Matters of Taste

Top Ten Tastes of 2011

I went. I saw. I tasted it all. These were my favorite discoveries at the Fancy Food Show, held last week at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

POCO DOLCE Sesame Toffee Bittersweet Chocolate Tiles with Grey Sea Salt are divine. So’s the Burnt Caramel Toffee Tile. These are chocolates to savor slowly, with lots of oohing and aahing. I was also fascinated by the company’s new Bittersweet Bar flavored with California olive oil and grey sea salt. This is one to eat slowly, allowing it to melt on your tongue and the olive oil essence to linger 

Say cheese, as in CAPRICHOS DE LA PASTORA TORTA DE OVEJA, and get ready to smile. This unusual spreadable cheese from Spain is sensational. It’s called a torta because it looks like a little cake. Let it come to room temperature, lop off the top, grab a spoon, a bottle of wine and a couple of dear friends and get ready to dine. It will be available on-line at The Rogers Collection, but the price hasn’t been determined as I write this.

The folks at POWELL AND MAHONEY must have felt bad for all us aspiring bartenders who desperately need a bottle of SIMPLE SYRUP simple syrup to create the cocktails of our dreams.  (Sure, you can make it yourself, but it’s a messy operation.) The company introduced Simple Syrup in a neat and tidy bottle at the show, so it won’t be in stores for a month or so. Look for it in gourmet shops and upscale liquor emporiums. Let Happy Hour begin.

 

All hummus is not created equal. In fact, all hummus is not even made from the traditional chickpeas.  At last week’s show, Tryst Gourmet unveiled an EDAMAME HUMMUS that is scrumptious and really good for you too. Made from baby soy beans, it’s flecked with yellow peppers, black sesame and ginger and is smooth, creamy and totally addicting. The Eat Well Enjoy Life line also includes edamame hummus with minced red pepper and toasted sesame, as well as a terrific Spicy Yellow Lentil Hummus (with sunflower seeds and apricot) and Tuscan white bean hummus with roasted pine nuts and herbs. I love them all. Not yet available in supermarkets, but watch for the groovy green lids in the refrigerator case of your market in the next few months.

I’ve always been a fan of LUCINI extra virgin olive oil, which sits in front of a dozen or so olive oils on my pantry shelf. Nonetheless, I shied away from their new line of bottled vinaigrettes because I’m simply not a fan of bottled salad dressings. Wow, did I get a surprise when I tasted the new Delicate Cucumber & Shallot Artisan Vinaigrette. Its light, creamy texture and bright flavors are a perfect match for salads, cooked salmon, steamed veggies, cole slaw, and even couscous fluffed with minced chives. A bottle costs about $7; Lucini is widely available in Whole Foods and most upscale supermarkets.

The newest pasta sauce from perennial award-winner DAVE’S GOURMET is a supremely satisfying merger of cultures called Masala Marinara. Its sweet-tangy flavor will do the obvious wonders for a bowl of bucatini, but I’m looking forward to experimenting with lasagna, lamb stew, chicken cacciatore and even pizza. A 25-ounce jar retails for $6 to $8; available in many upscale markets.

NUVOLA DE PECORA is a semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region. The square, soft-rind cheese, which translates poetically as sheep clouds, has a bone-white interior and an awesome velvety texture. There’s a hint of sweetness playing games with the characteristic sheep’s milk tang. It’s distributed by Forever Cheese in Long Island City.

Gluten-free items continue to be big news. I was blown away by Stonewall Kitchen’s rich, satisfying GLUTEN-FREE-BROWNIE-MIX. (There’s also a gluten-free vanilla cupcake mix that I didn’t try.) I was also enchanted with the coastal Maine company’s Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Mix. The doughnuts are light and fluffy, with a heavily dusted, lip-smacking exterior.  They’re baked, not fried so that makes them guilt-free in my book. They’re also easy to whip up (with egg, butter and milk) using the molded mini donut pan that’s sold with the mix. (A package of mix is $8.95; the pan is $14.95.) 

LAVENDER SHORTBREAD schmeared with mascarpone….be still my heart. This was my favorite cookie from two-year-old, Napa-based Botanical Bakery which uses premium ingredients from Strauss Family Creamery and calls the cookies “Our take on butter, flour and sugar.” The Ginger Squared and Cardamom shortbreads are yummy too. A 3.5-ounce bag of bite-sized Shorties costs about $6.

