Quick tips for National Potato Month, September, on how to buy and store potatoes (National Potato Day is August 19th).
 
 
HOW TO BUY POTATOES

 
 
HOW TO STORE POTATOES

Potatoes don’t go bad quickly, and can be stored for up to 6 months.

 
 
DON’T EAT POTATOES THAT HAVE TURNED GREEN

Potatoes that have developed green coloration may be harmful.

Potatoes exposed to excess light may turn a greenish hue on its skin, flesh or sprout. This is due to the development of solanine, a glycoalkaloid. It is a natural toxin present in potatoes, but extra light causes it to grow to dangerous proportions.

Solanine may upset the digestion and cause discomfort—or worse. Solanine that is consumed in high quantities can lead to paralysis [source].

Cooking a green potato does not make it safe. While you can can usually cut away the green portion and safely eat the remainder, the potato can bitter. It’s best to toss it.
 
 
COOKING POTATOES

 
 
> TYPES OF POTATOES
 
 
> POTATO HISTORY
 
 
SWEET POTATOES: DISTANTLY RELATED

There are many different shapes, sizes and colors of sweet potato: orange, purple, red and tan varieties can be found. However, none of them is related to the white potato, or to the African yam.

 
National Sweet Potato Day is February; Sweet Potato Awareness Month is November.

[1] Russet potatoes, the standard for baked potatoes and French fries.

[2] Tricolor baby potatoes. Baby potatoes are new potatoes—potatoes harvested when immature. They are not the same as creamer potatoes, which are smallest variety of potato and more flavorful (photo © Recipes Worth Repeating).

[3] Yukon Gold potatoes (photo © Bonnie Plants).

[4] Purple Peruvian potatoes (photo © Mona Makela | iStock Photo).

[5] All-purpose white potatoes (photo © Idaho Potato Commission).

[6] Sweet potatoes are different from white potatoes, and completely unrelated from yams. See the explanation at the end of the article.

*A medium baked potato has 161 calories. Skip the butter and sour cream and season with nonfat plain Greek yogurt, fresh-cracked pepper and snipped chives. It’s just as delicious and you’ve only added 20 more calories.
 
 
  

This appetizer isn’t fancy, but it’s on the menu of Noma, a three-Michelin-star restaurant run by chef René Redzepi in Copenhagen, Denmark. (The name is a syllabic abbreviation of the two Danish words nordisk (Nordic) and mad (food), and the restaurant is known for its reinvention and interpretation of New Nordic Cuisine. It aims to limit menu ingredients to those found or made in Scandinavia.

In 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, Noma was ranked as the Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant magazine. It closed for a couple of years as Redzepi traveled the world studying foods of different cultures. As of 2019, the last year of rankings before the pandemic, it ranked #2.

The food isn’t necessarily haute cuisine. It’s more of a combination of flavors that bring excitement to the palate, and includes foraged ingredients that would never be found in food stores.

We particularly liked the ease of this appetizer plate. As you can see, these are foods that anyone can prepare.
 
 
THE NOMA APPETIZER PLATE

This appetizer plate includes fruits, vegetables and seeds, and lots of edible flowers for color. The sweet and savory selection includes:

 
Most of these items are easily found in your grocery store (especially if you substitute a blackberry for the mulberry).

We’re not so keen on edible flowers, which provide much of the color here. We’re just not wild about the flavor and most people don’t eat them anyway; so why waste the food and the money?

However, we substitute other colored vegetables: a grape tomato or half a cherry tomato, pickled red onion.
 
 
START THINKING ABOUT COLORS & SHAPES

Your plate will be most interesting if you select an assortment of colors and shapes; for example:

 
Set them on a nice plate that shows off the plates and colors, and you’re in business.
 
Here’s a longer list of vegetables by color. 

[1] This plate of mixed bites, artistically chosen, is a modern version of the classic mixed hors d’oeuvre or antipasto plate (photo © Restaurant Noma | Copenhagen).

[2] Americans are more familiar with an antipasto plate (photo © Kelly Cline | iStock Photo).

[3] Colorful fall fruits and vegetables (photo © Good Eggs).

