National Surf & Turf Day falls on February 29th. Why would anyone choose to celebrate this tasty holiday only once every four years?

That honor should go to, say, National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day, which happens to be today’s holiday (April 21st). Or how Kitchen Klutzes of America Day (June 13th), or Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (July 29th)?

So today, we’re featuring some novel approaches to surf and turf.

On THE NIBBLE alone, we have obvious and not-so-obvious recipes:

 
Not to mention, Surf & Turf Pizza (clams or shrimp with pepperoni) or skewers (any meat, any shellfish).

Our latest dish in the collection:
 
 
RECIPE: SQUID & SPRING PEAS

Who’d have thought of combining squid and bacon with fresh spring peas and fresh mint? Catalan chefs, with bounties of fresh squid pulled from the Mediterranean.

This recipe is from Executive Chef Jaime Chavez of Sirena Cucina Latina in San Diego (which alas, closed in February).

It’s a traditional Catalan starter from the chef’s mother, and is one of the restaurant’s best sellers.

“[Mother] taught me that the best dishes are made from simple flavors, and when we respect the products, they give us back the very best of them,” notes Chavez.

While Chef Jaime didn’t intend to create “surf and turf,” we’re always seeking new ways to extend the original concept of filet mignon and lobster tail, christened Surf & Turf (here’s the history of Surf & Turf).

This is an easy recipe; the most demanding parts are slicing the squid and cooking the bacon.

The season for fresh spring peas is short, so don’t bookmark this for “later.”

Check out the difference between spring peas and other green peas, below.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. SAUTÉ the squid and garlic in olive oil in a hot pan. Cut the squid into rings.

2. ADD the peas and season with salt and pepper. Then add the vinegar and mint.

[2] Just-shelled spring peas (photo © The Chef’s Kitchen).

[3] Raw squid (photo © Williams-Sonoma).

[ ] .

[4] Fennel (photo courtesy Burpee).

[6] Snow peas (photo © AllWomensTalk.com).

[7] Sugar snap peas (photo © Good Eggs).

Spring peas, English peas, and garden peas are three names for the same thing. All can be eaten raw or cooked.

Three types of green peas:

 
Peas (Pisum sativum) are native to the Mediterranean basin. They grew wild and were one of the earlier vegetables cultivated at the dawn of agriculture in the Neolithic Era, beginning about 12,500 years ago.

Having said that, pea pods are botanically a fruit since they are pods that contain seeds, and the pods developed from the ovary of a flower.

Peas, beans, and lentils are all legumes with seeds that grow in pods. It’s easy to distinguish them by their shape:

 
Legumes are members of the botanical family Fabaceae, which also includes alfalfa, carob, licorice, peanuts, and the sweet pea garden plant.
 
Peas are sweet but can get starchy soon after harvesting. The fresher, the better.

For the best flavor, choose small peas. They’re younger, sweeter, and more tender than large ones. Look for medium-size pods that are firm and green, with no yellowing. Break open a pod and check the peas. They should be small, bright green, and firm. Taste the peas in the pod: They should be tender and sweet.

Freshness counts. As with corn, once picked the peas’ high sugar content begins to convert to starch. Don’t pay for mature peas. You might as well use frozen peas.

Don’t pay extra for shelled peas. You don’t know how fresh they are; and since you aren’t shelling peas day in, day out, it’s a fun activity.

Storing Fresh Peas

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If you’ve never had an upside-down cake, today’s the day: April 20th is National Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

Why are cake pans round? The answer is below, with the history of cake pans.

With an upside-down cake, fruit is set on the bottom of the pan, topped with cake batter.

When the cooking is complete, the skillet is inverted onto a plate, such that the fruit is now on top, although it was baked upside-down.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE: SCION OF THE SKILLET CAKE

This cake was originally made on the stove top in a skillet, and called skillet cake (photo #4). Today, it’s the same process, but with the benefit of cake pans and ovens.