Ever since the MAYA KAIMAL line of Indian simmer sauces was introduced in 2003, these savory sauces have made my Fancy Food Show Ten Best list every year. Originally available only in the refrigerated cases of the supermarket, the sauces are now available in shelf-stable glass jars, with a two-year shelf life. The line includes about a half dozen types of sauce, including Kashmiri Curry, Vindaloo and Madras Curry, but my absolute favorite continues to be the Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce with its cinnamon, cardamom and clove notes and perky tomato-ginger flavor. The sauces are available in upscale supermarkets; a 15-ounce container is about $8.

SWEET-RIOT calls itself an alternative to a chocolate bar. I see it more as an alternative to pigging out. This clever  product consists of the tiny nibs from the cacao bean, roasted and cloaked in three intensities of dark chocolate (50-, 65-or 70 percent). Just two or three nibs give a blast of flavor and a pleasing tickle to the tongue. Only 1 or 2 calories per bite, 140 in the whole tin. About $5 per tin.

 

Fancy That! What's New at Annual Gourmet Food Show

I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE….and it is full of  blue cheese, bacon jam and BeBop Biscotti,  new-age hummus and seaweed snacks, herb-flavored water, teas that promise emotional well-being, and a veritable tsunami of coffee (flavored, socially conscious, pedigreed and preciously packaged), ancient grains, gluten-free you-name-it, deep-dish pizza for dogs, chocolate truffles and the stinky ones too,  one heckuva lot of flavored popcorn, and cheese, cheese and more cheese.

Those were some of the highlights of last week’s Fancy Food Show, the 3-day smorgasbord of gourmet food and beverage that’s held every January at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Staged by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade and open only to the trade, this year’s show featured more than 80,000 gourmet food items (from more than 30 countries), all hoping to be discovered by retail store buyers and catapulted to fame as the hot nosh of 2011. 

Here's a sample of the most interesting, delicious, trend-setting, tasteless, or just plain outrageous food and drink I discovered.

SAY CHEESE

Cheese has always been a major player at the Fancy Food Show, but this year there was more than ever. From Spain, an almost-liquid treasure (above) called Caprichos de la Pastora (see tomorrow’s post for a full description); from Montana, Mountina “Alpine” cheese with pleasing nutty flavor and smooth texture; from Italy, the voluptuous cow’s and sheep’s milk cheeses of Luigi Guffanti; from Rouzaire, a lovely Brie imbued with Grand Marnier that is sometimes available at Costco. Blue cheese was especially rampant, with hundreds of savory wheels including five from the family-run Willapa Hills farmstead operation in southwest Washington state; Crater Lake, Caveman and the new earthy, slightly funky, slightly sweet Flora Nelle from Rogue Creamery; Blue del Moncenisio; and Cashel Blue. There were also do-it-yourself kits for tasting (Artisanal Premium Cheese Co.) and mozzarella making (Roaring Brook Dairy.) 

CHOCOLATE

Show-goers (including manufactureres, importers, brokers and retail shop owners) couldn’t walk ten steps without bumping into a chocolate purveyor. There were fat truffles filled with envelope-pushing ganache flavors, slim bars, tiny pebbles, milk chocolate tool kits and bittersweet roulette wheels. There was chocolate dusted with coarse finishing salt or mated with caramel and toffee. There was chocolate with a schtick, such as Fearless chocolate which claims to be unroasted in order to preserve “natural nutrients, marvelous minerals and abundance antioxidants.”

The new truffle line from Fairytale Brownies, one of my favorite on-line purveyors of goodness, come in  three flavors -- pecan, espresso nib and toffee crunch – and feature intense flavor, fabulous crunch and a cloak of 60% Caillebaut chocolate. My only gripe is that each truffle is really too big for one person at one time. Knipschildt, a boutique that touts its fresh cream, butter and fruit and wins prizes for its packaging, had a winner with its Caramel Sea Salt Truffle Box which features four types of salt.

