[1] Eclairs decorated by pastry great Johnny Iuzzini for Le Meridien hotels. [2] Decorated eclairs by Master Pastry Chef Michel Richard at Pomme Palais in New York Palace Hotel. [3] The Dsmile decorating pen makes it easy to decorate with designs or writing.

Yet, the elongated pastry with the shiny chocolate or caramel top can be even more exciting. Just look at the photos, to see what great pastry chefs do with them.

While it takes some skill to make attractive éclairs, its pretty easy to decorate ones you purchase. You’ll find the classic chocolate and caramel toppings, but may also find a rainbow of colors and flavors: coffee, currant (pink), dulce de leche, lemon, mango, matcha, pistachio, raspberry

You can make a DIY party of it. You can make it a Mother’s Day (or other celebration) event.

The history of the éclair is below.

DECORATIONS

 
FIXATIVES

Since the glaze (shiny icing) on top of the éclair will be set, you need a bit of something to adhere the decorations, plus utensils or squeeze bottles to dab them on.

 
You can give everyone the gift of a cake decorating pen (under $10), which makes it easy to write and decorate with icing. The icing also serves to affix other decorations.
 
ÉCLAIR HISTORY

An elongated, finger-shaped pastry made of pâte à choux (puff pastry), filled with whipped cream or custard and topped with a glacé icing (glaze), the éclair originated in France around the turn of the 19th century.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word “éclair” in the English language to the second half of the 19th century: 1861. In the U.S., the first printed recipe for éclairs appears even later, in the 1884 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, edited by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln (later editions were under the auspices of Fanny Farmer).

Many food historians speculate that éclairs were first made by Marie-Antoine Carême (1874-1833).

This brilliant man, cast out to make his own way at the age of 10 by his impoverished family, became the first “celebrity chef,” working for luminaries: Charles, Prince Talleyrand, the French ambassador to Britain; the future George IV of England; Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Baron James de Rothschild.

The elite clamored for invitations to dinners cooked by Carême.

He is considered to be the founder and architect of French haute cuisine; an innovator of cuisine, both visually (he studied architectural to create amazing presentations) and functionally (modern mayonnaise, for example). He also was an enormously popular cookbook author—an big achievement for a boy who had no education, yet taught himself to read and write.

We can only dream…and live vicariously by reading his biography.

We saw this photo on Tajín’s Facebook page, but couldn’t find a recipe.

Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to slice bell peppers and drop an egg inside each slice—along with some mildly spicy Tajín seasoning (it’s a cayenne, lime and salt blend).

We thought: What else can we make with a bell pepper rim?

Cooked Foods

 
Uncooked Foods

If the food isn’t cohesive enough to be mounded, make the slices taller; or trim a bit of the bottom of a half or whole pepper so it will stand.

 

ABOUT TAJÍN SEASONING

In Mexico, this spice blend of cayenne, lime and salt (photo #3) is used on just about anything, savory and sweet:

 
 
GOOD MELTING CHEESES

Good melting cheeses include, among others:

[2] Enjoy as is, or in the center of a yummy bowl of greens (photo © Hope Foods).

[3] Tajín seasoning: cayenne, lime and salt (photo © Tajín).

[1] Something different: a chili powder rim instead of salt. Or, mix the two. At Richard Sandoval restaurants.

[2] A cayenne rim (Tajin seasoning) on a guava Margarita at Dos Caminos restaurants.

[3] Smoked salt rims a classic Margarita from Noble Tequila.

 
 
DIFFERENT MARGARITA RIMS: BEYOND THE COARSE SALT

First, there’s no need to buy “Margarita salt”: It’s just kosher salt with a higher price. You can also use coarse sea salt.

But how about something other than coarse salt? The 70% of survey participants who want a salt rim might like a change of pace.

Here are some options that complement a Margarita.

You can use another rimmer that still maintains the spirit of the Margarita (and maybe attracts people who don’t want the extra salt).

Flavored salt. There’s flavored salt, of course, in scores of variations from bacon, chipotle, smoked salts (alderwood, chardonnay oak, hickory or mesquite-smoked).

