[1] Jambalaya Nachos (all photos © The Food In My Beard | Zatarain’s).

[2] Zatarain’s Andouille Sausage combines with shrimp and jambalaya rice.

[3] Make extra sausage because you’ll want to eat it from the spoon.

[4] Drizzling the cheese sauce.

Mardi Gras begins on March 1st this year*, we’re tailoring our meals to highlight special Mardi Gras dishes. Start here with 14 Mardi Gras recipes for cocktails, main dishes, sides, and desserts. Plus, there’s a “glossary” of another 14 iconic New Orleans dishes.

We’re adding to the list today with this fusion recipe for Jambalaya Nachos.

The recipe was created by Dan Whalen of The Food In My Beard for Zatarain’s, and shared by Zatarain’s with us.

Dan decided to make a cheese sauce for the nachos, rather than baking cheese on top, to smother the nachos with cheesiness. As a spicy twist, he added Creole seasoning to the sauce.

> Mardi Gras History

> Check Out More Zatarain’s Products & Recipes
 
 
RECIPE: JAMBALAYA NACHOS

Make a tray of nachos loaded with jambalaya ingredients like rice, sausage, and shrimp, topped with a Creole-spiced cheese sauce.

Prep time is 20 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. WHISK the milk with the cornstarch until smooth. Cook the milk in a small frying pan over medium heat, whisking constantly until it just comes to a simmer and thickens. Remove from the heat.

2. STIR in the cheese until it melts, returning to the heat once or twice if needed, but being careful not to overheat cause the sauce could separate.

3. STIR in the Creole seasoning and set the sauce aside. Dan’s tip: Put it in a thermos to stay hot until ready to use. If the sauce feels too thick you can add a splash of milk.

4. ADD a little oil to a pot and cook the sausage over high heat to brown on all sides. Remove the sausage from the pot with a slotted spoon, keeping the oil in the pot.

5. ADD the shrimp to the pot and cook about 3 minutes per side until cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon.

6. ADD the contents of the Jambalaya Rice Mix packet along with the water. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to low and cover, until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.

7. BUILD the nachos starting with a base of tortilla chips. Then layer the rice, topped with the sausage and shrimp. Finish with the cheese sauce. Serve with the extra tortilla chips.

*The date of Mardi Gras changes every year because it’s connected to Easter, which can fall on any Sunday between March 23 and April 25. Mardi Gras day always takes place 47 days before Easter. Ash Wednesday is always 46 days before Easter, and Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday. Easter can fall on any Sunday from March 23rd to April 25th, with the exact date coinciding with the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox.

This Sweet Potato Apple Pizza recipe from Colavita Olive Oil is delicious for brunch, lunch, dinner, or even dessert. It combines two delicious pairings—sweet potato and apple—and offers variations: butternut squash instead of sweet potato, pear, or pineapple instead of apple. You can also substitute a different cheese for the Manchego.

There’s a lot more about Manchego, the great cheese of Spain, below.

February is National Sweet Potato Month, February 22nd is National Sweet Potato Day.
 
 
RECIPE: SWEET POTATO APPLE PIZZA

For a dessert pizza, add a bit more brown sugar.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven for 1 hour, until soft. Cool.

2. REMOVE the skins and mash the potatoes in a medium bowl. Set aside.

3. RAISE the oven temperature to 500°F. If you’re using a pizza stone, allow the stone to heat up in the oven for 30 minutes before baking on it.

4. STRETCH out the dough onto a pizza peel dusted with flour. If you don’t have a peel and stone, use a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Oil the parchment with a little olive oil so the dough doesn’t stick.

5. SPREAD a layer of mashed sweet potatoes on top of the stretched-out dough. Add the apple rings on top of the potato, spreading them out symmetrically.

6. SPRINKLE the brown sugar and a pinch of salt on top of the apples. Layer the grated Manchego cheese on top of the apples.

7. DRIZZLE 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top of the pizza. Slide the pizza into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbling.
 