While Noma choose a vegan plate of fruits, vegetables and seeds, you can also include white proteins: baked fish, chicken breast slice, deviled egg or boiled/poached quail egg, grilled tofu, raw scallop, white anchovy, white cheese, etc.

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*It may be balsamic or black vinegar with a small amount of oil.
 
 
  

[1] The original Cheez-It cake, made to celebrate the brand’s 100th birthday (all photos © Kellogg’s Cheez-It).

[2] Take a big bite!

[3] The cake was created for the 100th anniversary of Cheez-It. The brand’s history is below.

[4] Have some Cheez-Its with your Cheez-It cake.

[5] Don’t want to bake the cake? Enjoy Cheez-Its with your favorite soft drink (here, with cola).

[6] Here, with ginger ale.

[7] Here, with a glass of wine.

[8] An easy snack: teeny peanut butter crackers (make a sandwich with PB).

If you’re a Cheez-It fan, you might like to know about Stephanie Izard’s Cheez-It cake, incorporating her favorite snack. The Top Chef and James Beard Award winner even celebrated her wedding with a four-tiered Cheez-It cake, that went on to inspire retail variations by other bakeries.

And good news: The recipe is below.

The Chicago chef is restaurateur (Girl & the Goat, Little Goat Diner, Duck Duck Goat, Cabra Cevicheria) and bakery owner (Sugargoat Bakery).

To mark its 100th birthday, the brand partnered with Chef Stephanie to create the cake (the history of Cheez-It is below).

 
You can purchase it on Goldbelly

 
RECIPE: CARAMEL CRUMBLE CAKE WITH CHEEZ-ITS

Here’s Stephanie’s cake for home bakers (recipe © Stephanie Izard). “Sweet, salty and savory,” she says, “this cake has it all!”

Note that this is a two-layer cake, not the four layers in the photos and on Goldbelly.

To save time, two 16-ounce cans of purchased vanilla frosting may be substituted for the homemade buttercream frosting, and 1 cup or purchased caramel ice cream topping may be substituted for the homemade caramel sauce.

Prep Time is 2½ hours, total time is 6¼ hours. Yield: 16 servings.
 
For The Cheez-It Crumble

 
Ingredients For The Cake

 
The recipes for the caramel sauce and frosting are below.

Preparation For The Cheez-It Crumble

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Line a 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking sheet with foil.

2. MAKE the Cheez-It Crumble. Freeze the Cheez-It crackers for at least one hour. Remove from the freezer and place in a blender container or food processor bowl. Cover and process until very fine crumbs form. Repeat the processing, if needed, to make the crumbs as fine as possible. Remove and discard any large pieces.

3. COMBINE in a mixer bowl ½ cup of the Cheez-It crumbs (reserve the remaining crumbs for the cake), the cup butter, flour and sugar. Beat with the paddle attachment, with the electric mixer on medium speed, until the pieces are the size of peas.

4. SPREAD on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool completely, stirring to break up any large pieces.

Preparation For The Cake

1. REDUCE the oven temperature to 325°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line the bottoms of the pans with circles of parchment paper. Set aside.

2. COMBINE in a large mixer bowl 1½ cups sugar and the vegetable oil. Beat on medium speed with the wire whisk attachment of the electric mixer until combined. Add the sour cream and beat until mixed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on high speed after each addition until light and fluffy.

3. ADD the reserved Cheez-It crumbs, pastry flour, baking soda and teaspoon salt. Mix on low speed just until combined.

4. COMBINE in a medium saucepan the buttermilk and shredded cheese. Cook and whisk over medium heat until cheese is softened. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. (Or, pour the buttermilk-cheese mixture into a blender or food processor container. Carefully process with the feeder cap removed until smooth.) Stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.

5. TURN the mixer to medium-low speed. Gradually add the buttermilk mixture to the beaten cake mixture, beating just until combined. Pour into the prepared cake pans.

6. BAKE about 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool the cake layers in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove the layers from the pans. Remove the parchment paper from bottoms of the cake layers. Cool completely.

Assembly instructions follow the recipes for the caramel sauce and the buttercream frosting.
 
 
RECIPE: SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE

Ingredients

 
Preparation For The Caramel Sauce

1. HEAT the cream in small saucepan, just until warm and small bubbles begin to form around edges. Remove from the heat. Cover to keep warm and set aside.

