[1] Chopped chicken liver on matzoh: a classic. Here’s the recipe from Williams-Sonoma. [2] A deconstructed version from Chef Alex Guarnashelli at Butter restaurant. [3] Mr. Alpenglow created his recipe, inspired by Guarnashelli’s. Here’s the recipe.

When is a piece of matzoh with chopped chicken liver (photo #1) greater than the sum of its parts?

When creative chefs turn it into something spectacular.

Here, the first idea (photo #2) inspired the second (photo #3).

Chef Alex Guarnaschelli of Butter in New York City tops a board of matzoh with:

 
As an alternative to the grape jelly and the crispy shallots, we made these honey-balsamic roasted red onions from Chef Tyler Florence:

RECIPE: HONEY BALSAMIC ONIONS

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F.

2. COMBINE the butter, vinegar, honey, thyme, salt, and pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, turn down to simmer and cook for 1 minute to reduce slightly.

3. PLACE the onions, cut sides up, in a single layer on a baking pan. Drizzle with the honey butter mixture over and roast until soft and slightly caramelized, about 45 minutes.
 
THE SECOND RECIPE

Try this recipe (photo #3) from Mr. Alpenglow.
 
CREATE YOUR OWN

Schmaltz and gribenes, anyone? Or how about foie gras?

Here are reciped for the first two, and the history of chopped chicken liver.

How about an old-fashioned sponge candy recipe? It has that “honeycomb crunch” and can be made for Passover. A recipe is below, thanks to our colleague Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet Blog.

She wondered about the old-fashioned confection variously known as:

 
….and, no doubt, other names in other places [source].

They all describe a confection that’s crunchy, crisp in the center, and melts in your mouth.

While there’s no molasses in it, the caramelization of the sugar gives it a bit of molasses flavor. You can have it covered in chocolate, or not (Hannah’s recipe goes for the chocolate).

Hannah wondered: “Where did all those names come from, and why did they keep renaming the exact same candy?” She set out on a mission to make her own.

“I cooked and caramelized, stirred and stewed, bubbled, boiled, and crystallized my very own sweet. If anything, what I created was even darker and more powerful than the old-fashioned candies you can purchase.

“I used cocoa and dark chocolate, of course, and cacao nibs for extra crunch. But the real secret ingredient here is the chocolate extract.”

The spongy airiness of the candy is based on the middle school volcano trick demonstrated in science class: Baking soda plus vinegar equals bubbles.

You’ll have a mini-volcano in your mixing bowl in Step 5, below. It’s fun, as long as you’re forewarned.

As with Chocolate Matzoh, a.k.a. Matza Toffee, a.k.a. Matzo Buttercrunch, a.k.a. whatever, sponge candy is a treat you can make for Passover.

But don’t make it in the summer heat and humidity and plan to serve it at a picnic or barbecue. If you need a fix, make it and eat it in the comfort of your air-conditioned home.

Ready to make some four-chocolate sponge candy (photos #3 and #4)?

> September 21st is National Sponge Candy Day.

> The history of sponge candy.

> The year’s 60+ candy holidays.

> The year’s 69 chocolate holidays.

[2] If you don’t know what’s inside, you’ll be delighted by the honey crunch.

[3] You can find sponge candy worldwide, often under different names. This angel food candy is from Kitch Me in Australia.

[5] Bet you can’t eat just one piece!

[6] Hold the chocolate! This recipe for “honeycomb candy” is from The Pioneer Woman.

If you don’t want chocolate, you can make sponge candy without it. Here’s a recipe.

Ingredients

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. LINE an 8 x 8-inch baking dish with parchment paper and lightly grease. The parchment doesn’t need to fit perfectly inside the pan, as long as it covers the bottom and sides without any holes for the liquid candy to escape through.

2. COMBINE the sugar, agave, 4 tablespoons of water, and vinegar in a medium saucepan. Stir just to moisten all of the sugar, and place over medium heat. Swirl the pan gently to mix the ingredients as the sugar slowly melts, but avoid stirring from this point forward to prevent premature crystallization. Meanwhile…

3. MIX together the remaining tablespoon of water, cocoa powder and chocolate extract in a small dish; set this cocoa paste aside.

4. COOK the sugar until the mixture is caramelized and reaches 300° to 310°F, also known in candy-making as the hard crack stage. Remove the pan from the heat. Things will move very quickly from here, so be on your toes.

