Sandwiches have always offered a familiar platform for creative signaturization, says Flavor & The Menu, a restaurant trend magazine for chefs.

Good chefs play with each layer to create tempting flavor combinations. What meat, cheese, and/or vegetables; what type of bread; what condiments; what raw vegetables (lettuce vs. arugula, tomatoes vs. roasted red peppers, for example).

And what pickled element. Pickled vegetables have long been part of sandwiches around the world. Vietnamese banh mi, for example, is typically pork on a long with pickled radishes, carrots, onions and cilantro or other fresh herbs.

In the U.S., “pickle” has long meant pickled cucumber. It’s time to expand the vision.
 
 
BEYOND CUCUMBER PICKLES

Pickles beyond cucumbers are now finding their way into, onto, and to the side of sandwiches.

Many vegetables and fruits can be pickled. They provide bright acidity, a pleasing crunch and a pop of color.

“Fried chicken sandwiches practically beg for pickled onion.” says F&TM. “Fried fish sandwiches call out for pickled peppers, like jalapeño or serrano. Porchetta sandwiches need a pickled element to cut through the richness of the meat. Pickled red onion, radish or even peach work really well here.”

Beyond sandwiches and burgers, use the pickles in salads, as cheese condiments or on the dinner plate as a garnish.
 
 
2-HOUR PICKLED VEGETABLES

You can pickle vegetables in as little as 2 hours; or keep them in the brine for up to two weeks. Since these pickle aren’t sterilized in a water bath, they can begin to break down if kept much longer (not that you’ll have any difficulty devouring them in a day or two).

1. What to pickle. Try anything and everything from baby carrots and cucumbers to summer squash, spring onions and jalapeños (great on burgers and hot dogs). You can also pickle your favorite fruits.

You can pickle just about any vegetable. Asparagus, baby corn, beets, carrots, green beans (“dilly beans”), okra, pearl onions and sliced onions, snap peas and string beans are popular. But equally delicious are:

 
Not on this list? Try a small batch of it, with the proviso that firmer fruits and vegetables (e.g. celery, melon, pineapple) do better than soft ones (e.g. berries, lettuce).
 
2. What brine to use. You don’t have to use distilled white vinegar or cider vinegar. While they’re the cheapest, you’ll get more flavor from wine vinegars, white balsamic vinegar, rice wine vinegar and flavored vinegars. Use a brine of all vinegar or half vinegar and half salted water.

3. Flavor the brine. Use your favorite spices in the brine. Dried pickling spices include some or all of the following: allspice, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, ground ginger, mustard seeds and peppercorns.

Here’s the recipe to mix your own, from Taste Of Home.

You can also add flavor with garlic cloves and less expected flavors such as:

[1] A bánh mì sandwich: roast pork and pickled radishes, onions and bursting with cilantro (photo courtesy Good Eggs).

[2] An Americanized bánh mì: cold cuts and pickled vegetables (photo courtesy Flavor & The Menu).

[3] Pickled radishes (photo courtesy Simply Delicious Food.

[4] Pickled apples (photo courtesy Best Apples).

[5] Homemade pickling spices. Here’s the recipe from Taste Of Home.

You can add sugar and or salt to the brine as well, but common wisdom is to first make a batch without them first. You may get all the flavor you want without adding them.
 
4. Combine the ingredients. Cut fresh vegetables and/or fruit to the size you want and place them in a jar, making sure that the brine covers the tops. Marinate in the fridge for two hours.
 
5. Create your sandwich, burger, salad, whatever. We predict you’re going to love these, and make them as a staple in your condiment repertoire.

[2] Why buy microgreens like these when you can grow peppery arugula and others in your Water Garden? (photo courtesy Good Eggs)

Add this eye-catching fishbowl-and-herb-garden to your kitchen for fun and food.

Called The Water Garden, this novel device from Back To The Roots has an insert on top of the fishbowl, which grows herbs and microgreens.

You’ll be able to start harvesting the organic microgreen seeds included in the kit in just 10 days.

Then, just get out the kitchen shears and snip for garnishes, salads or wheatgrass smoothies.

The self-cleaning fish tank is a scaled-down aquaponics system where the fish waste fertilizes the plants.

Symbiotically, the plants clean the water, so the tank water needs to be changed less often.

Everything is included, from the seeds to a coupon for the fish.

When it’s time to grow a new crop, Back To The Roots sells microgreens refill packs of arugula, mustard and a salad microgreens combo. You can buy other seeds from many seed websites.

Consider the Water Garden as a gift or a family activity. In addition to growing your own food, it’s an educational introduction to aquaponics and ecosystems.

Get yours here.
 
