QVC’s chef David Venable sent this deviled egg and ham salad recipe as a way to use leftover Easter ham, but there’s no time like the present.

You may like it so much that you’ll eagerly await Easter ham leftovers. According to David, it tastes so good that “no one will complain about day two, or even three, of leftovers!”

RECIPE: DEVILED EGG & HAM SALAD

Ingredients

1. PLACE the eggs, celery, and ham in a large mixing bowl; set aside.

2. MIX the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, pickle relish, paprika, and vinegar in a separate medium-sized bowl until fully combined.

3. POUR the mayonnaise mixture over the eggs, celery, and ham and toss gently.
 
MORE EGG SALAD RECIPES

Here’s a wealth of egg salad recipes, including an ingredients template to make your own signature egg salad.

We can’t remember who sent us the box of ChocoHigos, but thank you so very much. We’d had bites of them at trade shows, but a whole box to ourselves was indeed a luxurious experience.

ChocoHigos are figs enrobed with chocolate. This artisan confection is handmade in Aragón, Spain by brothers Fernando, Manuel and Pepe Caro, the third generation to prepare the family recipe.

The sweet, plump Pajarero figs, from Extremadura in western Spain, are a thin-skinned, delicate variety that are smaller and sweeter than the varieties most common in the U.S., such as Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Calimyrna (Turkish) and Kadota.

The figs are harvested, dried and then hand-dipped in the 68% dark chocolate also made by the Caros. The family recipe uses 100% Forastero cacao grown on the Costa de Marfil of the Côte d’Ivoire. The flavor is a perfect counterpoint to the figs: earthy with notes of cinnamon and clove.

ChocoHigos: delightful fig bonbons. Photo by
Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

The taste: sublime. Enjoy them after dinner with coffee, brandy or liqueur. Give them to foodie friends. A box of 10 figs, 4.94 ounces, is $9.89 on Amazon.com.

Another fig confection from Spain is Rabitos. The recipe is a bit different: The figs are soaked in brandy, stuffed with a brandied chocolate ganache, and then enrobed in dark chocolate. We personally prefer ChocoHigos.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FIGS

The fig was one of the first plants domesticated by man, roughly around 9000 B.C.E., in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley of Mespopotamia*. Easy to grow, nutritious and delicious, it quickly spread to other areas bordering the Mediterranean. Over time, new varieties were bred and cultivated.

By the late 1800s, the commercial fig industry was well established in California’s Central Valley; along with Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey it is one of the largest fig-producing regions in the world.

 
*The modern area includes Iraq, Kuwait, the northeastern section of Syria, and portions of southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.

When you’re cooking a fancy dinner, there are tricks to shave time and effort. We typically do this by making first courses and desserts that are simple yet impressive.

One of our go-to first courses is a slice of store-bought pâté with a lightly-dressed mesclun salad, cornichons, pickled onions and some halved grape tomatoes for color. Another is a crabtini.

A crabtini is a crab cocktail served in a Martini glass. Thanks so much to Lynne Olver of FoodTimeline.org, whose research indicates that the originator of the concept appears to be Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, circa 2005.

The crabtini has inspired chefs to create even more elaborate preparations like this molded crab cocktail. But, seeking the quick and easy, we emulated Ruth’s Chris to make our own crabtini:
RECIPE: CRABTINI

Ingredients For 6-8 Servings

1. GENTLY toss the crab with capers, onion, parsley, Creole seasoning, salt and pepper and vinaigrette. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

2. PLACE romaine leaves upright in a Martini glass. Place a mound of the crab salad in the glass.

3. GARNISH with caviar and serve with lemon or lime wedges.
 
RECIPE: HERB VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

 
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
 
WINE PAIRING
Enjoy your crabtini with a festive glass of sparking wine—another quick and easy way to add glamor to a simple course—or a clean, crisp dry white wine.

This recipe comes via Chef Jennifer Abadi and Zabar’s. The aromatic, citrus notes of cardamom add flair to a simple cake.

Preparation time is one hour; the cake yields eight to ten servings.

RECIPE: FLOURLESS PERSIAN PISTACHIO CAKE
WITH CARDAMOM SYRUP

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

 
Wet Ingredients

Ground nuts replace flour in cakes for Passover. Photo courtesy Zabar’s.

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F.

2. POUR pistachios into a food processor and pulse until they become a fine meal-like consistency, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the matzoh meal and pulse together an additional minute.

3. POUR ground pistachio mixture into a medium size bowl and combine with remaining dry ingredients.

4. ADD the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

5. POUR the batter into a greased 8- or 9-inch square baking pan and sprinkle with whole pistachios. Bake on the middle rack for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and center of cake is soft but not wet (cake should still be fairly moist). Meanwhile, prepare the syrup.

6. COMBINE the sugar, salt, pepper, and water in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a bubbling simmer over medium heat. Add the ground cardamom and cardamom pods, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally (the liquid will thicken slightly). Remove from heat.

7. REMOVE cake from oven and cool 15 to 20 minutes. Cut into squares and serve at room temperature sprinkled with the cardamom-sugar syrup.

The small strawberries (from 1/2 inch to less than an inch in diameter), which are white and covered with red seeds (achenes), have the same genetic make-up as the common strawberry.

Pineberries are available for a brief 4-5 week season beginning in April. The question is: Where can you get them? This most special of strawberries is only grown in Holland.

If you’re in England, head to Waitrose, the upscale supermarket chain, where they will fly off the shelves.

According to Waitrose, the berry originated in South America as a wild variety of strawberry. It was threatened with extinction because it has a low yield per plant and smaller sized berries. Seven years ago, when Dutch farmers began growing it on a commercial level in greenhouses. They begin life as green berries (like regular strawberries), then become slightly white instead of red.

Pineberries are tiny cultivars of the common strawberry. Photo courtesy Waitrose.

Use them as you would any strawberry—a dessert garnish, a cupcake topping, They are a feast for the eye, so it would be a shame to blend them into smoothies.

“As the summer unfolds we won’t be surprised to hear that our customers are inviting their friends over for pineberry pavlovas, punch or serving them up with yoghurt, ice cream or heavy cream whipped cream for a lighter alternative.”

STRAWBERRY TRIVIA

The strawberry is the only fruit to carry its seeds on the outside.

There are 200 seeds on the average strawberry. Each of these seeds has the genetic potential to become a new variety of strawberry since no two seeds are the same. This is how plant breeders develop new varieties of strawberries.