5. VIGOROUSLY STIR in the cocoa paste along with the baking soda, allowing the mixture to froth and foam violently. Immediately transfer the liquid candy mixture to your prepared baking dish but do not spread or smooth it down. Allow it to settle naturally to maintain the structure of the fine bubbles trapped within.

6. COOL for at least 1 hour until fully set. To finish, melt the dark chocolate in a microwave-safe dish, heating at intervals of 30 seconds and stirring thoroughly between each one, until completely smooth. Pour over the top of the candy base and spread it evenly across the surface. Sprinkle with the cacao nibs and let rest until solidified.

If you’re bringing it as a gift: It’s fragile, so transport it carefully.

And may we suggest: crushed or sliced sponge candy makes an exquisite topping for vanilla ice cream, or layers in a parfait.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF SPONGE CANDY

Sponge candy is known by so many different names that it’s difficult to discern where it originated. The closest we can find in English is that sponge candy was produced as early as 1913 in Beamish, a village in northwestern England’s Durham County. It was made in copper pans over an open fire.

We do know that in the U.K., the Cadbury Sponge Candy Company first mass-produced sponge toffee in 1929, and created the Crunchie chocolate bar with a sponge candy center.

In the U.S., the product called sponge candy took root in Buffalo, New York, which is still the sponge candy capital of the country.
It is an airy variation of toffee with a light, sponge-like texture.

Different versions of sponge candy have come and gone, as you can read in this article from an octogenarian who remembers it from 1940s New England.

But look internationally, and you can find that the Turkish version, törökméz, dates back to ancient Turkish cuisine and was adopted in Hungary during the Ottoman Era* [source].

Did a candy maker from Hungary settle in Buffalo? Does sponge candy date to Anatolia (most of modern Turkey).

Neighboring Persia (the modern Islamic Republic of Iran) was cultivating sugar by the sixth century C.E. The ancient Sumerians in Babylonia were making vinegar from way, way back to 5000 B.C.E.

So, what we think of as 20th-century sponge candy may have been the continuation of an ancient recipe.

________________

*Ottoman Hungary was the territory of Medieval Hungary that was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1699. More.
 
 

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THE NIBBLE is having a lunch of gourmet burritos. Below:

> Gourmet burrito ingredients.

> Burrito history.

> The modern burrito.
 
Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The year’s 25+ Mexican and Tex-Mex food holidays.
 
 
BURRITO HISTORY

A step back in history: In 1519 the Spanish conquistadors arrived in what today is Mexico, bringing with them wheat flour and pigs. This enabled flour tortillas and carnitas. Flour tortillas are more flexible than corn tortillas, and therefore, easily rollable.

A modern question is: Why are carnitas in a flour tortilla called a burrito—“little donkey” in Spanish?

No one knows for sure, but the leading guess is that it was named for its shape, which resembles the bedrolls carried on the back of donkeys.

While the modern burrito is no more than 100 years old, Mesoamericans often rolled their food in tortillas for convenience (no dishes or utensils needed). Avocados, chili peppers, mushrooms, squash, and tomatoes were sliced and rolled.

The Pueblo peoples of the Southwestern U.S. were even closer to the mark. They made tortillas with beans and meat sauce fillings, prepared much like the modern burrito [source].

But the word “burrito” doesn’t appear in print until 1895, in the Spanish-language Dictionary of Mexicanisms. It was a name used in the region of Guanajuato, in north-central Mexico. It is described as “a rolled tortilla, with meat or other food within, called coçito in Yucatan and taco in the city of Cuernavaca and in Mexico City.”

That there was a rolled food called burrito in 1895 dispenses with the folk tale of a man named Juan Méndez, who sold tacos from a street stand during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1921) in Ciudad Juárez. As he used a donkey for transport, customers began to call his tacos “food of the burrito,” the little donkey and the name eventually stuck.

Food historians opine that the modern burrito may actually have been invented in the U.S., as a convenient lunch for Mexican agricultural workers.
 
 
THE MODERN BURRITO: BORN IN THE U.S.A.

The precise origin is not known, but it is generally believed to have originated in a Mexican-American community in the U.S., among farm workers in California’s Central Valley (Fresno, Stockton).

According to Wikipedia, the farm workers who spent all day picking produce in fields would bring lunches of homemade flour tortillas, beans, and salsa picante (hot sauce)—inexpensive and convenient.