2. PLACE the water in a 2-quart saucepan with heavy bottom. Pour 1 cup of sugar and the teaspoon of salt into the center of the pan, forming a low mound. Do not stir. Pat the mound down until it’s evenly moistened. Any sugar touching sides of the pan should be below the water line.

3. COVER and cook over medium heat, without stirring, until the sugar dissolves and syrup looks clear.

4. UNCOVER the saucepan and continue to cook the sugar mixture over medium heat until it turns a light amber color. Swirl the pan gently (instead of stirring) if the mixture begins to color unevenly.

Check the color frequently by using a bamboo skewer or toothpick to place a drop of syrup on a light-colored plate. As soon as the syrup is light amber, remove it from the heat.

5. STAND back to avoid splattering and gradually stir in the warm cream and the vanilla. Return to the heat. Cook, stirring constantly over low heat, about 1 minute or until smooth.

6. REMOVE from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Pour into a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until cool.

Note that salt is added to this buttercream to maintain the sweet-and-salty profile of the cake.

Ingredients

Raise a toast to September 20th, National Rum Punch Day. Punch is a general term for a broad assortment of mixed drinks, made with or without alcohol. The drink originated on the Indian Subcontinent, and was called paantsch.

The word “punch” derives from that Hindi word, also spelled panch, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit panchan, meaning five. In India, panch was made from five different ingredients: sugar, lemon, water, tea or spices, and an alcoholic spirit; hence the name.

Punch was “discovered” in India by the British sailors of the East India Company. The concept was brought to England in the early 17th century.

From there it spread to other countries. While Western punch recipes generally contain fruit or fruit juice, fruit isn’t essential.

Nor is an elegant punch bowl required: A pitcher is fine, and in many cases, it’s more practical.

We’ve got a number of rum punch recipes for you, starting with two from Hawaii’s Koloa Rum.

Rum is a New World product. It wasn’t until 1655 when Jamaican rum was introduced to make punch, that the rum punch was born.

The first two recipes have a Hawaiian twist. They’re made with Koloa Rum, which is distilled on the island of Kauai from pure cane sugar and Hawaiian mountain rainwater.

You can find more drink recipes the on Koloa Rum website.
 
 
RECIPE #1: WATERMELON RUM PUNCH
 
Ingredients For 2 Drinks

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the watermelon, lime juice from 1 lime, and the sugar in a blender, and blend until liquid.

2. MUDDLE the mint and juice from 1/2 lime in a cocktail shaker. Add the rum, watermelon mixture, and ice.

3. SHAKE well and strain into rocks glasses over fresh ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with a lime wheel, fresh mint, and a watermelon wedge.
 
 
RECIPE #2: SPICED PINEAPPLE RUM PUNCH

You’ll fill up a 64-ounce pitcher with this recipe, which makes 60 ounces of punch.
 
 
Ingredients For A Party Pitcher

 
Preparation

In advance, chill all the ingredients (except the bitters), as well as the pitcher (64 ounces or more).

1. MAKE the rim sugar. Combine ground cinnamon with sugar in a ratio of 1:4. Dip the rims of tall glasses into a saucer of water, then twist them in a saucer of cinnamon sugar.

2. COMBINE all of the drink ingredients in the pitcher and stir thoroughly to combine.

3. ADD ice to the glasses and fill them with the punch.
 
 
MORE PUNCH RECIPES

 
 
________________

*Look for a pineapple with nice leaves for garnishing. You can substitute basil, rosemary, or thyme leaves.

[1] Recipe #1: Watermelon rum punch (all photos © Koloa Rum).

[2] Recipe #2: Spiced rum and white rum combine with pineapple and orange juices.

[3] Koloa White Rum.

[4] Koloa Spiced Rum.

[5] Koloa also sells a bottled Rum Punch.

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

[1] Use extra virgin olive oil for much more than salad dressing (photos #1 © Flavor Your Life).

[2] Brush the grill, and your food, with EVOO (photo © California Olive Ranch).

[3] Bake super-moist cakes with EVOO. Here’s the recipe (photo © Lucero Olive Oil [now closed]).