 
WHAT IS MANCHEGO CHEESE

Queso Manchego (KAY-so mon-CHAY-go, usually just referred to as Manchego) is one of Spain’s most famous cheeses (photo #2). It is to Spain what Cheddar is to England.

Manchego is traditionally made from the milk of just one breed of ewe, the Manchega (photos #6 and #7), in the La Mancha region of central and southern Spain. (Other Spanish cheeses made with ewe’s milk are commonly referred to as Manchego-style.)

The Manchega sheep graze mostly on dry pasture, fallow land, and stubbly brush fields on a high plateau outside of the cities of Toledo, Albacete, and Cuenca, southeast of Madrid (photo #8).

One might think that these somewhat harsh grazing conditions would yield low-fat milk, but exactly the opposite happens. The sheep yield high-fat, thick, aromatic milk that gives Manchego its unique and distinctive character. The milk for the cheese must have at least 6% fat.

As a result, Manchego cheese has a fat content of up to 57% and a very rich flavor. In the process, the cheese undergoes a rigorous and detailed production process under 75% to 85% humidity [source].

Authentic Manchego is protected under the Denominación de Origen Protegida (D.O.P.). This law includes strict regulations on how a protected product must be produced.

For example, Manchego molds that weigh less than 1.5 kilograms have to be aged for at least 30 days, and anything larger requires at least 60 days of aging. At that point, it can be aged up to two years.
 
 
HOW DOES IT TASTE?

Authentic Manchego is a firm-textured cheese. It starts out whitish in its youth, ages to yellowed ivory, and can have a lovely golden hue.

It has an intense, zesty, piquant, nutty taste and a crumbly texture that’s rich and full, with a slight saltiness on the finish.

Its aroma is unique as well; it suggests roast lamb to some connoisseurs [source].

Manchego is marketed at various stages of maturity from “cured” at 13 weeks to ”aged” at more than three months. It is delicious at all stages, but to get to know Manchego, buy young and older together for a comparison tasting. Look for:

 
The longer it is aged, the nuttier, spicier, richer, complex, and more intense the cheese is.

Cheese Trivia: Manchego cheese, like many others, contains casomorphin, a compound similar to an endorphin, which gives cheese a highly addictive quality. Casomorphin derives from the milk protein casein, which your body breaks down into casomorphins. These compounds attach to dopamine receptors in your brain, possibly triggering cravings for similar foods [source]. However, as every turophile* knows, the compulsion to eat more and more cheese is only dangerous to the waistline.

More Cheese Trivia: In his epic novel Don Quixote (1605 and 1615), Miguel Cervantes has multiple references to Manchego cheese. Don Quixote, of course, lived in La Mancha.
 
 
SERVING MANCHEGO CHEESE

Manchego is a true “workhorse” cheese, in that it does almost everything well, including melting.

 
 
NON-SPANISH MANCHEGO-TYPE CHEESES

In the U.S., Roth Cheese (formerly Roth Käse) makes its award-winning GranQueso (“big cheese”) in a Spanish style similar to Manchego—although Manchego is made from the milk of Wisconsin cows instead of Spanish sheep (photo #4).

[1] The flavors of fall and winter: sweet potatoes and apples. Find many more recipes at ColavitaRecipes.com (photo © Colavita).

[2] Manchego cheese from Spain is one of the world’s great cheeses (photo © De Laurenti).

[3] The best American-made Manchego-style cheese is the award-winning Roth Canela, made in Monroe, Wisconsin. It has the same sharp, nutty flavor, but with a sweet finish from the cinnamon rubdown on the rind red (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

[4] A lovely charcuterie board with Manchego (photo © Susan J | @MissHappyBelly | The Feed Feed) .

[5] Manchego is aged in baskets that give the rind its special texture (photo © Iberian Foods U.K.).

[6] Manchega sheep give milk only in April, May and June, after lambing (photo © Petmapz).

[7] Thank you, ladies (photo © Noma Distribution | Australia).

[8] The La Mancha plains (photo licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Manchego is an ancient cheese. Archeologists have found that inhabitants of La Mancha were making cheese in the Bronze Age (3300 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E.) [source].