Burritos first appeared on American restaurant menus in the 1930s, beginning with El Cholo Spanish Cafe in Los Angeles. El cholo is the word used by Mexican settlers in California for field hands.

Burritos were mentioned in the U.S. media for the first time in 1934, appearing in the Mexican Cookbook, a collection of regional recipes from New Mexico by historian Erna Fergusson.

The book includes “celebrated favorites such as enchiladas, chile rellenos, and carne adovada, as well as the simple, rustic foods traditionally prepared and served in New Mexican homes.”

It was “inspired by the delight and enthusiasm with which visitors to the Southwest partook of the region’s cuisine.” You can still buy a copy.

In 1999, food writer John Mariani wrote that “What makes burritos different from most other Mexican-American foods is the metamorphosis of this dish.

“We tracked down the earliest print references for ‘burritos’ cited by food history in American/English reference books. They are nothing like the burritos we are served today…

“When and where did the change happen? In the early 1960s, in Southern California. The who and why remain a mystery.

Our survey of historic newspapers suggests food trucks played a role. Burritos are efficient, economical, easy, and delicious.” [Source: Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 48)]
 
 
TODAY’S BURRITOS

In Mexico, meat and beans or refried beans can be the only burrito fillings. In the U.S., things get more elaborate.

American burrito fillings may include not only the refried (or other) beans and meat but rice, lettuce, salsa (pico de gallo, salsa picante), guacamole, shredded cheese (cheddar or jack), sour cream and vegetables.

Burrito sizes vary—they’re super-sized in the U.S., up to 12 inches. You can also find them in 9- and 10-inch diameters.

In 1964, Duane R. Roberts of Orange County, California sold the first frozen burrito. He made so much money that he was eventually able to buy Riverside’s iconic Mission Inn and refurbish it.

Tia Sophia’s, a Mexican café in Santa Fe, New Mexico, claims to have invented the original breakfast burrito in 1975, filling a rolled tortilla with bacon and potatoes. It was served “wet,” topped with chili and cheese.

Many Americans had their first breakfast burrito when McDonald’s introduced the Sausage Burrito in 1991: a flour tortilla, sausage, American cheese, scrambled eggs, onions, and peppers.

Taco Bell didn’t introduce a breakfast burrito until 2014.

This brings us to the choice of the grab-and-go burrito, eaten by hand, and wet burritos, on a plate covered with sauce and other garnishes, eaten with a knife and fork.

And then there’s the burrito bowl, pioneered by Chipotle: the fillings of a burrito eaten with a fork, no tortilla.

Chipotle now sells more bowls than conventional burritos. The bowls save 300 calories [source].

The U.S. even developed the breakfast burrito, and astronauts eat them in outer space!
 
 
GOURMET BURRITO INGREDIENTS

We’re not the type to put gold leaf, foie gras, and sturgeon caviar on food just to create the world’s most expensive [fill in the blank]. But we do enjoy the luxury of playing with top-drawer ingredients.

Rice and beans are fillers. You can make a burrito without them or can serve them on the side.

Or, you can take them up a notch with fancier rice and beans.

Here are typical burrito ingredients and their upscale variations. If you don’t like our ingredients, tell us what you’d use instead.

 
For lunch today, we’re having:

 
Have whatever burrito you like, but definitely have a burrito. Where would we be without them?

[1] Steak and cilantro burrito. Here’s the recipe from Half Baked Harvest (photo © Half Baked Harvest).

[2] Gourmet burrito: grilled shrimp and avocado cream. Here’s the recipe from Foodie Crush (photo © Foodie Crush).

[3] Breakfast burrito: Now an American staple, it first appeared in 1975. Here’s a recipe from She Wears Many Hats (photo © She Wears Many Hats).

[4] Chipotle restaurants brought burritos and burrito bowls across America, like this steak burrito bowl (photo © Chipotle).

[5] Wet burritos: definitely not grab-and-go. Here’s the recipe from Hezzi D’s Books & Cooks (photo © Hezzi D’s Books & Cooks).

[6] Not wet, but smothered in a poblano-cheeese sauce. Here’s the recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch (photo © Tastes Better From Scratch).

[7] A burrito bowl provides the fillings without the tortilla (photo © Simply Recipes).

[8] Trendy and vegan: a kale burrito with black beans and avocado. Here’s the recipe from Cookie and Kate (photo © Cookie and Kate).

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