[4] EVOO adds extra creaminess to already-creamy ice cream. Here’s the recipe (photo © Local Food Rocks).

[6] Dip bread in olive oil. It’s delicious as well as good for you. Butter is delicious, but not good for you (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

[7] Poach fish in olive oil. Here’s the recipe for this poached salmon (photo © Pom Wonderful).

[8] Make a pesto for pasta, or just use the olive oil as your sauce. Here’s the recipe for this casarecce pasta with broccoli rabe and pesto (photo © Love & Olive Oil).

Thanks to California Olive Ranch, producer of extra virgin olive oils, for our Tip Of The Day: baking, cooking and grilling with EVOO. Extra virgin olive oil is one of the best oils to cook with. Use it for baking, frying, poaching, sautéing and finishing. Extra virgin olive oil holds up well under high temperatures, and brings a uniquely nuanced flavor profile to your dish. Plus, its health benefits, including heart healthiness, are terrific.

Plan ahead for these olive oil and olive holidays:

 
> The history of olive oil.

> The different types of olive oil: a photo glossary.
 
 
GRILLING WITH EVOO

It’s a common misconception that olive oil’s smoke point is too low for grilling. That may be true of much grocery store olive oil, but high quality EVOO has a smoke point of more than 425°F.

A grill’s temperature is 400-450°F for high heat, 350-400°F for medium-high, 300-350°F for medium, and 250-300°F for low heat.

Extra virgin olive oil is some of the freshest and highest-quality oil available among cooking oil. All those antioxidants help it hold its form at higher temperatures.

Lower quality olive oils such as virgin olive oil or simply “olive oil”, on the other hand, have a high free fatty acid content and will smoke at a lower temperature (the different types of olive oil).

Brush the grill. A light brushing of EVOO on the grill will do wonders in keeping your foods from sticking. Just don’t get heavy handed: You don’t want oil dripping into the flames.

Mist your meats and seafood. Use an EVOO spray several times as they are grilling. This creates a glaze and adds yet another layer of flavor.

Instead of a spray, dip herbs in EVOO. Tie together a bunch of fresh rosemary or thyme, and use it as a brush to baste your foods with olive oil as they grill. It will infuse your food with flavor as it grill. Alternatively, you can tie fresh herbs onto your basting brush and infuse their flavor that way.
 
 
COOKING WITH EVOO

A staple in your kitchen, EVOO is versatile and useful for many purposes beyond grilling. Some key uses:

 
 
BAKING WITH EVOO

Baking with extra virgin olive oil is a sure way to add complexity of flavor and more moisture to baked goods.

Here are the benefits of baking with olive oil instead of butter.

For starters, it’s a great way to reduce the amount of saturated fat in of your favorite treats.

Baking with extra virgin olive oil is easy with this conversion chart.

You can even make olive oil ice cream! Here’s a recipe.
 
 
FRYING WITH EVOO

A long-standing myth is that olive oil’s smoke point can’t stand up to the high heat required for frying.

High-quality extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point upwards of 425°F, well above the ideal frying temperature of around 350°F.

A general rule of thumb: the higher the quality and the fresher an oil is, the higher the smoke point will be.

Lower quality olive oils such as virgin or crude, on the other hand, have a high free fatty acid content and will smoke at a lower temperature

 
 
MORE ABOUT OLIVE OIL

 
OLIVE OIL RECIPES

 
 
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*The grades of olive oil based on levels of acidity: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Virgin Olive Oil, Lampante Virgin Olive Oil, Refined Olive Oil, Refined Pomace Olive Oil, Olive Oil and Pomace Olive Oil. Each type has a different smoke oil. Unless labeled Extra Virgin, a grocery store olive oil brand is typically Refined Olive Oil or Olive Oil.

Some grocery store brands labeled Olive Oil, Cooking Olive Oil or Pure Olive Oil. Pure olive oil is not at all pure: It’s a portion of Extra Virgin or Virgin Olive Oil blended with Refined Olive Oil. The blending method is often used when the extraction quality of the Refined Olive Oil is not as good as expected. In order to improve the quality, the refined oil has to be mixed with a better quality one for better flavor [source].

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