There was a veritable TEA party going on at the Moscone Center, and not a politician in sight -- black tea, herbal tea, white tea, green tea and even “extremely green tea,” as the Tamayokucha tea from Two Leaves and A Bud is known.  We’re talking artsy-fartsy tea brewing systems; Steaz, a blend of tea and sparkling water that has an unpleasant aftertaste;  tea in cookies, cakes and chocolate truffles; tea for folks who want to relax, and tea for folks who want to get up and go, and Teamotions for folks who’d like such herbs as neem (“for clarity”) and ashwagandha (“for joy”) and schizandra berry (“for hope”) in their afternoon brew. Then there’s tea seed oil. Make that wild tea seed oil.  It was all news to me. And after hearing a few facts (it does have a very high, 485 degrees, smoking point) and tasting the stuff, I don’t see much reason to learn any more about it.

OLIVE OIL still occupies an important place on the shelf in today’s kitchens and there were hundreds at last week’s show.  I was intrigued by the new three-liter box of Italian extra virgin olive oil from Lucini, one of my favorite sources for EVOO and pasta sauces. The box features an airtight seal and is guaranteed fresh for 12 months after opening. It costs $50 for the regular EVOO; $60 for the organic. Plus, it’s easier, neater and creates less trash. Though there’s plenty of olive oil coming from Spain, Tunisia, Greece and other countries, in my opinion the best still comes from Italy. Some of my other favorites are "Crudo" from Puglia, Regaleali and Tenuta di Capezzana; most available at Market Hall Foods and Olio2Go.

HONEY

The world's bees have been keeping busy. Puremiel organic raw honey is harvested  from bees in southerm Spain's Grazalema and Alcornocales natural parks by fifth-generation beekeepers. The packaging is especially attractive; the honeys are delicious.  Ditto the Abella honeys from Galicia in northwestern Spain. I also liked Breitsamer Tangy Forest Honey from Germany.

CONVENIENCE FOODS, such as international simmer sauces in jars and tubes, and GoGo Squeeze, a100% fruit squeezable apple sauce, grow increasingly sophisticated. And there’s increasing evidence that people want to eat healthier…..or at least say they want to. I found seaweed snacks called SeaSnax; chocolate bars with resveratrol, the chemical found in red wine (supposedly one bar has the resveratrol  of more than 50 glasses of red wine); alternative chips such as Flamous Falafel Chips, Beanitos Bean & Chipotle chips, and Turbana Plantain Chips (all of them delicious); Twice-Baked Potato Stix with Salt and Cracked Pepper; and lots of Blue Agave syrup as a substitute for sugar.

As always, LUXURY FOODS made quite a splash. Among them: jars of fragrant Italian black truffles from Savini Tartufi (these and a small tube of truffle paste will be available in coming weeks) and the fragile, flaky wisps of edible gold from Giusto Manetti that can garnish a dark chocolate mousse, risotto or even sushi; float in an Aperol Prosecco cocktail; or dress the rim of a Champagne glass with élan. Buy on-line at Market Hall Foods.

ALL THINGS ITALIAN

Our love affair with the sunny cuisine of Italy continues and there were scores of manufacturers and importers at the show ready to stoke the fire. I loved the heavenly Blood Orange Marmalade, from Marchesi di San Guiliano, that can be schmeared on breakfast toast, grilled chicken and swordfish alike, or folded into sauteed shredded Brussels sprouts or fluffy couscous. A jar costs about $13 and is available on-line at Market Hall Foods.

I also loved the lovely, coarsely ground polenta with a rosy-hued husk from Italy’s Trentino region that’s called Farina della Valsugana. It’s a winter-night wonder when cooked with a bit of butter, taleggio cheese and fresh sage folded in. (Not in markets yet.) Want to recreate the farro dishes that are all the rage in restaurants these days? Manicaretti is your go-to source for Rustichella d”Abruzzo Farro. Considered the “father of modern wheat,”  farro is a hearty grain with a pleasant nutty flavor. You can buy it in ground form and use it as you would polenta, or buy it made into pasta shapes such as orzo and bucatini, or as a whole grain for a trendy “risotto.” 

As at every Fancy Food Show, there were a few duds.  Chocolate-dipped Jelly Belly Jelly Beans seems to me to be an idea whose time never needed to come. Isn’t there enough already going on, flavor-wise, in a Chili Mango, Mixed Berry Smoothie or Strawberry Daiquiri jelly bean? Flavored cheese from Sartori Reserve? C’mon, guys. Raspberry-flavored cheese? Merlot? Chardonnay? Espresso?? How about a little respect for the poor cows trying their best to make cheese taste like cheese.

