Mardi Gras 2020 Falls On Tuesday, February 25, 2020.

The celebration, which means Fat Tuesday in French, is the last day of the Carnival season. It is the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent—so it’s the last day for indulgent foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday.

Here’s more about the holiday.

If you can’t participate in person, there are traditional foods you can make at home, including:

 
You can also create a celebration with other famed New Orleans foods:

 
 
THE TRADITIONAL KING CAKE

The King Cake is a Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans, made only during this time of year. Just about every bakery sells the cake.

Fans all over the country purchase the cakes by mail order, and you can purchase a kit to make your own.

King Cake is typically a Danish yeast ring (some are elaborately braided), brioche or cinnamon bread. It is covered by a poured white icing and sprinkled with purple, green and gold colored sugars—the Mardi Gras colors.

What makes a King Cake fun is the hidden charm—originally a baby, representing baby Jesus and now any charm you like.

Here’s the history of King Cake.
 
 
RECIPE: A SAVORY KING CAKE

This year, Joy The Baker has created a savory King Cake for famed New Orleans brand Zatarain’s.

Most King Cakes are sweet, cinnamon roll type pastry, sometimes with a cream cheese filling, and topped with a sweet glaze. Other King Cakes are largely puff pastry with a nut filling, not unlike the flavors of an almond croissant.

It has not been common to find a savory King Cake, but Zatarin’s reports that savory twists are the latest trend down South, including crawfish and cheese.

The recipe below features Zatarain’s Smoked Sausage, the trinity (onions, celery plus parsley and garlic), parmesan cheese and creole seasoning.

Created by Joy The Baker, it’s the smoky King Cake is “a welcome respite to the sweet.” Layers of savory southern flavors are swirled together into dinner roll dough.

Says Joy, “This cake is incredibly delicious. It’s somewhere between indulgent King Cake, hearty sandwich, and stuffed dinner roll. It’s a show-stopper (and that’s saying a lot during Mardi Gras), and a baking adventure.”

You can eat the King Cake at room temperature, but Joy recommends serving it warm.

“I think this cake is most delicious the day it is baked, but store any leftover cake in the refrigerator overnight and heat gently in foil before serving.”

Thanks to Joy and Zatarain’s for the recipe. Here are Joy’s step-by-step photos.
 
Ingredients

For The Dough

 
For The Filling

 
For The Topping

[1] You’ll be King Or Queen Of The Mardi Gras when you serve this smoked sausage King Cake (photos #1, #2 and #3 © Zatarain’s).

[2] To make the King Cake, sausage is removed from the casings and browned.

[3] A few months ago, Zatarain’s introduced Andouille and Cajun sausages that are 100% pork, no artificial colors or flavors, no by-products, no MSG, and are gluten-free. Just in time for the savory King Cake!

[4] A conventional King Cake, like a yeasted Danish ring (photos #4 and #5 © King Arthur Flour, which sells the ingredients in a kit).

[5] Sweet King Cakes can take any form the baker wishes: round, rectangular, cupcakes, cookies and beyond…like yellow-, green- and purple-colored puddings.

1. USING the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine 3-1/2 cups of flour along with the rest of the ingredients and mix with a spatula into a shaggy dough. Mix on the dough hook for 7 to 8 minutes, until a relatively smooth ball forms. Add a bit more flour if the dough is feeling overly sticky.

2. REMOVE the dough from the mixer onto a lightly floured surface,. Knead by hand for 2 minutes until soft and shaped into a ball. Lightly grease the mixing bowl and place the dough ball in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.

3. MAKE the filling while the dough rises:

4. PLACE coarsely chopped celery, onion, bell pepper, parsley, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Pulse for about 1 minute until the mixture is evenly chopped, into an almost fine mixture. Says Joy: I got my chunks to be about 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch in size. Not completely pulverized—a small dice.

5. HEAT a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and warm. Add the chopped vegetables to the skillet and allow to cook, releasing some of the water in the vegetables, for 5 minutes or so. Stir occasionally as the vegetables cook.

6. SLICE the smoked sausage into 1-inch rounds. Place the sausage in the bowl of the food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse the sausage slices until they’re evenly fine—again, about 1/2-inch bits is about right. Add the sausage to the skillet to cook along with the vegetables. Stir to combine evenly. Allow the mixture to cook for about 4 minutes more. Remove from heat and allow to cool while the dough finishes its rise. After the dough has doubled in size…

7. SCOOP it out of the mixing bowl on to a lightly floured work surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into an approximately 12 x 16-inch rectangle.

8. USE a pastry brush to spread melted butter across the dough. Spread the cooled meat and vegetable mixture across the dough into an even layer, leaving about 1/2-inch border around each side of the dough. Starting from the long end…

9. ROLL the dough, gently but firmly, into a log, seam side down. Swoop the two ends together, tucking one end of the cake into the other.

