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


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TIP OF THE DAY: Savory Chèvre Truffles

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Roll goat cheese in your choice of coatings; here, cocoa and hazelnuts. Photo courtesy of Romanicos.

These are one of our favorite, fun-to-make hors d’oeuvres. Take a Montrachet log or other soft chèvre (goat cheese), cut it into slices and roll the slices into truffle-size balls. (If you don’t want to hand-roll them, you can press all of the cheese into a small bowl and use a melon baller to scoop them). Chill the balls to make them easier to roll in toppings.

Pick four or five coatings with varied flavors and textures—finely chopped pistachios, macadamias, almonds or walnuts; black, white or toasted sesame seeds; shredded coconut or sweet curry powder; Hungarian paprika and garlic powder; a mixture of fresh herbs; unsweetened cocoa powder (you can add a pinch of ginger); or other favorite flavors. You can layer flavors as well—cocoa and nuts, for example.

The coating process works best on waxed paper. Arrange the “truffles” on a plate. They’ll look like a beautiful box of bonbons—and each topping will make the chèvre taste different.

 

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FOOD HOLIDAY: National Pecan Month

November is National Pecan Month. Celebrate with some of our favorite pecan products:

 
See the rest of the November food holidays.

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This Southern belle makes wonderful pecan
toffee with your choice of dark, milk or white
chocolate. Photo courtesy Lula Belle.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Save That Single Malt

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Single malt or blended, preserve your
favorite whiskeys with a preservative
spray. Photo: CanStock.

The same nitrogen aerosol sprays used to prevent oxidation in opened bottles of wine can also be used to protect single-malt Scotch, Cognac and other precious spirits. Just spray into the bottle before returning it to the shelf: The gas adds a layer of protection from oxygen for weeks and even months. If the bottle is something special you open rarely, sealing over the cap with paraffin (available at any drug store) prevents evaporation as well.

  • You can buy wine protection sprays at most wine and household products stores or from Amazon.
  • Learn more about fine whiskey: how Scotch differs from Bourbon, Tennessee and Canadian whiskey, rye and Irish whiskey.
 

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PRODUCT: Bake Flatbread At Home

We eat lots of Mediterranean foods, often with pita bread from the supermarket that isn’t as flavorful as we’d like it to be. So when we spotted Canterbury Naturals flatbread mix, “just add oil and water,” we eagerly set out to bake our own flatbread (not with pockets like pita, but hopefully more exciting).

We were not disappointed! Warm from the oven, we proudly served our eight handmade, individual-size flatbreads, highly seasoned with a “Mediterannean” herb mix of basil, bell pepper, chile, fennel, garlic, marjoram, onion, oregano, parsley and thyme. Once they cool down they get a bit dry (like pita), but can easily be warmed in the microwave. After two days of storage in our Fresh Vac food storage containers, they still warmed up nicely.

While there are recipes aplenty to make flatbread from scratch, don’t underestimate the convenience of a packaged mix. It was easy, delicious and impressive! We mixed the package ingredients into a dough with some olive oil and water, kneaded it briefly, let it rise for 30 minutes, divided and rolled the dough into eight flat pieces, brushed the tops with olive oil and sprinkled them with the seasoning blend. The flatbreads baked for six minutes and cooled for a few minutes. Aside from the rising and cooking time, prep was no more than 10 minutes, using one bowl and one cookie sheet.

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Impress your friends and family with home-baked flatbread. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

In addition to Mediterranean Savory Herb, the mix is available in Parmesan and Sundried Tomato. The attractive boxes make a nice house gift or stocking stuffer for your favorite cook. The product is certified kosher by KOF-K.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Traditional Cake With Nouvelle Ice Cream

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Vosges’ Red Fire Ice Cream with ancho and
chipotle chiles (plus cinnamon) lets you add
some fire to your chocolate ice cream. Then,
pair it with brownies or chocolate cake!
Photo courtesy Vosges Chocolat.

Match traditional desserts like apple pie, brownies, chocolate cake and pound cake with very modern flavors of ice cream. Vosges Chocolat’s Naga (sweet Indian curry and coconut ice cream) and Red Fire (chocolate with chilies and cinnamon) ice creams are heavenly with classic cakes and pies. Vosges will overnight-deliver them (and their two other exotic flavors) to you in dry ice, but your local creameries may offer similar delights.

Another of our favorites, Reed’s Ginger Ice Cream (in Chocolate, Ginger and Original), is available at specialty stores nationwide. Ginger is a delicious pairing with pound cake, chocolate, fruit desserts—just about anything!

 

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