And Oregon White Truffle Oil. Let’s face it. We can’t all look like Brangelina. We can’t all play the piano like Lang Lang. And we can’t all harvest fabulous black and white truffles in our forests. So, get over it, America. Admit that there are SOME things that the French and Italians do better. The Oregon White Truffle oil I tasted, -- "the first all-natural truffle oil ever produced in the United States" -- had an odd, not-all-that-pleasant flavor.

Lastly, there’s a category I call “novelties” for lack of a better word.

Haggis potato chips, anyone? Didn’t think so. One of the six flavors offered by Scottish company Mackies  (another flavor is Aberdeen Angus Beef), the Haggis & Cracked Black Pepper chips come with an asterisk of sorts. According to press releases – “Unlike other flavors in the line which contain the actual ingredients that are in their name, the haggis flavor has been replicated with spices, explains Kristen Mackie, creator of the crisps.” Dang, I was looking forward to a potato chip imbued with sheep’s hearts, livers and lungs.

And, lastly, is it just me that finds nothing cute or appetizing about hot sauces called  Blair’s Death Sauces and Snacks? The company (which admittedly has a very cool Website) introduced new packaging at the show. Its three hottest sauces -- Sudden Death, Mega Death and Ultra Death – now come in coffins.

Check back tomorrow for my list of the TEN BEST foods I found at this year's show.

 

My "Date" with Tyler Florence

I rarely make desserts at home, so it took a serendipitous alignment of the fates for me to discover Tyler Florence’s sensational   over the weekend.

#1. I had just bought a package of dates for the “Mediterranean plates” my husband makes for breakfast every morning. #2. I happen to be flipping through Florence’s new cookbook “Tyler Florence Family Meal” when the page fell open to the pudding photo. And, #3, we had invited friends to dinner on Saturday night.

 

A half hour before they arrived I figured, What the Hey, and out came the electric mixer and a carton of eggs. Not only is this one of the most scrumptious creations ever, but it was ridiculously easy to make, and damn healthy too (there’s just ¼ cup heavy cream involved….the dates and egg whites create the moisture and richness).

Here's the recipe. But there are so many good-sounding dishes -- Haute Dogs with Tarragon Mustard or Asparagus Risotto with Black Truffle and Poached Egg, anyone? -- you might just want to buy the book. It's available at Amazon.com for $20.

 

WARM AND CRUSTY DATE PUDDING

Serves 8

6 ounces pitted dates, about 2 cups

3/4 cup water

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

6 large egg whites

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 1 1/2 quart souffle dish with non-stick spray. (I schmeared  the dish with butter.)

Put the dates and water in a pot over medium-low heat. Cook and stir for 10 minutes until the dates are very soft. Transfer the softened dates to a food processor and puree until smooth. Add the sugar and vanilla, puree again until well-blended. Scoop out the puree into a mixing bowl. Sift together the cocoa powder and flour and add to the date mixture. Fold using a rubber spatula; combine gently until well mixed.

In a mixing bowl, whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the date mixture.

Pour the batter into the coated souffle dish, spreading it evenly with a spatula. Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes until the outside is just set. Cool to room temperature. Shake some confectioners' sugar on top and serve.

Life’s Too Short to Drink Cheap Wine

Unless, or course, it’s really delicious cheap wine.

According to yesterday's Wall Street Journal article entitled “Snooty? Not Today’s Wine Drinkers,” many Americans are doing just that…..opting for attractive, well-made wines in the $9-12 range, instead of the pricier quaffs they may have been drinking before the 2008 economic downturn. Reporter David Kesmodel writes: 

"The economic downturn was toughest for the U.S. wineries that sell wines for $20 a bottle and up. After switching to less-expensive wines in the downturn, many consumers are staying at those lower prices because they liked what they found, industry executives and analysts say."

More than a year ago, New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov also explored this phenomenon and predicted that Americans would come to love the less expensive options they were discovering in the wake of the economic upheaval:

"In the year or so since the economy plummeted without a parachute, Americans have not stopped buying wine. They’ve simply bought cheaper wine. Whether this will ultimately be seen as a time of sacrifice or an eye-opening education remains to be determined, but I have a hunch that many people will find it easy, when the economy recovers, not to resume their free-spending ways."

