Lucini balsamic vinegar, a NIBBLE favorite,
is available at Amazon.com. Photo by
B.A. Van Sise.
THE NIBBLE pantry has a dozen different types of vinegar, from the basics—balsamic, champagne, cider, sherry and wine vinegars—to rice vinegar and our favorite flavor-infused vinegars (we have almost everything from Boyajian).
But what if a recipe calls for a type of vinegar that you don’t have on hand—and you can’t run out to buy it?
How To Repair Food, a book we love, advises that you can substitute another vinegar (although the dish will taste a bit different). Here are the substitutions:
Apple Cider Vinegar Substitute: distilled white vinegar for pickling, any wine vinegar otherwise
Balsamic Vinegar Substitute: red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar plus a pinch of sugar
Red Wine Vinegar Substitute: white wine vinegar
White Wine Vinegar Substitute: red wine vinegar
If you’re totally out of vinegar, use twice as much lemon juice as the required amount of vinegar.
Fall means pumpkins and pumpkin pie. Pinkberry is all over it with a limited-edition Pumpkin Pinkberry, available through the end of the year.
You can have it plain or with the [highly-recommended] paired toppings that create a frozen yogurt pumpkin pie: crunchy honey graham crackers, a dusting of cinnamon and whipped topping.
The pumpkin color is beautiful and the taste is tangy—more like the Original Pinkberry than a heavy pumpkin flavor. So even if pumpkin isn’t your favorite flavor, try it. The pairing with the graham crackers is delightful. Going forward, we’re going to enjoy all flavors of Pinkberry with graham crackers.
Also available for the holiday season are high-antioxidant pomegranate seed topping and pomegranate juice to top any flavor. Combined with the live and active cultures in Pinkberry yogurt, it’s practically health food (at least, that’s what we tell ourselves).
Skip the whipped cream: Candied bacon
rocks. Photo courtesy TerrenceBrennan.com.
As you may have noticed from the “pig candy” (chocolate-dipped bacon) phenomenon of the last couple of years, bacon and dark chocolate are a happy marriage.
We love this idea from Chef Terrence Brennan of Picholine restaurant in New York City.
It’s a chocolate tart garnished with ice cream, meringue and bacon. It looks impressive, tastes great. And it’s quick and easy to prepare if you buy the chocolate tarts instead of baking your own. All you need to do is candy the bacon and assemble the components.
You can make the bacon several hours in advance, but be sure to keep at room temperature. You can warm it for 10 seconds in the microwave before serving.
HOW TO CANDY BACON
Ingredients
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (you can omit this if your crowd doesn’t like the sweet-and-spicy combination)
1/2 pound thinly sliced bacon (about 18 slices)
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line a broiler pan with foil. Lightly coat broiler rack with nonstick spray or rub lightly with vegetable oil. Place broiler rack on pan.
3. Mix brown sugar and cayenne thoroughly. Coat one side of each bacon slice by pressing into mixture.
4. Place bacon sugar side up in a single layer on the broiling rack. Any remaining brown sugar mix can be sprinkled over the slices.
5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until the bacon is crisp and the sugar bubbly
6. Drain bacon on paper towels; let cool on clean toweling or a plate.
7. Serve as whole strips or cut as in photo. Serves 8.
To Assemble
Top chocolate tarts with one scoop each of chocolate and vanilla.
Garnish with candied bacon.
The meringue puffs are a nice touch, but not necessary to complete this dessert—the top of the tart is amply full. If you love meringue and want to make them, your guests will appreciate it.
If you like to bake cheesecake (and we love to!), you know that a water bath, or bain-marie, keeps the cheesecake top from cracking.
If you’ve never used a bain-marie: All you have to do is set the springform pan into a roasting pan filled with warm water. As the cheesecake cooks, the moisture from the water protects the cheesecake from cracking.
Now for the real tip: No matter how good a springform you have, water from the water bath can leak in through the bottom while the cheesecake is baking, creating a soggy crust. To fix this problem, all you have to do is wrap the bottom of the springform in foil before putting it into the bain-marie.
Cheesecake perfected!
Here’s a fun fact: The water bath was originally invented by alchemists, who needed a way to heat their materials slowly and gently. The alchemists were trying to change base metals into gold and create an “elixir of longevity.”
Everyone can enjoy tasty, gluten-free
pasta dishes. Photo courtesy Caesar’s.
People with gluten intolerance can’t have regular (wheat) pasta. They need to find alternatives made from rice, potatoes and other starches.
What about people who want an Italian dinner?
Caesar’s Gluten Free & Wheat Free product line offers favorite pasta dishes in single serving entrées that taste just like wheat pasta. And they microwave in seven minutes.
We tried the manicotti, stuffed shells and vegetable lasagna.
The rice flour noodles pass nicely for al dente semolina pasta (rice flour noodles are delicious in their own right).
The ricotta filling is smooth and creamy.
All three entrées tasted pretty much the same—noodles, ricotta and marinara sauce; we’d be glad to eat any of them. The one thing we could wish for is more seasoning, but we added our own, alternating basil, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, oregano, and were happy.
The products are available at grocery stores nationwide and at Amazon.com.