MORE FROM BACK TO THE ROOTS

Back To The Roots is a leader in growing-food-while-learning kits. Its first product took coffee grinds that would have become trash, and turned them into kitchen mushroom-growing kits, which we have used and gifted for years.

The kits have expanded, to include organic chiles and shishito peppers to cherry tomatoes and herb gardens.

Take a look at the selection.

October 21st is National Mezcal Day.

If you’ve heard of mezcal, you know it’s related to tequila. You may even have had some. But how does it differ from tequila? What’s the mezcal-tequila difference?

Why should you buy a bottle of mezcal instead of tequila (or order a glass at your favorite watering hole)?
 
 
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TEQUILA & MEZCAL

Like the different whiskeys—American, Canadian, Irish, Japanese, and Scotch whiskeys— there are differences between mezcal and tequila, differentiated by the production process and sometimes by ingredients.

In the case of tequila, both are highly restricted by law. This stems from a historic superiority, and the government’s desire to ensure the quality of Mexico’s most popular spirit and export.

 
 
MEZCAL HISTORY

Distillation was invented by Greek alchemists in Alexandria, Egypt, in the second century C.E. The Arabs learned it from the Egyptians. The Spanish learned the art following the invasion of Spain by the Moors, around 800 C.E.†

Cortez and his troops landed in what is now Mexico in 1519. After their brandy supply ran out, they looked for a substitute.

They found that the Aztecs drank a beverage made from the juice of the agave piña, a drink called pulque (PULL-kay).

It is still made today. Pulque is fermented like beer, but since it is not made from grain, it has “an acquired taste” to those brought up on barley beer.

The Spanish didn’t wish to acquire the taste, so they taught the Aztecs the art of distilling the agave juice. Mezcal was born—the first spirit indigenous to the New World.

The village of Tequila, established in 1656, focused on the mezcal trade, with mezcals of the time being called “tequila” after the town. The mezcal of that era was the equivalent of a bar drink, not the refined spirit it became.

In fact, as agricultural and distillation processes evolved, it was determined that the blue agave plant, which grew well in the area of Tequila, produced the finest spirit.

Over time, the vicinity (and later, the Mexican government) established rules protecting the name “tequila”—and commanding a premium price.
 
Tequila and mezcal became legally separate products. Mezcal became the more affordable option; and while good mezcals were made, many inferior ones were made as well, like the novelty brands with the gusano worm in the bottle (photo #5).

In recent times, with the growth of popularity of tequila—and of the finer aged tequilas—mezcal producers have upped their game. You can now find premium mezcals in the U.S. Some villages have devoted themselves to producing the best mezcals.
 
 
________________
 
 
*Agave (photo #3) is not a cactus; it is a succulent, and was once classified in the same botanical family as lily and aloe. Today it is classified in its own family, Agavaceae, which consists of more than 400 species.

[2] A shot of mezcal (photo courtesy Sotavento Supply Co.).

[3] A field of blue agave (photo courtesy Casa Noble Tequila)

[4] This is an oven in which the pinas are steamed; the roof door was opened to let the steam out. A worker checks the batch after steaming. Look closely and you’ll see that the fruit of the agave plant is called a piña because it looks like an enormous pineapple, which is piña in Spanish. But there is no other relationship to the pineapple.

[5] Gusano, the worm found in novelty bottles of mezcal (photo by Bex Walton licensed under CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia Commons).

‡Fractional distillation, a special type of distillation, was developed by Taddeo Alderotti, a Florentine physician who taught medicine in Bologna, Italy beginning in 1260. Fractional distillation is the separation of a mixture into its component parts, or fractions, such as in separating chemical compounds by their boiling point by heating them to a temperature at which several fractions of the compound will evaporate. This method is used today. (One of the first writers of medical literature, Alderotti is also credited with introducing the practice of teaching medicine at the patient’s bedside.)
 
 

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For a weekend beer or game-watching, here’s an alternative to Buffalo Wings: Buffalo Wing Donuts!

This food fun was created by Foodbeast and Dean’s Ranch Dip (photo #3).

The recipe is even easier than chicken wings, because you don’t have to cook the wings. Instead, buy roasted chicken strips (we used Perdue Short Cuts). The donuts come from simply pan-frying buttermilk biscuits from a can.

The donuts use cilantro instead of celery, but you can serve celery sticks as well as carrot sticks on the side (photo #1). Or, since the cilantro is a garnish, you can mix a tiny dice of celery with the cilantro.

> Check out the history of donuts and the spelling of donut vs. doughnut.
 