(Want to be authentic with a skillet and the stove top? No one will stop you! Those who want to go really authentic should try cooking it over a campfire or wood fireplace.)

To make a skillet cake, fruit is set on the bottom and the batter poured on top. When the skillet or pan is inverted, the fruit that was once at the bottom forms a decorative topping. Any fruit can be used.

When canned pineapple rings became available in the first half of the 20th century, Pineapple Upside Down Cake became the rage—often with maraschino cherries in the center of the pineapple rings.

As the recipe evolved, cooks put their skillets in the oven to bake. Nordicware, creator of the bundt pan, created a special round pan with indentations for the pineapple slices (photo #6), guaranteeing a perfect presentation.

To show how popular the cake became, they also make mini pans for individual Upside-Down Cakes.

Check out these upside down cake recipes:

 
Upside Down Cake is related to Tarte Tatin, an accidental upside-down pie from 1880s France.

Also check out the different types of cakes.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CAKE PANS

Why are cakes round?

Generally, the round cakes we know today are descended from ancient breads, before there were baking pans of any kind.

Yeast-risen breads and cakes were made by hand, patted into balls and baked on hearthstones, griddles, or in low, shallow all-purpose pans.

By the 17th century, cake hoops made of metal or wood were placed on flat pans to shape cakes.

According to food writer Elizabeth David, in the seventeenth century, tin or iron hoops (photo #4) were increasingly used and to shape cakes, and are frequently mentioned in the “cookery books” (think of the modern flan ring, but much deeper).

The hoop was placed on an iron or tin sheet, with a layer of floured paper on the bottom (think of today’s parchment paper). The sides of the hoop were buttered to ease removal of the baked cake.

You can find “these or similar directions offered over and over again in Eliza Smith’s The Compleat Housewife, first published in 1727 (which has recipes for 40 cakes, the large ones being yeast-leavened).

In the preface of her book, Mrs. Smith says that her recipes reflect some 30 years of experience, so it is likely that her methods date back to the previous century.

Some recipes direct the reader to bake the cake in a paper hoop (oiled so not to burn), which was used in kitchens of the 1600s [source].

Wooden hoops were also fairly common. Some cooks preferred them to tin, perhaps because they didn’t rust and thus were easier to store. Wood also didn’t overheat, so were less likely to burn the sides of the cake in those primitive ovens.

Over time, baking pans in various shapes and sizes became readily available to the general public. By the 17th century, it was common for a western kitchen to contain a number of skillets, baking pans (including cake pans with bottoms), a kettle, and several pots, along with a variety of pot hooks and trivets.

In the American colonies, these items would have been produced by a local blacksmith from iron, while brass or copper vessels were more common in Europe.

Improvements in metallurgy during the 19th and 20th centuries enabled the economical production of pots and pans from lighter metals such as steel, stainless steel and aluminum [source].

Molded cakes in fancy shapes reached their zenith in the Victorian era (commencing with the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1831).

[1] A Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Here’s the recipe (photo © King Arthur Flour).

[2] A Blood Orange Upside Down Cake. Here’s the recipe (photo © from Good Eggs).

[3] A two-layer Apple-Whiskey Upside Down Cake. Here’s the recipe from Betty Crocker).

[4] A skillet cake. Here’s the recipe for a Pineapple Upside-Down Skillet Cake (photo © King Arthur Flour).

[5] An old-fashioned baking hoop (photo © Creeds Direct).

[6] Nordicware’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake pan (here it is on Amazon—photo © Nordic Ware).

Check out the history of some 700 foods on THE NIBBLE.
  

[2] Spring peas, also called English peas and green peas (photo © R.Khalil | Pexels).

[3] Edamame, immature soybeans that are boiled or steamed (photo © Burpee).

[4] Savoy cabbage, the most elegant-looking of the cabbage varieties. It is named after the Savoy Region in France (photo © Monika Grabowska | Unsplash).