10. LINE a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. With confidence (you can do this!), lift and transfer the round cake to the center of the prepared baking sheet.

11. USE a serrated knife to slice into the dough round. Slice about 3/4 the way into the dough, around the circle about 2-inches apart. Carefully twist each attached roll onto its side, revealing the sausage swirl.

12. COVER loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest and rise while the oven preheats.

13. PLACE a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the wreath for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling. While the cake bakes…

14. DYE the cheese in three separate bowls. Divide the cheese between three bowls, and add a few drops of dye to each bowl. Use a spoon to distribute the dye around the cheese or use a pair of latex gloves to mix by hand.

15. REMOVE the cake from the oven. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before sprinkling with colored frosting and topping with a King Cake baby, if desired. (NEVER put any plastic favor or token into the oven.)

[1] Just-harvested red sorrel, ready for the evening’s menu at Union Square Cafe (photo © Union Square Cafe).

[2] Beet and Red Sorrel Salad with Pistachio. Here’s the recipe from Paul Liebrandt (photo © Anna Williams | Food & Wine).

[3] Even in a colorful dish, a leaf of red sorrel is eye-catching (photo of carrot spaghetti with scallop and kale © Augustine Fou | Unsplash).

[4] Planked salmon with sorrel sauce. Here’s the recipe from Crumbblog.

[5] A field of sorrel (photo © Mariquita Farms).

The next time you’re at a farmers market or specialty produce store, look for red sorrel.

It’s a beauty that can garnish anything from a green salad to lemon sorbet to sparkling water.

It’s aesthetically pleasing, expressive, festive, and may we add, a great garnish for Valentine’s Day food and beverages.

Because we’re focused on the beauty of red-veined sorrel as a garnish, we’re not going to cover green sorrel today. As a recipe ingredient (soup, chutney, whatever), it tastes like the red sorrel variety.
 
 
SORREL BACKGROUND

Sorrel is a perennial herb with juicy stems arrow-shaped leaves. The leaves can be cooked or served raw in salads and as garnishes (the raw leaves add tartness).

As with all plants, there are numerous varieties—not only within red sorrel and green sorrel, but also

Our favorite variety has red veins (photo #1), which give it the glamour to garnish.

The name sorrel derives from the Germanic word sur and the old French surele, both meaning sour.

It is an ancient herb used by Egyptians and then, Europeans to impart acidity to dishes.

Depending on the variety, it can be refreshing, sharply acidic, or astringent; it can have a spinachlike taste with bitter notes or a milder, lemony taste (the dried leaves lose their lemony taste).

The younger the leaves, the earlier in the season (early spring to late fall), the less acidic. If the leaves are too bitter for you, blanch them for 10 seconds.

Another rule of thumb: enjoy small leaves raw, large leaves cooked.

There are three major varieties of sorrel:

 
Another plant called sorrel is the unrelated Jamaican sorrel, from the Hibiscus or Mallow family, Malvaceae. It is used for beverages and preserves in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Tea made from Jamaican sorrel is a homeopathic remedy to lower elevated blood pressure, bad cholesterol and as a general detoxifier.
 
 
USES FOR SORREL

Our first sorrel recipe, perhaps at age 10, was to help our Nana prepare the famed cold Russian soup, schav: sorrel combined with sour cream, lemon juice, chicken broth and egg yolks, and garnished chopped egg, sour cream and scallions.

Schav (shtshav) is Yiddish for sorrel, and it was once a hugely popular summer soup—right up there with borscht.

In European cuisines, sorrel brings lemony intensity to whatever it graces.

 
MINI TIP: To prevent sorrel from blackening and developing a metallic taste, use only stainless steel or other non-reactive pots and cooking utensils.

MINI TIP: If you have too much fresh sorrel, saute them in butter until they wilt. Freeze in individual ice cube containers until you’re ready to defrost and add them to eggs, grains, vegetables, etc.

How about 100 sorrel recipes?

Native to Europe and western Asia, sorrel grew wild in grassland habitats. It is commonly cultivated in France, Egypt, and parts of Europe and the U.S.—the areas where it is most popular in cuisine.

The intense lemony tang is also embraced in cuisine from Nigeria to Scotland to Vietnam [source].

Sorrel, Rumex acetosa, is a member of the Polygonaceae family of flowering plants, known informally as the buckwheat family and, outside the U.S., the knotweed family or smartweed.

In addition to buckwheat, rhubarb is another well-known food in the family.

Earliest known examples of cultivation include Egypt, where its tartness was used to offset rich foods [source].

The Romans and Greeks followed suit, to aid digestion of rich foods. Homeopathically, it was used to treat liver ailments and for throat and mouth ulcers.

