We found this tip from Erika Rax, a home baker living in Sydney, Australia.

“I have a little secret to make really pretty and quick bark,” she says.

Forget the chopping and melting of chocolate, ladies and gents. Erika’s technique will give you almost instant bark for special family treats or gifting. In the conventional technique, the inclusions get mixed into the chocolate. Here, they sit on top—an even prettier presentation, with no dimunition of flavor.

Erika’s pistachio and rosemary bark, green ingredients on a white chocolate background, is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. For Christmas, add some dried cherries or cranberries.

RECIPE: THE EASIEST CHOCOLATE BARK

Ingredients

1. PREHEAT the oven to 170°F/75°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment and place the bar(s) on the parchment.

2. ARRANGE the toppings over the bar. Place the sheet in the oven for 3-5 minutes until it just starts to soften. Take care not to overbake or the bar will lose shape.

3. REMOVE from the oven. We lifted the parchment from the pan to cool on the counter, so the bars would not continue to get heat from the pan.
 
Erika wrapped her gift bars in parchment paper, tied with a piece of kitchen string and a sprig of fresh rosemary. It’s charming! Here’s the photo.

Find more of Erika’s tips at Blog.ErikaRax.com.
  

What’s Irish about guacamole, the quintessential Mesoamerican sauce, we wondered as we saw the headline in the email for St. Patrick’s Day Guacamole, sent to us by the California Avocado Commission.

The answer: the integration of Irish ingredients—bacon, carrots, Cheddar, onion, parsley—into conventional guacamole. The idea was developed by Sabrina Modelle of TheTomatoTart.com.

Alas, conventional Irish crackers (cream crackers, digestive biscuits, oat cakes) don’t go well with guacamole. Instead, default to tortilla chips.

Food Should Taste Good makes Guacamole Tortilla Chips that have a slight green tinge, but we’re going with their Yellow Corn Dipping Chips.

And some Irish beer.

Prep time is 20 minutes. For a beautiful presentation, set aside a small portion of the Step 2 ingredients to use as garnish.
 
RECIPE: ST. PATRICK’S DAY GUACAMOLE

Ingredients For 6 Servings

Guacamole with “Irish” ingredients for St. Patrick’s Day. Photo courtesy TheTomatoTart.com.

 
*While there are much larger varieties of avocado, the Haas has the creamiest, most delicious flesh. As a result, 98% of the avocados grown in Mexico are Hass, a variety discovered as a seedling by Rudolph Hass, a California postman who planted it in his front yard in the 1920s. He patented the cultivar in 1935.

1. MASH the avocado with lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.

2. STIR in the bacon, carrots, cheese, garlic, jalapeño, onion and parsley.

3. GARNISH and serve.
 
THE HISTORY OF GUACAMOLE

Mesoamericans cultivated the avocado, a fruit which had grown there for millions of years. The conquering Aztecs called it ahuacatl; the “tl” is pronounced “tay” in Nahuatl, the Aztec language. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1519 under Hernán Cortés, they heard ah-hwah-cah-tay as “aguacate,” the spelling and pronounciation they adopted.

Guacamole was compounded in a molcajete, a mortar and pestle carved from volcanic stone.

Ahuacatl means “testicle.” Aztecs saw the avocado as resembling testicles and ate them as a sex stimulant. According to Linda Stradley on the website WhatsCookingInAmerica.com, for centuries after Europeans came into contact with the avocado, it carried its reputation for inducing sexual prowess. It wasn’t purchased or consumed by anyone concerned with his or her reputation.

American avocado growers had to sponsor a public relations campaign to dispel the myth before avocados could become popular. After then, their dark green, pebbly flesh also earned avocados the name, “alligator pear.”

We, however, would head to Ladurée or Pierre Hermé for pistachio macarons, a classic flavor where the meringue is colored green.

You don’t have to head to Paris. If there are no macarons in your neck of the woods, you can order them from Dana’s Bakery, Macaron Café or Mad Mac. There are also Ladurée outposts in New York City and Miami, but we couldn’t find online ordering options for either.

Dana’s Bakery, which doesn’t make classic flavors*, has two green options right now: Key Lime Pie and Thin Mint. So if pistachio nuts are not your thing, she’s your gal.