[5] Recipe #2, a tartine (open face sandwich) with spring peas and other spring ingredients from Chef Alain Ducasse (photo © All My Chefs).

[6] Fresh asparagus for the tartine, recipe #2 (photo © Baldor Specialty Food).

[7]

[8] Baby arugula for the tartine (photo Baldor Specialty Food | Facebook).

[9] If you can find a box of mixed-color cherry tomatoes, it will give your tartine that much more appeal (photo © Love Food Art | Pexels).

[10] Recipe #3: burrata salad—note that you can’t eat the shells of spring peas (photo © The Gourmet RD).

At breakfast—the meal least likely to include spring peas—you can use them to garnish eggs, avocado toast, or a bagel with cream cheese.

You can toss raw or cooked peas into plain Greek yogurt. Use them as a garnish, or mash them and stir them in as you would with preserves.

Moving on to snacks and appetizers: Here are three tasty recipes for appetizers, first courses, or snacking. For a special main course, check out this innovative approach to surf and turf: Squid With Bacon & Spring Peas.

The recipe for Spring Pea Or Edamame Potstickers follows.

The recipe for Spring Tartine is below.

The third recipe is below

> Here are more ways to use spring peas, and the history of peas.
 
 
RECIPE #1: SPRING PEA OR EDAMAME POTSTICKERS

Hannah Kaminsky adapted her easy edamame potstickers recipe (photo #1) to showcase spring peas. She mixes the legumes with hummus for extra protein, although you can skip the hummus and just fill the dumplings with peas).

Hannah notes:

“General folding advice still stands as a good guideline to follow when wrapping things up, but once you get those papery thin skins to stick, you’re pretty much golden.

If you’re less confident in your dumpling prowess, cut yourself a break and fold square dumpling wrappers in half instead. You’ll still get neat little triangles.”

If celebrate Purim, you can serve these as savory Haman’s Hats.

Ingredients For 15 Dumplings

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. SET UP the steaming apparatus: Line a bamboo steamer or metal steam rack with leaves of savoy cabbage to prevent the dumplings from sticking to the bottom (and eat it afterward). Place the steamer in a large pot with water and heat the water to boiling; then reduce to simmer. Meanwhile…

2. MIX together the shelled edamame, hummus, scallion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cumin, stirring thoroughly. Lay the dumpling wrappers on your work surface and place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each. Run a lightly moistened finger around the entire perimeter and bring the sides together, forming a triangle. Tightly crimp the corners together with a firm pinch.

3. PLACE the dumplings on the cabbage leaves and cover the steamer or pot. Steam for 2 to 4 minutes, until the wrappers are translucent. Serve immediately, with additional soy sauce for dipping if desired.

________________

*You can typically find these either in the produce section near the tofu, or in the freezer aisle with other Asian ingredients.
________________

 
 
RECIPE #2: SPRING TARTINE

This recipe, courtesy of All My Chefs, is from the great Alain Ducasse.

It requires no particular cooking technique…or even cooking, except for blanching the asparagus and green beans. Otherwise, you just slice and assemble.

Serve them as a snack, a first course, or with a glass of wine.

Here’s more about tartines, French for open-face sandwiches.

This recipe was originally published in “Nature By Alain Ducasse” (Éditions Alain Ducasse).

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. BRING a saucepan of salted water to a boil, and prepare a bowl with water and ice cubes.

2. CUT the tips of the asparagus into approximately 2-inch (5-6 cm) pieces. Rinse and immerse in the boiling water with the peas.

3. DRAIN and immediately plunge them into the ice water to keep their color. Leave for 2 minutes, then drain with a slotted spoon and lay on a dry tea towel. (TIP: We put the vegetables into a strainer. It’s easy to lift the strainer to drain, then plunge it into the ice bath.)

4. SLICE thee radishes into fine rounds (about 3 mm) with a mandoline (we used a knife). Slice the fennel into thin slivers of the same size.