Even today, it is used around the world to treat scurvy and chronic skin conditions, and to lower fevers. Both the fresh leaves and the flowers are high in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins A and C†,

Red sorrel is native to Europe and was likely brought to the United States with colonists, where it now grows throughout the country [source].

You just don’t want to grow it in your garden: It’s what’s known as a spreading rhizome, an aggressive-spreading, hard-to-control perennial weed.

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*If you steep the whole leaves in boiling water and add sugar or other sweetener, you get a lemon-less lemonade.

†In addition to good nutrition, sorrel also contains oxalic acid, a naturally occurring compound found in greens like including kale and spinach. Oxalic acid is lethal in very high enough doses, but you’d have to eat almost 10 pounds of greens daily to be affected [source].

Middle Eastern eggplant toast? We’ve done classic avocado toast, we’ve done fancy avocado toast, we’ve done mushroom toast. We’ve done sweet toasts:

All delicious.

But the palate wants the adventure to continue.

Thus, today’s toast journey is inspired by the Eggplant Toast at Kismet restaurant in Los Angeles.

Here’s a variation of their spiced eggplant recipe, with different garnishes: cherries, hazelnuts and tarragon.

But the photo shows a piece of artisan toast topped with:

, and lim

 
We’re not certain how the sesame seeds were affixed to the bread crust, but you can use tahini.

We admit to using a bit of honey, which added a sweet element to the spice-seasoned stack.

OK, it takes a bit more effort than mashed avocado; but it’s worth it for a change.

July is National Eggplant Month, and August 17th is National (and World) Eggplant Day.

 
THE HISTORY OF EGGPLANT

Eggplant (Solana melongena) is a member of the Solanaceae or Nightshade family: There’s more information about this fascinating family in the footnote below.

Eggplant is believed to be native to India, where its ancestor, called thorn or bitter apple (Solana incanum) stills grow wild.

Originally a bitter, spiny, orange, pea-sized fruit, it has been cultivated in India and China for more than 1500 years, during which it was bred into its modern forms [source].

It has been cultivated in southern and eastern Asia since prehistory, and an early mention appears in an ancient Chinese agricultural treatise from 544 [source].

As trade routes developed, eggplant was introduced to Europe by Arab ships and transported to Africa by the Persians. The Spaniards carried it with them to the New World and, by the early 1800s, both white and purple varieties could be found in American gardens.

Today, the plant is grown worldwide for its edible fruit: Yes, you can tell it’s a botanical fruit because the seeds are carried inside.

Although it is considered a vegetable, it is a berry by botanical definition.

There are many different words for eggplant:

 
The name eggplant is usual in North American English and Australian English.

[1] Imagine a warm and tranquil day, imagine the Mediterranean just beyond your Eggplant Toast.

[2] Assorted eggplant varieties (photo © Bleu Ribbon Kitchen).

[3] Americans used the term “eggplant” after white cultivars that looked like hen’s eggs (photo © Burpee Home Gardens).

At some point in eggplant-loving China’s past, as part of her “bride price,” a woman had to have at least 12 eggplant recipes prior to her wedding day.

Married or single, collect as many eggplant recipes as you like.

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*Nightshades are members of the Solanaceae family of flowering plants, many of which are edible, while others are poisonous (some have both edible and toxic parts). The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum, “the nightshade plant.”

Other edible members include capsicum (the chiles), Chinese lanterns, eggplants, garden huckleberry, ground cherry, naranjilla, pepinos, peppers, potatoes, and the tree tomato. One thing that sets these nightshades apart is their alkaloid content. Alkaloids are harmful nitrogen compounds that, in high quantities, are toxic, causing nausea, diarrhea with vomiting and headaches. In extreme cases, they lead to unconsciousness and convulsions to the point of respiratory paralysis.

That’s why the tomato was considered poisonous by Europeans and not eaten for 200 years following its discovery. Alkaloids exist in tiny, non-harmful quantities in the nightshade foods we eat. Tobacco and the petunia are also members of the family, as well as the Datura or Jimson weed, the mandrake and the deadly nightshade or belladonna.
 
 

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

[1] The latest sweet treat to cross our desk: Cookie Pop Popcorn with Oreo pieces.

[2] From the bag to the canister (both photos © Snax-Sational Brands).

This may be a first for THE NIBBLE: Our Top Pick Of The Week is a junk food, a sugary snack.

Snax-Sational, a snack food company, recently sent us samples of Cookie Pop Popcorn: a blend of popcorn and Oreo cookie pieces:

The popcorn kernels have a sugary “creme” coating that tastes like Oreo stuffing.

It’s a purely sweet treat: The sample we received didn’t have a salted popcorn profile. But there’s no reason you can’t toss some salt in the bag and shake it.