While a classic pistachio macaron is filled with pistachio or vanilla ganache, or possibly chocolate ganache, we’ve found varieties from creative macaron artists that feature matcha ganache, peanut butter ganache, red bean jam and other fillings (like Dana’s chocolate mint and Key lime). Whatever your preference, include a bit of France in your St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

*The current flavors at Dana’s Bakery include Birthday Cake, Cookie Dough, Cotton Candy, Fruity Cereal, Jelly Doughnut, Orange Creamsicle, Peanut Butter & Jelly, S’mores and Strawberry Shortcake, among others.

Ameretti, the “original” macaroons. Here’s the recipe. Photo courtesy Michael Recchiuti.

WHO INVENTED MACARONS?

The ganache-filled meringue cookie sandwiches shown above are called Parisian macarons. The first macaroons, from Italy, were quite different: almond meringue cookies similar to today’s amaretti, with a crisp crust and a soft interior (see the photo at left).

The name derived from the Italian maccarone or maccherone, itself derived from ammaccare, meaning to crush or to beat. (The reference is to the crushed almonds or almond paste, which is the principal ingredient.)

These original macaroons arrived in France in 1533 with the pastry chefs of Catherine de Medici, who married France’s King Henri II. More than two centuries later, two Benedictine nuns, seeking asylum in the town of Nancy during the French Revolution (1789-1799), paid for their housing by baking and selling the cookies.

The first versions combined two plain almond meringues with a filling of chocolate ganache; but today, various varieties of ganache, buttercream or jam are sandwiched between meringues of seemingly limitless colors and flavors.

Other stories variously give the invention date as “the beginning of the 20th century” and 1952. The latter date has credence if you believe the blog ParisPatisseries.com, that in 2012, Laduree hosted a 60th anniversary party for the macaron.

Here’s the history of macarons.
 
MACARONS VS. MACAROONS

Italian Jews adopted the cookie because it has no flour or leavening, and thus can be enjoyed during the eight-day observation of Passover. It was introduced to other European Jews and became popular as a year-round sweet. Over time, coconut was added to the ground almonds and, in certain recipes, replaced them.

When the coconut cookies arrived in England and the U.S., macaron became macaroon. Until the Parisian macaron craze began within the last ten years, coconut macaroons were far more prevalent in the U.S. and the U.K. They’re a lot easier to make and transport than the fragile Parisian variety.

A tasting plate of amaretti, coconut macaroons and Parisian macarons would be an excellent “educational dessert.”

National Broccoli Day Is March 22nd.

> The history of broccoli is below.
 
 
RECIPE: BROCCOLI MADNESS SALAD

Ingredients For 6 Side Salad Servings

 
For The Dressing

 
Preparation

1. WASH the broccoli and pat dry. Chop off the bottom 2 inches or so of stems and break the head into florets.

2. PLACE the florets in a large bowl; add the bacon, cashews, raisins, and red onion.

3. MAKE the dressing: Combine the mayonnaise, sugar, and cider vinegar in a small bowl; stir until smooth.

4. TOSS the broccoli mixture with the dressing. Let it set 10 minutes or longer before serving. Serve on chilled salad dishes.
 

[2] Broccoli getting ready for its salad (photo © California Olive Ranch | Facebook).

If you’ve even thought that a head of broccoli looked like a little tree with robust stalks and branches—well, it got its name from the Latin brachium, which means strong arm or branch.

Broccoli resulted from breeding of landrace* [local] Brassica† crops in the northern Mediterranean starting around the sixth century B.C.E.

Modern broccoli has its origins in primitive cultivars‡ grown in the Roman Empire and was most likely improved via selective breeding in the southern Italian Peninsula or in Sicily.

Ancient Romans enjoyed their broccoli in the centuries B.C.E. The son of Roman Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C.E. to 37 C.E.), Drusus Julius Caesar (14 B.C.E. to 23 C.E.), was so infatuated with broccoli that he forsook all other foods except Broccoli ala Apicius (with a mixture of cumin, coriander seeds, chopped onion, oil, and sun-made wine) for an entire month. Legend has it, that his broccoli binge turned his urine bright green [source].