5. ASSEMBLE: Spread the bread with cream cheese and arrange the vegetables on top. Sprinkle with parmesan, a bit of crunchy salt and some pepper.

________________

**Saint-Môret is the leading natural fresh cheese in France. While it has a different flavor and texture from American cream cheese, it is the closest comparison. We actually used spreadable goat cheese: We love the extra tang.
________________
 
 
RECIPE #3: SPRING PEAS & BURRATA SALAD

We adapted this recipe from Julie Andrews, The Gourmet RD. It takes just 10 minutes to prep. We could eat it every day.

Her recipe uses sugar snap peas. We added spring peas as well.

You can eat the pods (shells) of sugar snap peas, but it depends on the age of the pea. Older sugar snap peas tend to be more fibrous, making the pod hard to chew. Eat one, then decide.

Unlike sugar snap peas or snow peas, the fibrous pods of English peas cannot be eaten—although they can be saved and used in a vegetable stock (freeze until needed).

TIPS:

 
Ingredients For 4 First Courses

 
Preparation

1. WHISK together fresh lemon zest and juice, honey, olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Taste and adjust the seasoning, as necessary.

2. ADD the peas, green beans, carrots, arugula, basil, and mint to the bowl, and toss with the dressing.

3. QUARTER or halve the ball of burrata and arrange it on a platter. Top with salad, sprinkle with additional coarse salt and ground black pepper, and garnish with pistachios.
 
 
MORE BURRATA

> More burrata salad recipes.

> Dessert burrata recipe.

> The history of burrata.

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[2] A liqueur glass with the amber liqueur (photo via Angela Bax | Pinterest via Flickr.

[3] Domenico Reina’s store in Saronno.

[4] Bottles of Disaronno from 1900.

You may find it hard to believe that one of the top liqueurs in the world (see the list below) was not imported into the U.S. until the 1960s.

The almond-flavored cordial quickly became a hit in the U.S., in cocktails and food preparation. By the 1980s, it was second in sales only to Kahlùa. (Today, the top liqueurs are Baileys Irish Cream and Malibu Caribbean Rum.)

(What’s the difference between a cordial, a liqueur and an eau de vie? Here’s the answer.

In Italian, amaro means bitter. Amaretto means a little bitter.

Why is this sweet, almond liqueur called bitter?

Surprisingly, no almonds are used to make most brands of amaretto. Rather, the marzipan-like flavor is achieved through apricot kernel oil, burnt sugar and a variety of spices.

Various commercial brands—but not the top two which “own” the market—are made from a base of apricot pits or peach pits (the source of the oil), almonds, or a combination.

Most likely, when it was first made, amaretto wasn’t as sweet as it is today. Older recipes use the bitter almond (mandorla amara) local to Saronno, Italy, which give the liqueur its name.

In Italy, almonds are grown in two basic varieties, sweet and bitter (mandorla).
 
 
WHO INVENTED AMARETTO?

Before the names DiSaronno or Lazzaroni ever appeared on a bottle, the amaretto legend was born.

In the Renaissance and earlier, many families would distill their own liqueurs and digestifs.

According to their history, here’s the scoop:

In 1525, the artist Bernardino Luini, a former pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, was commissioned by the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the city of Saronno, in northern Italy near the Swiss border, in the region of Lombardy.

He painted a fresco of the the Adoration of the Magi (photo #5) in the sanctuary, which included the Madonna of the Miracles (photo #6). The fresco can still be seen today).

As the model for the Madonna, Luini hired a young widow, an innkeeper. As a gift, she gave him a flask full of an amber liqueur she made by steeping apricot kernels in brandy.

Her name is lost to history, but her likeness and her amaretto recipe live on.

Perhaps she was a member of the Reina family; for somehow, in 1600, Giovanni Reina (who had worked for the Lazzaroni amaretto cookie business) discovered the innkeeper’s old recipe. He made the liqueur, and the “secret” recipe passed from one generation to the next.

