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


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PRODUCT: Star Wars Cookie Cutters

Want to teach boys to bake, but find them resistant?

Star Wars cookie cutters, exclusively at Williams-Sonoma, might be the motivator.

Four cookie cutters that produce Yoda, Darth Vader, Boba Fett and a Stormtrooper are $19.95. Note that beautiful cookies don’t emerge from the oven: This is a lesson in decorating as well as baking.

There’s also a handsome kid’s Star Wars apron in black cotton twill, available with optional personalization.

If you don’t want to use the cookie cutters as a baking lesson, use them to get the kids to the dinner table. Tell them that Yoda and Darth Vader are coming for dessert.

It’s fun to bake with Star Wars cookie
cutters. Photo courtesy Williams-Sonoma.

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PRODUCT: Sonoma Farm Asiago & Parmesan Dip

With this versatile spread, you can
transform an otherwise bland food. Photo
by Emily Chang | THE NIBBLE.

Sonoma Farm makes Mediterranean-influenced artisan products in small batches. Their olive oils and vinegars were a Top Pick Of The Week. Recently, we tried other products and found the Asiago & Parmesan Dip to be another winner.

A bit too thin to be viewed as a traditional dip, Sonoma Farm California Asiago & Parmesan Dip is really a sauce. Name aside, we can’t nitpick about the flavor, which is pleasantly pungent with herbs in the finish.

Made from only Parmesan and Asiago cheeses, extra virgin olive oil and spices, it has the consistency of a pesto. You can use it like a pesto too: Top a dish of pasta with a couple of spoonfuls (like pesto, a little goes a long way!) and enjoy.

The label suggests dipping crackers and raw veggies, but we spread it on some thick, crusty bread as well as atop grilled chicken breasts. Then:

  • Dress a sandwich by adding some of the dip into a dollop of mayo.
  • Baste fish or shrimp.
  • Spread atop a steak.
  • Spoon some into scrambled eggs.
  • Make a white pizza: Substitute the dip for the sauce on pizza and top with veggies such as zucchini, artichoke and eggplant and top with shredded mozzarella.

 

Here’s a spin on a Caprese sandwich that’s perfect for a summer picnic: Slice a ciabatta roll (or other Italian bread) and spread a tablespoon of Sonoma Farms Asiago & Parmesan Dip onto the top half. Add slices of mozzarella, a few sliced tomatoes and some basil leaves before taking your first delicious bite.

Purchase the dip at SonomaFarm.com. You’ll want to buy extra for gifts and stocking stuffers. At $7.99 per 8-ounce jar, it may seem pricey. But there’s a lot of expensive cheese in each jar, and a little goes a long way.

Check out more great spreads in our Salsa, Dips & Spreads Section.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Try New Salad Greens

If the last new salad item you discovered was radicchio, you’re behind the times.

The Wild Rocket Zest mix from Fresh Express can show you what you’re missing.

One of the two new seasonal blends from Fresh Express, the two newest blends are:

  • Sierra Crisp Herb Salad, mild red baby butter lettuce, parsley and cilantro (in the winter the herbs switch to parsley and chervil).
  • Wild Rocket Zest, combining the bold flavors of spinach, peppery wild rocket (a wild variety of arugula), mustard greens and tatsoi for zesty flavors (in the winter, chard will switch places with the spinach).
  •  
    Don’t be confused: rocket is the British word for what we call arugula. Other names include colewort, rucola, rucoli, rugula, roquette and salad rocket.

    The greens are grown by artisan growers in “America’s Salad Bowl,” Salinas Valley, California (which, as readers of John Steinbeck will recall, is some 20 miles northeast of Monterey). They are often referred to as microgreens.

    For those who have grown up on bland iceberg or romaine covered in dressing to add taste, it’s eye-opening to see how much flavor is added by amaranth, mizuna, red mustard, rocket/arugula and other “artisan greens.” The next time you’re at the market, pick up something you haven’t tried before and give it a shot.

      Arugula
    We adore the Wild Rocket Zest Mix from Fresh Express. Rocket is the British word for arugula (photo by Katharine Pollak |THE NIBBLE).
     
    You may find that you don’t even need dressing. Often, a squeeze of lemon or lime or a splash of verjus works just fine.

    By the way, there are four main categories or classifications of lettuce:

  • Butterhead lettuce has buttery-textured leaves (Bibb and Boston lettuces are examples).
  • Crisphead lettuce has a head that resembles cabbage (iceberg lettuce is an example).
  • Looseleaf or leaf lettuce has tender, delicate and mildly flavored leaves, arranged around a central stalk. They tend to be slightly curly, with firm central ribs (oak leaf and red leaf lettuces are examples).
  • Romaine or Cos lettuce grows in a long head of sturdy leaves with a firm rib.
  • Stem, Asparagus or Chinese lettuce, has thick stalks that are cooked and prepared in ways similar to asparagus (celtuce is an example).
  •  
    Rotate them in your (hopefully) daily salad.
      

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    PRODUCT: Environmentally Friendly Tea

    Buy refill bags instead of new canisters.
    Photo courtesy TayTea.com.

    Quite a few specialty tea companies package their fine teas in metal canisters, helping to extend the vibrancy of the tea by keeping out air and light.

    The problem is, if you’re a regular tea drinker, you can end up with quite a lot of small metal canisters. At some point, you run out of ways to repurpose them and start throwing them away.

    But metal doesn’t decompose in landfills. Bullets that are almost usable are still found in Revolutionary War and Civil War battlefields. Archaeologists and construction workers around the world routinely pull ancient metal artifacts from the ground that have been there for millennia.

    What are environmentally-conscious tea-drinkers to do if they don’t live in communities with recycling programs?

    Two of our favorite tea companies, Republic Of Tea and Tay Tea, now offer “refill bags” for the canisters.

    They’re a better choice (and less expensive, too) than purchasing a new can. If you already have a stash of canisters, you can refill them and give them as small gifts to tea-loving friends.

    If your favorite tea company doesn’t offer refills, send them a note via the website’s contact form.

     

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    PRODUCT: Send Cake, Make Someone Happy

    A friend or loved one far away is having a birthday. You’ve just closed a deal with a client in another state. You want to say “Congratulations!” in a special way.

    Send a cake! Bake Me A Wish is in the business of making people happy by delivering a tasty cake with a chocolate medallion greeting on the cake, as well as a separate card.

    There’s Boston cream cake, brownie cake, carrot cake, chocolate mousse cake, peanut butter mousse cake, red velvet cake and more. The cake arrives in a festive gold and brown striped box.

    We sampled two cakes from Bake Me A Wish: Vanilla Bean Cake and Tiramisu Classico Cake. The vanilla bean cake was spot-on, with cream cheese filling. But we missed the traditional soaking of coffee liqueur in the Tiramisu Cake. Something called “tiramisu” and “classico” should have the liqueur as well as the ladyfingers—two ingredients that define tiramisu. We’d suggest making another choice.

     

    Who wouldn’t like to receive a chocolate
    mousse cake? Photo courtesy BakeMeAWish.com.

    If you find yourself in need of delivering a cake overnight, head over to BakeMeAWish.com.

    The company is a good citizen, contributing 5% of sales of particular cakes to worthy nonprofit organizations.

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