Colored salt. You can get dramatic, with black lava or Cypress black salt, or red Hawaiian alaea salt. You can get pretty, with pink Himalayan salt.

Heat. You can add heat with ghost pepper, habanero, jalapeño, and sriracha-flavored salts.

Or just use “hot” spices from your kitchen for the rim: cayenne, Tajin seasoning (cayenne-based), chili powder or crushed chile flakes—straight or mixed with kosher salt.

If you think hot rims might be too intense, make the currently trending half-rim (photo #2).

Fruitiness. You can add fruitiness with lemon, lime and mango-flavored salts.

Herbaceousness. You can buy blends of salts and herbs, or mix your own. Or use straight minced cilantro, or other fresh herbs.

For starters, take a look at Seasalt.com.
 
 
MORE ABOUT MARGARITAS

Go luxe this Cinco de Mayo with lobster-topped guacamole (recipe below).

RA Sushi, a small restaurant group in the southern U.S., has imagination and class.

With locations in Atlanta, Arizona (5 locations), Baltimore, Chicago, Florida (3), Leawood, Kansas, Las Vegas, Southern California (5) and Texas (6), sushi lovers can experience creations that the sushi bars we frequent can only aspire to.

While neither sushi nor sashmi, we picked this tasty dish as the one we’d most like to have for Cinco de Mayo:

A lettuce cup of guacamole, topped with a king’s ransom of lobster.

We’d also like to have it for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and, oh…any day.

You don’t even need to cook anything: Just assemble the ingredients.

We’re making ours with a garnish of salmon caviar (ikura in Japanese—photo #2). Tobiko or any whitefish caviar (they’re available in several flavors) will do just fine.

We’re also making a chunky guacamole, a better texture contrast with the lobster.

If you’re a really affluent foodie, sturgeon caviar is not discouraged.

You may notice the plate garnish in the photo includes herbs, spices and a drizzle of flavored olive oil. Plate garnishes add not only color and texture, but extra bits of flavor.
 
 
RECIPE: LOBSTER-TOPPED GUACAMOLE-LETTUCE CUP

[1] What better topping for guacamole than this creation, from RA Sushi?

[2] Salmon caviar, ikura in Japanese (photo courtesy Petrossian).

With flavorful guacamole, you don’t need much more than lime juice as a dressing. But for those who want more:

 
A simple drizzle of basil olive oil with fresh lime juice is also delicious.
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*Affordable caviar types include capelin (masago in Japanese), flying fish (tobiko in Japanese), lumpfish, salmon, trout or whitefish roe. The latter two are often available flavored, with everything from mango to truffle to wasabi. They are delicious!

[1] Bagel topping ideas from Arla, which makes delicious flavored cream cheeses including Herbs & Spices, Natural, Natural Light and Pineapple, with seasonal specialties (photos © Arla).

[2] Fruit on bagels? Sure…and you can put it on raisin bagels for a double fruit hit.

[3] A stylish color match of fruits and veggies.

[4] This bagel “Caprese” also works as holiday colors. Almonds are added for extra protein.

 
While we love all of these, we can run up quite a tab at the cash register.

So here’s a colorful—and less expensive—alternative that may even look like more of a feast:
 
 
THE NEW BAGEL TOPPINGS

 
It’s easy to pull together.

Head to the market to see what looks good. Buy a variety of bright colors, both sweet (fruit) and savory (veggies).
 
Buy a selection of different bagel flavors, and don’t forget the cream cheese: plain plus a fruit flavor (blueberry, strawberry, etc.) and a veggie flavor (herbs, jalapeño, etc.)

Philadelphia Cream Cheese has outdone itself with cream cheese spreads, currently:

Sweet Cream Cheese Flavors

 
Savory Cream Cheese Flavors

It doesn’t have to be cream cheese. Consider other spreads:

 
This little post makes us so hungry, that we’re off to create our own bagel.

Maybe jalapeño cream cheese topped with red bell pepper and pineapple.
 
 
MORE BAGEL HOLIDAYS

 
 
> The history of bagels.