to purple); yellow and white beets; watermelon radishes; radicchio di Treviso (which looks like red romaine); baby summer squash; and oyster mushrooms.
And look in your supermarket for Red Celery, a brand-new, all-natural variety of celery developed from heirloom seeds by Duda Farm Fresh Foods, the world’s largest grower of celery. It’s available year-round. Learn more at DudaFresh.com.
Available in supermarkets from coast to coast. Photo courtesy DudaFresh.com.