Broccoli spread to northern Europe by the 18th century and in the U.S., Thomas Jefferson was growing broccoli at his Virginia home, Monticello [source: ibid.]

But it was the 19th-century immigration to the U.S. by Italian immigrants that engendered broccoli cultivation and introduced the green vegetable to other Americans.

After World War II, the breeding of U.S. and Japanese F1 hybrids (from distinctly different parental types) increased yields, quality, growth speed, and regional adaptation, which produced the cultivars that have been the most popular since then (“Premium Crop,” “Packman,” and “Marathon” [source].

Alas, broccoli cannot be harvested using machines, meaning it must be hand-harvested. That keeps prices up.

Today, California produces 92% of U.S. broccoli, harvesting it year-round. Arizona is in a far second. Some 95% of the total crop is sold fresh (as opposed to frozen); some 15-20% of broccoli is exported to Canada, Japan, and Taiwan.

The U.S. ranks 3rd in the world for broccoli, with China #1, and India #2 [source].

In 2019, global production of broccoli (combined for production reports with cauliflowers) was 27 million tonnes‡, with China and India together accounting for 73% of the world total.[13] Secondary producers, each having about one million tonnes or less annually, were the United States, Spain, and Mexico [source].

________________

*The term “landrace” is generally defined as a cultivated, genetically heterogeneous variety of plant (or animal) that has evolved in a certain ecogeographical area and is therefore adapted to the edaphic and climatic conditions and to its traditional management and uses. It is a traditional, locally adapted, variety of a species of plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural environment, and due to isolation from other populations of the species. Here’s more about it.

†Brassica is a genus of plants in the cabbage and mustard family. The members of the genus are informally known as cruciferous vegetables and include arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, mizuna, mustard greens, radish, rapeseed/canola, rapini (broccoli rabe), rutabaga, tatsoi, and turnips.

Brassicas are members of the Brassicaceae family of cancer-fighting superfoods. “Cruciferous” derives from cruciferae, New Latin for “cross-bearing.” The flowers of these vegetables consist of four petals in the shape of a cross.

They’re low in calories and high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. You can’t eat too many of them, but you can overcook them. You’ll know they’re overcooked when an unpleasant sulfur aroma appears. They’ll also fade in color. That’s because all cruciferous vegetables contain chemical compounds that, when exposed to heat for a sufficient amount of time, produce hydrogen sulfide.

A cultivar is a type of plant that people have bred for desired traits (selective breeding), which are reproduced in each new generation by a method such as grafting, tissue culture, or carefully controlled seed production.

‡A tonne is a metric unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of short ton, and long ton. It is equivalent to approximately 2,204.6 pounds, 1.102 short tons, and 0.984 long tons.

[2] A wedge of Comté cheese (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

In our mother’s day, green bean casserole was a popular family dish. We can’t remember the last decade we saw one, either at home or on a restaurant menu.

So St. Patrick’s Day, coming up on March 17th, seems like the time to try a good recipe and put more green on the table.

This recipe was shared with us by Comté USA, the American bureau for France’s popular Comté cheese. Also called Gruyère de Comté, it has a much milder flavor than the Swiss Gruyère, aged for only three months compared to 8 months for Swiss Gruyère.

How popular is it? Comté has the highest production of all French AOC cheeses: around 40,000 tonnes* annually.

Dating back to the 12th century, Comté is made from unpasteurized cow’s milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Here’s some fun cheese trivia: Comté is made only during the summer months, in huge wheels. In the fall, milk from the same cows is used to make Vacherin Mont d’Or, a small, creamy cheese that couldn’t be more different.

You’ll note that the recipe below is for a green bean gratin, not a casserole. What’s the difference?

A gratin is any dish that is topped with cheese or breadcrumbs mixed with butter, then heated in the oven or under the broiler until brown and crispy.

In French, the phrase au gratin means “by grating” in French, or “with a crust,” from the verb gratter, to scrape, scratch, or grate.

> There’s more about Comte cheese below, including the history of the 1,000+-year-old-cheese.

> December 3rd is National Green Bean Casserole Day.

> January 6th is National Bean Day, celebrating all types of beans.

> The different types of beans and grains: a photo glossary.
 