Historians of ancient Rome wrote of the area and its livestock farming.

For centuries, the pastures of the La Mancha of Spain were fought over between Spanish Christians in the north and Muslims in the south. The Muslims inhabited the area from the 8th through the 11th centuries. They called it “Manya,” ”land without water,” which evolved into Mancha.

In the 12th century, the Spaniards under King Alfonso VI conquered the region, and the Muslims retreated to the Andalucia region of Southern Spain.

 
 
THE HISTORY OF CHEESE

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE
 
 
________________

*A turophile is a cheese lover or connoisseur, from the Greek tyros, cheese, and the English -phile, lover.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[1] The Integrated Milk Frother (all photos © Maestri House).

[2] Both frothers make four temperatures of foam, for iced and hot drinks.

[3] The Detachable Frother has a larger capacity milk jug, which can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

If you head out to Starbucks for lattes and cappuccinos that you can’t make at home, here’s a small appliance you could use in your own kitchen: the Maestri House Milk Frother. For the cost of 10 or so milky drinks from your favorite café, you can have the tool you need to prepare all the airy, frothy, silky, creamy drinks at home.

We gave up on the Aerolatte-type hand frothers a while ago; they just stopped working too soon. But after testing a Maestri frother, we’re happy to simply pour in the milk, choose the thickness of the froth, push the button, and top our favorite hot or cold coffee (yes, the machine makes cold froth as well as latte and cappuccino froths).

Maestri House makes two models of Milk Frother.

 
So the choice is smaller capacity and hand-wash, or larger capacity and dishwasher-safe.
 
 
FEATURES WITH BOTH FROTHERS

 
Maestri House milk frothers are the first machines in the world that can simultaneously adjust the temperature of the milk and control the thickness of milk froth.

Are you ready to froth?
 
 
GET YOUR MILK FROTHER

> Detachable Milk Frother

> Integrated Milk Frother

On both pages, scroll down for the video.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COFFEE & COFFEE DRINKS
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ESPRESSO & ESPRESSO DRINKS

Each year on National Margarita Day, February 22nd, we publish a Margarita recipe. We’ve covered classic recipes and numerous fruits and other flavors: cherry, cranberry, ginger, guava, grape, grapefruit, kiwi, orange, peach, pineapple, pomegranate, strawberry, watermelon, and even a veggie Margarita with spring peas and tarragon. We now have more than 30 Margarita recipes.

Today, a new fruit enters the fold: passionfruit, in a Margarita recipe by Chef Tom Fraker of Melissa’s Produce (photo #1).

The recipe is below. But first, the history of the Margarita and a bit about passionfruit.

(You can spell it passionfruit or passion fruit. Both are correct. Its name is different in other languages*, including liliko’i in Hawaiian.)
 
 
WHAT IS PASSIONFRUIT?

The purple passionflower climbing vine (Passiflora edulis f. edulis), a plant with spectacular flowers (photos #3 and #4), is native to subtropical South America.

The origin of the purple passionfruit stretches from southern Brazil to northern Argentina. The much larger (and less flavorsome) yellow passionfruit (Passiflora edulus f. flavicarpa) may have also originated in Amazonian Brazil, but it is not known for certain.

Neither variety was well documented before the arrival of Europeans, but it was part of the local diet. European missionaries used it as an educational aid while trying to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity.

The design of the flower was used to illustrate the five wounds in the crucifixion of Christ. It got its English name around 1700, when it was called the passionflower after the Passion of Jesus.

The fruit of the passionflower is, in turn, the passionfruit (photo #2).

Passionfruit is actually a large berry. It’s round, about three inches long, with a thick, waxy rind that becomes wrinkly as the fruit ripens (photo #3). The gelatinous pulp inside is composed of sacs filled with orange-colored juice and seeds. The seeds are small, black, and crunchy seeds.

The hard outer rind contains the pulp, sacs of orange-colored juice, and black seeds. The pulp can be easily scooped out with a spoon.

Or, scoop the pulp into a bowl. If it’s too tart, sprinkle it with a bit of sweetener. Some people add cream.

