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


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RECIPES: Holiday Cocktails

December 9, 2008 at 9:00 am · Filed under Cocktails & Spirits, Holidays & Occasions, Recipes


It’s a pumpkin pie in a glass.		 This holiday season, start your guests off with the same flavors that end the meal—pie! These cocktails take advantage of seasonal flavors to perfectly complement your cocktail hour—or dessert.

Caramel Apple Pie Cocktail

The seasonal flavors of this sweet cocktail come from butterscotch schnapps and real apple cider. For more pie flavor, you can dip the rim in graham cracker crumbs.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

-1 ounce tequila
-1/2 ounce butterscotch schnapps
-1 ounce apple cider
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-Apple slice garnish
-Graham cracker crumbs for rim (optional)

Preparation

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Add tequila, schnapps, apple cider and lemon juice.
3. Shake well and strain into a chilled martini glass. If desired, first moisten rim of glass and dip into graham cracker crumbs.
4. Garnish with notched apple slice.
Pumpkin-tini

You can try different rims for different flavors. This recipe calls for cinnamon, but you could use graham cracker crumbs, shredded coconut, cocoa powder—or a blend.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

-1-1/2 ounces vanilla vodka
-1-1/2 ounces crème de cacao
-2 tablespoons pumpkin purée
-1-1/2 ounces milk

Preparation

1. Shake milk and pumpkin purée to combine.
2. Pour in vodka and crème de cacao, and shake over ice.
3. Strain into cinnamon-rimmed martini glass.

Learn how to plan a cocktail party.
Find more winter cocktail recipes in THE NIBBLE’s Cocktail Section.

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TOP PICK: Le Grand Pesto

December 8, 2008 at 9:30 am · Filed under Condiments, Pasta-Pizza, Top Pick Of The Week

We know about pestos. For our review of the best pesto sauces, we dipped and sauced with hundreds of them, from the classic pesto alla Genovese* to scores of variations from A to Z (or at least to S, including shiitake mushroom, spinach, sundried tomato and sweet red pepper pestos).

*The classic recipe contains basil, olive oil, Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses, pine nuts, garlic and salt.

The good news is, no matter how much exciting food you’ve tasted in a specialty food category, there’s always more to discover. So we smacked our lips when we came across Le Grand Pesto, an all-natural line of artisan pesto sauces and tapenades made by a couple in Canada. Since then, we can’t imagine life without Le Grand Pesto Lemon Confit & Pumpkin Seed Aromatic Sauce—it may ensure our cult status among foodie friends who credit us with the discovery (try it with fish, seafood, pasta, vegetables and anything that lemon takes a shine to).

We’ve been snacking on spoonfuls of the five other flavors, in between using them as a condiment on everything from eggs to sandwiches to soups and salads. Just try enlivening that Caprese salad or cheese pizza with Spicy Olive & Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade. Squirt a spoonful of 4 Nut & Cheese Pesto into a bowl of tomato soup or onto pear slices. Try
Pesto can enliven almost every dish (except sweet
desserts, but try them with cheese). Here, Le
Grand’s herbalicious Garden Pesto turns the same
old poached egg into a gourmet delight. Healthy
eaters can enjoy the egg, pesto, microgreens and
stewed plum tomatoes. Revelers can rest a
pancake and some bacon underneath.
some Sun-dried Tomato Pesto on that sandwich instead of mayonnaise, or serve it as a spread with cocktails. You’re a hero without doing any actual cooking (but, then, being a top hunter-gatherer is as great a skill as being a good cook). The products are very thick—no oozing pools of oil, but vegetable paste with only as little oil as needed to bind the ingredients. You can spread them, or dilute with your own oil into sauces. All are made with the finest ingredients, no preservatives and no sugar or sweeteners of any kind.If you love fresh, new tastes, want easy ways to make your everyday foods fly high and can’t wait to play with six new ready-to-cook-or-eat condiments/sauces/ingredients, read the full review on TheNibble.com.

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TRAVEL: California’s Artisan Cheese Festival

December 8, 2008 at 9:00 am · Filed under Cheese-Yogurt-Dairy, Travel


Award-winning Mount McKinley chevre from
California’s Cypress Grove cheesemaker. 		  Still have money for gourmet travel? Need a spectacular gift for that cheese-loving someone special? Head to four days of turophile revelry at California’s Artisan Cheese Festival, held in Petaluma (Sonoma County) from March 20-23, 2009. The third annual festival, held at the Sheraton Sonoma County–Petaluma Hotel, is a wonderful opportunity to:

-Educate people who want to learn more about artisan cheese
-Support the artisan cheesemaking community and its sustainability
-Celebrate and enjoy the creations of the artisan cheesemakers
-Eat a heck of a lot of great cheese that is hard to come by

Over the four day festival weekend, you’ll explore handcrafted cheeses, foods, wines and beers from California and beyond. At the second annual festival in March 2008, more than 1,700 attendees met more than a dozen international award-winning cheesemakers and learned how to taste, buy, serve and enjoy distinctive artisan cheeses from the experts.
The educational seminars and tastings were led by cheese experts, cheesemakers, chefs and fromagiers from across the country, and virtually every session involved tastings and/or pairings of artisan cheeses.Planning for the 2009 festival is underway, and the schedule of events will be posted and tickets will go on sale shortly. Sign up for updates at the website, ArtisanCheeseFestival.com.

