THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods
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December 16, 2007 at 10:54 am
· Filed under Recipes, Tip Of The Day, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs
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Make your Christmas salad decidedly red and green. |
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Make a beautiful red-and-green Christmas salad by adding “red” greens to your “green” greens. If you can’t find the more exotic red lettuces (red leaf lettuce, red oak lettuce, red romaine, red mustard greens), most stores carry radicchio, the naturally red-veined chard and baby kale. For more color, add very thin rings of red and green bell peppers and slice crunchy, white water chestnuts into thin disks as “tree ornaments.” Use an elegant vinaigrette: fine olive oil with a sherry or Champagne vinegar in a 3 tablespoons:2 tablespoons proportion. Add a pinch of dry mustard, plus salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste. Click here for a red-and-green salad recipe with an Asian twist, seaweed, cherry tomatoes and sesame (shown in the photo at left). Visit the table of contents of the December issue of THE NIBBLE online magazine for more holiday recipes. |
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December 16, 2007 at 10:16 am
· Filed under Chocolate, Food Holidays & More
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– The Los Angeles Times tastes 23 dark chocolate bars. While we agree with quite a few of their choices, their last-place bar, Theo’s 75% Ivory Coast, to which the Times ascribed “flat, chalky texture; there’s little chocolate flavor and no finish,” was ranked “phenomenal” by THE NIBBLE tasters earlier this year. We also liked the 70% Santander bar that the Times tasters placed second-to-last. In wine circles, bottle variation is frequent—even bottles of wine pulled from the same case can taste very different. So are we seeing “bar variation?” You can read our detailed reviews of Theo Chocolate and Santander Chocolate, and many of the other bars reviewed by the L.A. Times in the Chocolate Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
– If you are seduced enough by a pretty picture to make the recipe, then TasteSpotting.com is for you. Pore over the luscious photos; then click through to the blog on which they appear, and find the recipe. Some non-recipe photos appear, like carved pumpkins and racks of aging cheeses. |
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Theo’s Ivory Coast bar, spurned by the L.A. Times, adored by THE NIBBLE. |
– Food blog Chez Pim urges you to participate in the 4th Annual Menu For Hope. This annual fundraising event is coordinated by food bloggers from all over the world. From now until December 21, check out the raffle offerings and bid on the prizes. Contributions go to the U.N. World Food Programme. Last year, Menu For Hope raised $60,925.12. If charity isn’t enough of a motivator, consider these incredible prizes: touring the El Bulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià, a historic British meal prepared by The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal and a lunch date with food science writer Harold McGee.
– The battle royale of cookbooks: Are the mammoth Gourmet and Bon Appetit recipe compendia fighting it out like the Crips and the Bloods? |
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December 15, 2007 at 5:17 pm
· Filed under Desserts, Recipes, Special Sweets, Tip Of The Day
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A chocolate cupcake from Divvies, a line that is allergen-free.
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Today is National Cupcake Day, so enjoy a cupcake—in fact, make some with a chocolate “surprise.”
Make your favorite cupcake batter.
Fill the cupcake liner halfway with batter, then insert a piece of chocolate from your favorite gourmet chocolate bar (the size should be equivalent to a miniature-sized chocolate bar, about 1″ x 3/4″).
Then top off the cup 2/3 to 3/4 of the way with batter and bake as instructed. The chocolate bar will melt during the baking process.
After you ice the cupcakes, you can add another piece of chocolate to decorate the top.
We like to make a chocolate cupcake recipe and using a spicy “Aztec” chocolate bar, like Jacques Torres’ Wicked Way Bar.
Or, enjoy this recipe for vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
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