The more wrinkled the skin, the riper the fruit (photo #3). Green passionfruit isn’t ripe.

In addition to eating the pulp, it can be:

 
The juice, curd, and jam in turn can be made into ice cream, sorbet, puddings, pies, tart filling, smoothies, soft drinks, syrup, etc.
 
 
RECIPE: PASSIONFRUIT MARGARITA
 
Ingredients For 2 Drinks (photo #1)

 
Preparation

1. FILL half of a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the salt. Place the cap on the shaker and shake vigorously for 30 seconds.

2. RUB a lime wedge around the rim of 2 Margarita glasses (substitute rocks glasses). Pour the salt onto a plate and dip and twist the glasses into the salt to coat the rim.

3. POUR the drinks into the glasses.

[1] Passionfruit Margarita (photo © Melissa’s Produce).

[2] A passionfruit is smooth-skinned until it’s ripe. Then, it wrinkles (photo © Zuzu Sparkling Cocktails).

[3] When wrinkled, passionfruit is ripe and ready to eat (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] Passiflora edulis, the passionflower (photo public domain | Wikipedia).

[5] Another subspecies of passionflower (photo © Karen Park Jennings Photography | Spring Hill Nursery.

________________

*Spanish missionaries called the flower of the Passiflora edulis the flor de las cinco lagas (flower of the five wounds) because it illustrated the crucifixion of Christ.

†The juice is made from simply squeezing the juice sacs. Passionfruit nectar is made from the entire passion fruit, rind and all; not just the pulp. The fruit is cut up and simmered in water until soft. It’s then strained (if desired) and sweetened. Here’s a recipe.
 
 

[1] A refreshing glass of Blue Basil Wild Tonic (all photos © Wild Tonic).

[2] In addition to 16-ounce bottles, there are 12-ounce cans.

[3] Hard Blueberry Mint.

[4] Four varieties of hard jun kombucha have 5.6% A.B.V. (alcohol by volume).

[5] The refreshing flavors are like spritzes.

[6] Substitute tonic water for Wild Tonic in a Moscow Mule.

[7] Toast to someone’s health (or to the New Year) with flutes of Wild Tonis.

[8] Upcycle your bottles into vases or individual water bottles instead of glasses at the table.

In 2020, Kombucha Brewers International (KBI), the leading trade organization of commercial kombucha brewers worldwide, declared February 21st as the first World Kombucha Day. It follows on the heels of National Booch Day, which a single brand, KeVita, founded on January 15th, using the shortened, hip version of the product’s name.

Both holidays celebrate love for the ancient brew of fermented tea that is kombucha (kom-BOO-cha), named for the fungus-like substance, a symbiotic colony of yeast and lactobacillus bacteria*, that is used to ferment brewed, sweetened black tea into the fizzy drink that people have used for centuries as a healthful, detoxifying tonic and a mild digestif.

And a green tea version of kombucha, Wild Tonic Jum Kombucha, is our Top Pick Of The Week. But first…
 
 
THE HISTORY OF KOMBUCHA

The reason for selecting January 21st as World Kombucha Day dates to the Chinese Qin (Tsin) dynasty (221-206 B.C.E.), where we find the first recorded mention of kombucha.

During this period, a fermented tea known as Tea of Immortality was brewed by the royal alchemists for the emperor Qin Shi Huang**, who sought to lengthen his life by any means available. (Alas, the emperor died at age 49).

One story says that kombucha first fermented accidentally in the canteens of soldiers, who noted its restorative powers on the battlefield.

The name itself comes from a Korean physician, Kom-bu, who introduced it to the Japanese Emperor Ingyo in the year 414 C.E. as a healing drink. It became known as tea of Kom-bu, or Kom-bu-cha.

Jun, the style of Wild Tonic, our Top Pick Of The Week, it is claimed by Western vendors to have been developed thousands of years ago by monks of Tibet and northern China. It is more likely a modern invention (see why in the footnote).