20th Century Amaretto Di Saronno

At the beginning of the 20th century, Domenico Reina decided to open a store in Saronno to sell food items, including the family liqueur, which he sold as Amaretto di Saronno Originale (Original Amaretto from Saronno, photo #4). The store was called Domenico Reina Coloniali (Domenico Reina’s Grocery—photo #3).

By 1940, liqueur production had grown into a large artisanal business. In 1947 was incorporated as ILLVA SARONNO. ILLVA is an acronym for Industria, Lombarda, Liquori, Vini & Affini (Industry, Lombarda, Spirits, Wines & Allied Products).

The product was called Amaretto di Saronno (Amaretto from Saronno), before returning to the latter part of the original name, Disaronno Originale, in 2001. It is still produced in Saronno, and sold worldwide (source).

It should be noted that Paolo Lazzaroni & Figli S.p.A., makers of Amaretti di Saronno cookies, claims that the Lazzaroni family created amaretto, in 1851.

That may be so, but their recipes are quite different. Disaronno’s is made from apricot kernel oil with “absolute alcohol, burnt sugar, and the pure essence of seventeen selected herbs and fruits” (i.e., no almonds or other nuts).

Lazzaroni’s amaretto contains their Amaretti di Saronno almond cookies, infused in alcohol (source).

Most people—including American producers and importers—use these terms interchangeably. But there are differences:
 
 
BRANDY, CORDIAL, EAU DE VIE, LIQUEUR & SCHNAPS:
THE DIFFERENCE

[6] A detail of the Madonna.

The distillation of alcohol may have taken place as early as 200 C.E., possibly by alchemists trying to make gold (alembic still history).
The Russian term zhiznennia voda, which was distilled down (that’s a pun) into “vodka,” also means water of life (the literal translation of vodka is “little water”).

The Gaelic uisce beatha, pronounced ISH-ka BYA-ha, too, means “water of life.” The pronunciation evolved into the more familiar term, whiskey.
 
 
APÉRITIF & DIGESTIF

How about an apéritif (French) or an aperitivo (Italian)?

These don’t refer to the contents of a drink; but rather, to the timing. They are a range of alcoholic beverages that are drunk to stimulate the appetite.

Traditional choices for an apéritif are champagne; gin; anise-flavored liqueurs (arak, pastis, raki and others); dry white wine (a light style); sherry (amontillado, fino or dry sherry; and vermouth (a fortified white wine).

At the opposite end, a digestif is an after-dinner drink to help with digestion. These include amaros, fortified wines, brandies and herbal liqueurs.
 
 
To conclude, here’s the difference between liquor and liqueur.
 
 
THE TOP 10 LIQUEURS

According to The Spirit Business, the top-selling liqueur brands in the world are:

1. Baileys Irish Cream (whiskey flavored)
2. Malibu (rum and coconut flavored)
3. De Kuyper (assorted flavors)
4. Lubelska (vodka-based liqueur)
5. Southern Comfort (whiskey flavored)
6. Kahlúa (coffee flavored)
7. Amarula (amarula fruit flavored*)
8. Disaronno Amaretto (almond flavored)
9. Zoladkowa Gorzka (vodka-based liqueur, black cherry flavor)
10. Cointreau (orange flavored)
________________

*The African fruit from which this is made has been described as tasting like chocolate-covered strawberries. It is a favorite of elephants.

[2] Homemade amaretto. Here’s the recipe from Mantitlement (photo © Mantitlement).

[3] Amaretto preserves (photo © Tell Tale Preserve Co. | Facebook).

[4] Pour amaretto into your coffee, or serve it as a chaser (photo © Door Country Coffee).

[5] Shrimp in an amaretto marinade (photo © Kansas City Steak Company).

[6] Rosie’s Famous Amaretto Brownies from King Arthur Baking. Here’s the recipe (photo © King Arthur Baking).