Salt or not: Cookie Pop created a sensation in our office, with every coming back for additional handfuls.
 
 
IS IT REALLY JUNK FOOD?

The popcorn-Oreo blend is 150 calories per serving size of 1-1/4 cups. The total carbohydrate is 19g with 12g of total sugars.

The snack is low in sodium and made with non-GMO corn. It has 1g of protein per serving.

And yes: Popcorn is a whole-grain food with these benefits.

It almost sounds like Cookie Pop Popcorn is a good snack choice, but make no mistake:

This is junk food: glorious, sugary junk food. It’s also a fun food, waiting to garnish cupcakes, ice cream and hot chocolate.

If you need a sugary jolt, treat yourself to a bag. Just pace yourself.
 
 
THE BIRTH OF A SNACK FOOD

The concept for Cookie Pop Popcorn came about when the founder added crushed Oreos to another snack food, popcorn. He thought he had a hit on his hands.

You can purchase all of them on SnackPop.com.

There’s also a store locator on the website.
 
 

Green garlic—also called young garlic or spring garlic—may look like scallions. But they are the immature, spring version of the cured bulbs available year-round.

Harvested when young, green garlic looks like scallions (a.k.a. green onions). The bulb has not yet begun to separate into cloves (photo #1).

At this stage in its youth, the whole plant is edible. It has a sweeter, milder flavor than fully cured garlic bulbs/heads (photo #4).

If left in the ground to to grow, the bright green tops die off after the bulbs underground have rounded out into the bulb/head.

When the mature heads are dug up and hung up to dry, the papery cellulose layers around and between the cloves of the bulb form a protective layer that enables the heads to stay in storage for up to a year.
 
 
DIGGING IN TO GREEN GARLIC

When garlic is young and green, the whole plant is edible, like a scallion. It has a sweeter, milder flavor than when the garlic bulbs are fully cured.

Green garlic often looks so similar to green onions and spring onions, that the best way to identify green garlic is simply to take a sniff. It will smell of garlic rather than onion.

Another giveaway: Green garlic leaves are flat (photo #1); scallion leaves are tubular.
 
 
USES FOR GREEN GARLIC

Use green garlic raw or cooked, wherever you’d like subtle garlic flavor. Prepare it as you would a scallion, and use it in:

 
Try green garlic in a stir-fry, chopped up with eggs, or sautéed with greens. For a quick (and delicious) kitchen project, use green garlic instead of basil in your next batch of pesto.

Use it wherever you’d use regular bulb garlic or green onions, or use it in recipes specifically designed to grilled, or pickled. Add it to a frittata, a soup, or pair it with other spring treats like asparagus. Put green garlic in pasta, a rice bowl (don’t forget to pick up pea shoots),

Our personal favorite is a saute of asparagus, green garlic, morels, ramps and spring peas. Made with butter or olive oil, we can eat an entire batch of it on noodles or grains.

 
WHAT ARE GARLIC SCAPES?

Scapes are the curling shoots of young garlic plants (photo #3). They will grow into green garlic.

For decades they were cut off in the fields and thrown away, to allow the garlic bulbs to grow larger, before growers realized that chefs and foodies were eager to buy them.

The curling shoots have more intensity than green garlic, and it’s best to blanch them first. This unleashes a milder, sweeter flavor.

Just dip the scapes into salted boiling water for 30 seconds, then place them in an ice bath. You’re ready to roll.

Use garlic scapes the same ways you would green garlic.

How about some Potato, Nettle & Green Garlic Soup?
 
 
FOOD 101: SCALLIONS, GREEN ONIONS & SPRING ONIONS

While many people use the term “green onions” for scallions, we prefer scallions. Why?

There are also spring onions, different from green onions.

Spring onions look similar to scallions a.k.a. green onions. It’s easy to confuse them.

Sometimes the easy way to tell them apart is from the bulbs: If the ends are very bulbous, it’s a spring onion. But some varieties have smaller bulbs.

[1] Green garlic: not scallions, a.k.a. green onions (photos #1, #2 and #5 © Good Eggs).

[2] Some varieties of green garlic have purple at the base.

[3] The first form of garlic to emerge is garlic scapes. They will grow into green garlic, and finally garlic bulbs/heads (photo © Vicia Restaurant | St. Louis).

[4] Scapes and green garlic will eventually turn into garlic bulbs/heads (photo via Domain Image [site now closed]).

[5] Green garlic and nettle soup. Here’s the recipe from Good Eggs.

Another source of confusion: In the U.K. countries, including Canada, spring onions are called green onions!

Here’s more about them.

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*Another tip: Save the infused oil from sautés and drizzle it on fish, poultry, meat, pasta and anything else you like.