Kombucha was introduced to the West via Russia, where it arrived before the Industrial Revolution and became very popular. Our grandmother brewed it, as likely did her grandmother, who lived during the Industrial Revolution† and much later, in the 1990s, piqued the interest of the American future co-founder of Kombucha Wonder Drink, which markets it as a prebiotic sparkling fermented tea (we reviewed it in 2006).

Consumers in the trendy Pacific Northwest latched on to it as a refreshing, good-for-you drink. Brands proliferated. There is now even hard kombucha, made through a secondary fermentation that raises the alcohol content naturally, with percentages similar to craft beers and hard ciders (in the case of Wild Tonic, 5.6% A.B.V. to 7.6% A.B.V.).

So why February 21st for World Kombucha Day? The date relates to the unification of China in 211 B.C.E. Because 2/21 has a relation to 221 B.C.E. O.K., if you need to pick a particular date, it’s as good as any.
 
 
DOES KOMBUCHA REALLY CONTRIBUTE TO HEALTH?

Since those ancient times, devotees have ascribed to kombucha powers the longevity Qin sought, as well as the ability to cure baldness and high blood pressure and a cancer preventative, among other purported health benefits.

So is there any truth to the powers of kombucha?

From a modern scientific standpoint, detoxifying benefits are believed to come from the glucuronic acid that is created during fermentation, not from the yeasts and bacteria in the culture.

According to the Mayo Clinic, imited evidence suggests kombucha tea may offer benefits similar to probiotic supplements, including promoting a healthy immune system and preventing constipation.

There have been no clinical trials or support published in any scientific journal.
 
 
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: WILD TONIC JUN KOMBUCHA

In China, a drink called jun, or xun, is a slightly different form of kombucha. It is made from green tea instead of black tea, and with honey instead of cane sugar. And a plus for some: It lacks the vinegar “bite” common in traditional kombucha.

Wild Tonic’s versions are delightfully refreshing and smooth: elegantly effervescent with light, dancing flavors as enjoyable as a mocktail or a wine spritz without the wine.

You can use it as a mixer for cocktails, or move right ahead to their hard jun kombucha, with a 5.6% A.B.V. (11.2 proof, slightly more alcohol than a glass of Moscato d’Asti wine).

The line is certified USDA Organic, and is made from organic green teas, fruits, herbs, spices, and flowers.

The drinks contain prebiotics, probiotics, amino acids, and antioxidants, are all-natural and sulfite free.

The traditional jun kombucha (non-alcoholic) flavors:

 
The hard jun kombucha flavors (5.6% A.B.V.) include:

 
The company takes every step to source sustainably and ethically, and to reduce its carbon footprint. The blue glass bottles, embossed with honeybees, can be upcycled for other beverages, water, and flower vases.

Even after the tea is brewed, the spent leaves are sent back to the farm to be used as compost.
 
 
GET YOUR WILD TONIC JUN KOMBUCHA

The line is available via Amazon/Whole Foods, Drizly, Favor, Instacart, Postmates, Uber Eats, and natural foods retailers (here’s the store locator).

The website will begin to sell directly soon.

For more information, head to WildTonic.com.

________________

*This is called a SCOBY: Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.

**Emperor Qin Shihuan unified China in 221 B.C.E. by conquering the last remaining warring states, and sought to build political stability, military strength, and economic unity. It was he who created the first Wanli Changcheng (Great Wall) on a subcontinental scale. Previously there were a number of changcheng (long walls), but Quin began the Great Wall Of China. He turned to necromancers (magicians, wizards) in search of elixirs, and was taken in by the fallacy that such medicines could be found [source].

†The Industrial Revolution was the process of changing from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. This process began in Britain in the 18th century, around 1760, and spread to other parts of the world to 1840 (and later in some areas, such as China and India).

††Some websites claim that jun comes from Tibet, where it has been made for 1,000 years. However, books on Tibetan food, and even a specialized book on Himalayan ferments, contain no mention of it. Second, tea was historically difficult to acquire in Tibet as it was not cultivated in the region. Third, green tea has never been popular in Tibet and fourth, the word “jun” does not exist in the Tibetan language. We haven’t yet found who marketed the first jun, but we’re still looking [source].