[6] Amaretto cheesecake. Here’s the recipe. Certainly, serve it with a snifter of amaretto (photo © Bake Or Break).

April 19th is National Amaretto Day, in honor of an almond-flavored liqueur initially made with local bitter almonds in the area of Saronno, Italy.

Here’s the history of amaretto, which dates to before 1525.

Amaretto is Italian for “a little bitter,” which it may have been back then. Today, it is sweet—and often made from apricot pits, which taste like almond and are a whole lot less expensive.

But what to do with that bottle of amaretto?

Gone are the days when a glass of liqueur would be a sweet ending to dinner. Has anyone had an after-dinner liqueur at home since, say, the 1970s?

Don’t let the bottle of amaretto gather dust on a closet shelf. Today’s tip is: Take that bottle down and put it to good use!

> Below: a recipe for amaretto brownies.
 
 
1. Revive the custom of the after dinner drink.

Drink your dessert instead of eating something sweet.

You don’t need to buy delicate, stemmed liqueur glasses: Rocks glaasses, even shot glasses, will do just fine.

We use miniature brandy snifters.
 
 
2. Bring out the bottle with after-dinner coffee…

…or brunch coffee…or coffee at any respectable time of day.

We have long followed our Nana’s custom of bringing a silver tray with four liqueur bottles (amaretto, anisette, Courvoisier, crème de cacao) and small cream pitchers to the table with coffee.

Why the little pitchers? Nana was far too elegant to pour liqueur from a bottle into a coffee cup. It was poured from the bottle into the pitcher, and then into the cup.

Why didn’t she serve the amaretto as a chaser in her crystal liqueur glasses? Alas, it’s too late to ask.

But anyone who enjoys a shot of flavored syrup in their cup of coffee will appreciate the even greater depth of favor from a sweet liqueur—mixed in or served separately.
 
 
3. Make cocktails.

You can even throw a cocktail party with a menu of amaretto cocktails: Almond Joy, Amaretto Alexander, Amaretto and Coke, Amaretto Sour, Italian Sunset and others.

Here are “the 10 best amaretto cocktail recipes.”

Everything old is new again.

And for dessert: a DiSaronno Milkshake, which is just as it sounds: amaretto and vanilla ice cream, tossed into the blender.
 
 
MORE WAYS TO USE AMARETTO

We have almost 40 different ways to use amaretto.

While the biggest opportunity comes in adding a tablespoon or two to sweet foods, there are also savory uses.
 
 
Amaretto In Desserts

 
 
Amaretto In Beverages

 
 
More Amaretto Uses

Give it away. Our Dad, who didn’t drink alcohol, had four bottles in his closet—and didn’t understand the concept of re-gifting.

Tie a bow around the neck; and if you feel you need to buy something, add some liqueur glasses.
 
 
Not enough amaretto?

Make your own with this recipe.

Ingredients For About 4 Dozen Small Squares

For The Brownies

 
For The Amaretto Frosting

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

Anything baked tastes good with amaretto. [1] Amaretto brownies (photo courtesy King Arthur Flour). [2] Amaretto pound cake with amaretto glaze (photo courtesy The Baker Chick).

3. ADD the flour, salt and espresso powder, beating gently until thoroughly combined. Spread the batter into the pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

4. MAKE the frosting. Combine the butter and chocolate in bowl, stirring until smooth. Add the sifted confectioner’s sugar alternately with the milk, beating on medium speed. Stir in the amaretto and espresso powder.
5. SPREAD the icing on the cooled brownies. Garnish with almonds. Cover and refrigerate the brownies for at least 1 hour before serving; this will help the icing set, and make cutting a lot less messy.

6. CUT the brownies in small squares to serve. Cover any leftovers, and store at cool room temperature. If it’s warm in your house, you can wrap them airtight and store in the fridge for a day or so; or freeze for longer storage.
 

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