 
RECIPE: BUFFALO WING DONUTS

Ingredients For 8 Donuts

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Chop the chicken into finely minced pieces that will be able to pass through the small end of a piping bag. In a small bowl, add the chopped chicken, 4 tablespoons of ranch dip and the buffalo wing sauce. Place the mixture in a piping bag.

Alternatively, you can cut the corner off of a gallon-sized plastic food storage bag, but you still need a piping tip to fill the donut. Set aside.

2. PLACE the oil in pot or deep pan and heat to 350°F. Open the can of biscuits and separate them. Flatten each slightly so that they measure approximately 4 inches in diameter.

3. PLACE the biscuits into the hot oil and fry until they’re a light brown color, flipping occasionally for even coloring. Rest the biscuits on a sheet pan.

4. POKE a hole into the side of each biscuit with a small knife or chopstick. Hollow out a space for the chicken mixture. Place the piping bag tip into hole. Evenly and slowly, fill the biscuit with the chicken mixture (photo #2). Place filled donuts on sheet pan.

5. PLACE the sheet pan into oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow the donuts to cool. Spread the remaining ranch dip onto the donut like icing, and garnish with chopped cilantro.

[2] The buffalo chicken filling.

[3] Dean’s Ranch Dip. Here’s a store locator.

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[1] Champagne pairs well with any fish or seafood, including sushi and sashimi (photo courtesy Latte Luxury News).

[2] Enjoy your favorite cheeses with Champagne (photo courtesy Champagne Bureau).

[3] Drink Champagne with poultry or pork (photo courtesy Champagne Bureau).

Why wait for New Year’s Eve to crack open the bubbly? October 19th is World Champagne Day.

Held the third Friday in October, there’s time to pick up a bottle for a pre-dinner cocktail and/or sparkling wine with dinner.

Raise a glass to the quintessential wine of celebrations, good cheer and toasting everywhere.

While there are great sparkling wines from around the world, Champagne is distinctive with its chalky, toasty, yeasty/biscuity flavors. These flavors come from layers of chalk under the region’s soil, set down by the glaciers, that have created a unique terroir*.

Younger Champagnes can be floral, fruity and spicy. As they age they take on honey, nutty, toffee and other flavor nuances. After 20 years or so, mature Champagnes develop nuances of mushroom flavor.

Check out this image of the flavors and aromas as the wine ages.

See the footnote† below for the seven grapes that can be used to make Champagne.
 
 
TOP CHAMPAGNE COCKTAILS

Make cocktails with nonvintage Champagnes, and choose bubbly on the lower end (although with authentic Champagne, this means close to $30).

That’s because in a cocktail, the subtle, complex nuances of the best Champagnes can be masked up by the mixers.

Here are some popular Champagne cocktails. When you don’t have champagne, any sparkling wine works.

 
Another of our favorites is the simple but elegant St. Germain Cocktail: an inch or so of St. Germain elderflower liqueur topped off with Champagne.
 
 
CHAMPAGNE FUN

 
 
FAVORITE FOOD PAIRINGS

Here are our favorite pairings with Champagne. Drink the Champagne straight to enjoy the crisp acidity and flavors that come from the Chardonnay and/or Pinot Noir grapes†.

 
Beyond European Cuisine

Champagne pairs well with foods of the Pacific Rim.

 
We’ll leave you now to go pop a cork or two.
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*ABOUT TERROIR: The same rootstock that is grown in different locations produces different flavors; for example, depending on where it is grown, Sauvignon Blanc can have grass or grapefruit notes—or neither. Terroir, pronounced tur-WAH, is a French agricultural term referring to the unique set of environmental factors in a specific habitat that affect a crop’s qualities. It includes climate, elevation, proximity to a body of water, slant of the land, soil type and amount of sun. These environmental characteristics gives the wine its character. Terroir is the basis of the French A.O.C. (appellation d’origine contrôlée) system.

†THE 7 CHAMPAGNE GRAPES PERMITTED BY LAW: The two main grapes of Champagne are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Blanc de Blanc Champagnes are 100% Chardonnay and are lighter with more acidic raciness. Blanc de Noir Champagnes are all Pinot Noir, which has elegance, perfume and body. Most Champagnes are blends of the two.

The wines can also contain five other grapes to bring out other characteristics: Fromenteau (fruitiness), Petite Arbanne (rusticity), Petite Meslier (green flavors and high acidity), Pinot Blanc (floral and honey aroma, rich body) and Pinot Meunier (richness and fruit). These blending grapes are used in smaller percentages to balance out the features of the year’s harvest (e.g., over-ripeness, under-ripeness, light body) of the two main grapes. One or more, or none, may be used by the winemaker in any particular harvest. Here’s more about them.