_________________

*In American English, a ton is a unit of measurement equaling 2,000 pounds. In Europe and elsewhere, a tonne equals 2,240 pounds (1000 kg). Don’t assume it’s the same measurement with a different spelling!

This is a sophisticated version of a classic green bean casserole. No condensed cream of mushroom soup, no canned French-fried onions!

Ingredients

 
_____________

†Cremini/crimini mushrooms are baby portabello/portobello mushrooms, often marketed as Baby Bellas. Check out the different types of mushrooms in our Mushroom Glossary.

Preparation

1. LINE a large plate with paper towels. In a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer and lightly smoke. Add the shallots and cook, stirring often, until light golden brown, about 7-9 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shallots to the paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt.

2. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Butter a 2-quart casserole dish.

3. BRING a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook until crisp-tender, 4-5 minutes. While the beans cook, fill a large bowl with ice water. Drain the beans and immediately plunge them into the ice water to stop cooking. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel to dry.

4. MELT the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and toss. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and the minced garlic; cook 1 minute. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Whisk in the broth and milk and bring to a simmer. Cook 5-6 minutes, or until thickened.

6. TRANSFER the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining Comté over the top. Bake 10 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle the fried shallots over the gratin. Serve warm.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF COMTÉ CHEESE 

Like Beaufort, Emmental (Emmentaler), Gruyère, Raclette, and others, Comté is a mountain cheese—a cooked, pressed curd cheese. The curds are cut very small when producing a mountain cheese to expel more whey (water), making a more firm paste. Mountain cheeses are typically made in large wheels, 60 pounds or more.

Comté has an ivory-colored paste with scattered of eyes (holes) the size of hazelnuts. It is known for its complex, nutty, buttery, and caramelized flavor.

There can also be a slight smoky flavor, produced when the curd is cooked. The cheese often exhibits flavors of fruits, nuts, hay, and a hint of sweetness.

The eyes are the result of proper affinage (aging). Unlike Emmental, for example, which has larger eyes, the eyes of Comté should be the size of a pea up to a hazlenut or small cherry.

The texture that can range from firm and crumbly in younger versions to smoother and more supple in older ones (more about that below).

Made for 1,000 years, since the time of Charlemagne, Comté originated in the Jura region of eastern France, near the border with Switzerland. The cheese gets its name from the Franche-Comté region, where it has been produced for centuries.

The production of Comté can be traced back to the Middle Ages when local monasteries and farmers in the region began making the cheese as a way to preserve the excess milk produced by their cows (which is how most cheese-making began).

In 1958, Comté became one of the first cheeses in France to receive the A.O.C. (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) designation, which ensures that the cheese is produced following specific criteria and in the designated geographical area.

Subsequent to the establishment of the European Union in 1993, the A.O.C. designation was replaced by the P.D.O. (Protected Designation of Origin) designation, further emphasizing the connection between the cheese and its specific region of origin.

Strict A.O.C. rules that ensure that each wheel of Comté is just as perfect as the last.

The cheese is produced in large 70- to 80-pound wheels from unpasteurized (raw) cows’ milk on more than 3,000 family farms in the French Alps.

The production of Comté is limited to the Jura region, and only milk from Montbéliarde or French Simmental cows, which graze on rich mountain pastures, is used in its production.

The dairy farmers practice non-intensive agriculture, which focuses on quality rather than the highest possible yields. The production methods have been passed down through generations. The use of raw milk contributes to the unique flavor and characteristics of the cheese.

Today Comté is made at 190 cheese dairies, known as the fruitières, in the Jura plateau.

Cheesemakers need about 530 liters of milk—the daily production of 30 cows—to make one 80-pound (35 kilos) wheel of Comté. By law, production must start within 24 hours of milking, so the cheese is made daily.

Morning and evening milks from Montbeliarde and Tachete de L’est cows are mixed [source].

 
 
Comté Maturation 

Comté cheese can be matured for varying lengths of time, and the duration of maturation significantly influences the flavor, texture, and characteristics of the cheese. The maturation process for Comté typically ranges from a few months to several years.

The wheels age on spruce boards, where they develop a tight-knit texture and satiny body. The cheese is regularly cleaned and rubbed with salted water.

The different age classifications of Comté are: