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


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TIP OF THE DAY: A Savory Chocolate Garnish

March 11, 2011 at 7:58 am · Filed under Chocolate, Sauces-Rubs-Marinades, Tip Of The Day

Our friends at Chocolates El Rey tweeted an idea that may sound odd, but actually is a tasty touch:

Grate bittersweet chocolate over red sauces: barbecue and pasta dishes, for example (hold the grated cheese). Beyond grating, chocolate provides richness in savory recipes: chocolate with meat and chocolate with chicken, for example.

Savory chocolate dishes go back a long way. Mole (pronounced MOE-leh) poblano, perhaps the most famous dish in Mexico, was created in the 16th century in Puebla, by nuns in the Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla de los Angeles. The sauce has some 20 ingredients, including chocolate.

You can include chocolate in every meal. We’ve attended a few such dinners, and have salivated upon reading reports of others. Ideas include:

  • Appetizer: Cocoa-coated goat cheese rounds, caviar with grated white chocolate
  • Salad: Your favorite salad with cacao nibs (beets, goat cheese and carrots go well in this)
    		•   
    Beef in mole sauce in a taco shell. You can
    grate dark chocolate over it prior to serving.
    Photo courtesy of McCormick & Company.
    Get the recipe.
  • Main Course: Chicken in mole sauce (or chicken skewers with mole dipping sauce), hanger steak with a chocolate-infused gravy, chocolate-and-chile-marinated flank steak, any meat with a cocoa rub, cocoa-enhanced ravioli dough filled with butternut squash.
  • Cheese course: Cocoa-rolled goat cheese log (try the Capri chocolate goat log from Westfield Farms)
  • Dessert: Lots of options here!

    •  
    Find a wealth of cooking-with-chocolate recipes at AllChocolate.com.

    Try these recipes for:

  • Chocolate Barbecue Sauce
  • Braised Beef Tacos With Mole Sauce
  • Cocoa Chile Pork Ribs

    •  
    And check out the book, The Essence Of Chocolate: Cooking And Baking With Fine Chocolate, by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg, founders of Scharffenberger Chocolate. Read our review of the book.
      

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    ST. PATRICK’S DAY: Rock A Green Cocktail

    March 10, 2011 at 7:08 am · Filed under Cocktails & Spirits, Recipes, St. Patrick's Day


    Melon liqueur creates a cocktail as green
    as the Emerald Isle. Photo courtesy
    Hornitos tequila.

    		   Why drink inferior green beer on St. Patrick’s Day when you can have an emerald green cocktail instead? There’s no reason you have to limit St. Patrick’s Day libations to traditional celebratory drinks. Just stick to the green theme.

    The Shamrocker cocktail, created by Hornitos tequila, is fun, fruity and as green as the Emerald Isle.

     
    COCKTAIL RECIPE: THE SHAMROCKER

    Ingredients Per Drink

  • 1 part silver tequila
  • 1 part melon liqueur
  • 1/2 part triple sec or other orange liqueur
  • Splash of orange juice
  • Ice
    		•

    Preparation

    1. COMBINE the ingredients in cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass.

    2. GARNISH with an orange slice—or go edgy with shamrock-shaped microgreens.

    Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.

      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Non-Stick Bundt Cake

    March 10, 2011 at 7:05 am · Filed under Cookies-Cake-Pastry, Tip Of The Day

    Originally made in fluted molds, bundt cakes have, joyously, evolved beyond the simple “turban” design. There are dozens of fanciful shapes: a flower, a Christmas tree, a football stadium, a beehive and even a sand castle.

    Given the ornate designs, the last thing you want is for cake to stick to the pan.

    Instead of an oil spray to prevent sticking, try this technique, which uses bread crumbs to create a barrier between the cake and the pan:

  • Brush the pan with butter, then dust with fine dried bread crumbs instead of flour.
  • If your bread crumbs aren’t fine enough, pulse them in the food processor.
  • Briskly tap the pan several times with the palms of your hands to distribute the bread crumbs evenly; then turn the pan upside down over the sink to remove excess crumbs.
  • If you want to use flour, Wondra brand works the best to help define the details of the mold.
     
    More bundt cake baking tips.

    A year of holiday bundt cakes.

    Where it all began: Bundt cake history.

    		•   
    Create a buzz with this beehive Bundt.
    Photo courtesy Nordicware.
     

      

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