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


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TIP OF THE DAY: Spicy Ketchup

A decade ago, ketchup, with its sweet flavor profile, lost ground to spicy salsa as America’s favorite condiment. If you love the sweet tomato flavor of ketchup but also like the spice of salsa, you can have the best of both worlds with spicy ketchup.

You can buy it easily: Tabasco makes a spicy ketchup, mainstream ketchup makers like Heinz make Jalapeño Ketchup, and there are a number of specialty brands. If you don’t have room on the refrigerator door for one more bottle, it’s easy to make spicy ketchup by adding hot sauce to your regular ketchup.

A more gourmet approach is to add fresh or canned chopped chiles (like jalapeños) to regular ketchup. They provide a nice texture as well as a more complex flavor. You can snip in some fresh herbs for color.

We serve spicy ketchup in ramekins or add it as a plate garnish. It’s great on a burger or fries.

Jalapeno Ketchup

Jalapeño Ketchup photo courtesy Heinz.

 

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RECIPE: Ultra-Rich Vanilla Iced Coffee

On some summer days, it’s just too hot for coffee. Here’s a deluxe iced coffee recipe from entertaining maven Colleen Mullaney, author of how-to books such as It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere and Punch, a book of easy punch recipes, like this iced coffee recipe.

Coffee as punch? Is any liquid served in a punch bowl “punch?” Not exactly, but we’re taking some license here. A brief history of punch:

Punch is a general term that covers a wide assortment of mixed drinks, with or without alcohol. While they generally contain fruit or fruit juice, that isn’t essential. Punch, which seems quintessentially British, actually was discovered in India by the British sailors of the East India Company, and brought to England in the early 17th century; from there it spread to other countries. The word “punch” is adapted from the Hindi panch. In India, panch, earlier called paantsch, was made from five different ingredients: sugar, lemon, water, tea or spices and an alcoholic spirit. The word for “five” in Sanskrit is panchan; derivations of the word exist in the different Indian dialects.

Coffee On The Cubes is one of Colleen’s favorite beverages, a way to serve a festive coffee recipe that keeps it cool for hot days. Move over, iced moccachino: This recipe is super-rich from the cream, but it is unsweetened; guests add their own sugar to taste. See the recipe.

colleen-mullaney

Keep cool this August with this super-rich iced coffee recipe.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Rice Pudding Perfection

August 9th is National Rice Pudding Day, and nobody does the creamy comfort food quite like Rice to Riches. It’s the only item sold at the shop in New York City’s SoHo, and they’ll ship overnight to anywhere in the U.S. The ever-changing menu features more than a dozen flavors daily. You might find “Fluent in French Toast,” “Honey Graham for Mr. Smith” and “Take Me to Tiramisu.” Rich, creamy and made from top ingredients, it’s no wonder that fans from every generation line up every day for their RPF (rice pudding fix). Surprise someone with a gift of rice pudding; surely, they’ve never gotten one before!

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PRODUCT: WannaHavaCookie Gourmet Whoopie Pies

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With 15 different cake and filling
combinations to choose from, it’s impossible
not to love these whoopie pies.

The whoopie pie, actually a sandwich cookie, is attributed to an unknown Pennsylvania Amish woman, who first conceived of sandwiching two round, mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. As the story is variously told, the Amish housewives would bake these treats and put them in their farmer husbands’ (or children’s) lunch boxes. When the lucky recipients would discover what was for dessert, they would shout “whoopie!”

The ubiquitous whoopie pie has been transformed into something exciting by WannaHavaCookie. In 15 delicious flavor combinations, there’s another benefit: smaller size. You can enjoy a few bites of whoopie pie more often, without the guilt. They’re also great for gifts and party favors.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Ice Cream Cupcakes

Instead of making an ice cream cake, try ice cream cupcakes—they’re even more fun! Use a cake mix and muffin pans to get a larger cupcake bottom. After baking and cooling, put the cupcakes in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm, before topping with ice cream. If your quart of ice cream is hard, soften in the microwave for 20 seconds and stir with a large spoon to get a malleable consistency. Put a scoop atop each cupcake and work with a spatula to achieve a frosting effect. (It’s good to have two people working here if you need to make a lot.) Top with a strawberry, raspberry, chocolate wafer, nonpareil, Junior Mint, halved mini PB cup or other tasty garnish. Freeze or serve immediately.

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