Visit THE NIBBLE’s Cheese Section for reviews of our favorite artisan cheeses.
Discover the meaning of “turophile” in our Cheese Glossary.
Learn the History Of Cheese.
Take our Cheese Trivia Quiz.

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TOP PICK: Linzer “Celebration Cookie”

December 7, 2008 at 9:30 am · Filed under Cookies-Cake-Pastry, Desserts, Top Pick Of The Week

Some cities achieve fame through beauty (Paris), power (New York) or the ability to entertain (Las Vegas). The city of Linz, Austria is like Bialystock, Russia, home of the bialy (cousin to the bagel), Frankfurt, Germany, home of the slender sausage that achieved immortality when served on a roll,* and Pils, Czechoslovakia, which brewed a great style of beer (pilsner) to drink with it. Say the city’s name and what’s the first word association? The food named after it.

*At Coney Island, New York City, in 1871. See the History Of The Hot Dog.

Linz gave us the Linzertorte (Linzer Torte is the English spelling), and gets additional honors, too: The Linzertorte is the oldest-known torte† recipe in the world. The earliest-found written version dates to a manuscript from 1653. This doesn’t mean that the torte did not exist prior to then, just that it is the first proof as to the approximate date and place of its origin. As with any item, it is likely to have developed some time prior to its first-known written record.

  
It’s a Linzertorte—no, it’s a jumbo cookie that
looks like a cake, a 12″ circle cut into 12
triangular cookies. Impressive to serve, it tastes
just heavenly. We can believe we ate the whole
thing!

†As opposed to a cake, a torte replaces all or most of the flour in a typical recipe with ground nuts. Almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts are most often used.

Over time, the exceedingly popular Linzertorte, an almond or hazelnut short crust filled with jam, was made into tartlets and cookies. And now, we can celebrate because Let Them Eat Cake, an artisan baker in New York City, has created a spectacular dessert or gift that’s delicious year-round, but perfect for the holidays. It looks like a beautiful, round cake, but has been pre-cut into 12 slices. The raspberry jam gleams through the heart-shaped cutouts, and the surface glistens with crystalline sanding sugar. For the dining table, buffet, workplace or picnic, the cookie can be eaten with a fork or with the fingers. Available in raspberry, apricot or chocolate filling, only a grinch would overlook this opportunity to celebrate. Read the full review on TheNibble.com.

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TRENDS: Per Capita Beer Consumption Increases

December 7, 2008 at 9:00 am · Filed under Beer & Hard Cider, Beverages, Trends


Gordon Biersch Märzen. Read our full review of
this American craft brew.
   After declining annually since 2002, per capita beer consumption in the U.S. rose slightly last year. In 2007, total beer volume in the U.S. increased by 1.4%, returning to 2002 levels, according to recent research. We’re talking about domestic mass-marketed beers, the Buds, Coors and Millers—not the craft beers, which continue to grow each year (but represent a much smaller percentage of sales).

“Beer in the U.S.,” a report from Beverage Marketing Corporation, an industry research company, noted that per-capita consumption of beer in the country in 2007 hit 22 gallons (and if you don’t drink beer, think of how much the other guy is drinking). “While the decreases in the early years of the 21st century were in the order of one or two tenths of a gallon from one year to the next, they became a steadily recurring phenomenon,” the company said in the report.
While imports, which had been one of the most vibrant segments of the U.S. beer market, slowed considerably in 2003 and performed weakly in 2004, imports revived in 2005, but not enough to counterbalance the contraction in domestic sales. The result is that sales in the beer market were essentially flat. Imports played a crucial role in volume growth in 2006, increasing by double-digits. The largest U.S. brewer, Anheuser-Busch, had a sizeable increase in shipments of domestic brands in 2006 but stalled in 2007. However, the next two largest brewers, Miller Brewing Company and Coors Brewing Company, enjoyed solid growth, which contributed to another year of overall beer volume growth.

Find some of our favorite craft beers in THE NIBBLE’s Beer Section.
Learn more about beer in our Glossary of Beer Terms.
Learn the best Beer & Cheese Pairings.
See a six-course Beer & Food Pairing Dinner menu with recipes.
Check out these Tips for Serving Beer.

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