Wine prices started dropping even before the current economic crisis, in large part due to the “juice” glut in California. In 2003, I wrote about the impact of that glut on the proliferation of under-$10 and even under-$5 wines, and over the years I've developed a roster of favorite "value" wines. Since the WSJ article focuses on the $9-$12 range, I’ll do the same. Here are three delicious ways to drink to brighter days on the economic horizon.

ANGELINE CALIFORNIA PINOT NOIR is made of grapes from Santa Barbara, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Its intense aroma features fruit, vanilla and spice; its flavor screams “party” with layers of strawberry, cherry, raspberry and plum. No need to overanalyze this baby, just drink it with gusto. I like it with pizza, braised and grilled chicken, pasta dishes and mild fish such as halibut or Chilean seabass. It’s widely available; I buy it for about $12 at Costco.

LAYER CAKE PRIMITIVO

This varietal from Puglia (Italys’ stiletto heel) is, essentially, Zinfandel. And a truly delicious Zinfandel, with only 13.5 percent alcohol instead of the numbing 15 percent and higher of most California Zins. I initially shied away from the wine because of its rather silly name and label. But on a recent family vacation, I ended up serving it with dinner three nights out of seven because it was so compatible with a wide array of dishes – Israeli couscous with yellow raisins, spinach and lamb sausage; pasta Bolognese; Thai peanut butter chicken and coconut milk rice.

The winery’s Website has this to say about the Primitivo: A balance of elegance and power; inky black  fruit, spice and white pepper, jammy black cherries, plums, blackberry fruit, truffles, tar, and espresso. Warm and rich in the mouth with a creamy texture; the ripe fruit is well supported by the deep structure of the wine.

All is can say is “another glass, please.”

QUINTA DO CRASTO DOURO

In the name of “research,” I am diligently working my way through the Douro wines of Portugal. If you know what Douro wines are, bravo to you! I am just now discovering this fresh, fruity wine with the slightly spicy nose, pleasantly low alcohol point (13.5%), and gentle pricetag. (There are also very elegant, refined, high-priced Douro wines.)

There are many producers of this engaging blend of grapes from the Douro Valley. I especially like the QUINTA DO CRASTO DOURO that sells at Costco for about 11 or 12 bucks. It offers ripe, appealing fruit, plenty of spice, and an alluring berry aroma. It’s a wine to drink with food, not alone. And it’s happy with a lot of different foods, from burgers and ragus to pork roasts and tomato-based pastas.

 

 

A Sparkling New Year

I never met a Mimosa that I liked.

The drink that Wall Street Journal cocktail correspondent Eric Felton calls “the semi-alcoholic drink of brunch and, frankly, an ordeal” may have started out glitzy and glamorous back in the ‘30s at the Paris Ritz Hotel. But in the ensuing decades it’s become a trite, tired sidekick to all-you-can-eat steak ‘n’ eggs and an uninspired way to use up cheap “champagne” and frozen orange juice. Don’t believe me? Check out Felten’s 2008 WSJ article.

“By the mid-1970s, the Mimosa was everywhere, its popularity fueled by the fad for brunch. But ubiquity and exclusivity are characteristics difficult to maintain in tandem (just ask Starbucks). By the end of the '80s, the drink had lost the chi-chi sheen it once had. John Sutter, the narrator of Nelson DeMille's 1990 novel "The Gold Coast," finds himself one morning drinking in a shabby Long Island harbor dive called "The Rusty Hawsehole." The clientele is decidedly down-market: "I don't think there was a full set of teeth in the house." Soon he is joined at the bar by a footsore diner waitress named Sally Ann looking to unwind after the night shift. What does she order? A Mimosa.”

But, let me back up. I never met a Mimosa that I liked. Until, that is, the one I made myself recently on New Year’s Eve. I used my favorite Prosecco --- Bellenda DOCG from Conegliano Valdobbiadene – and chilled, freshly squeezed blood oranges.

The crimson-fleshed fruit, thought to be of Sicilian or Spanish origin, has a lively, beguilingly sweet flavor. The Italian sparkling wine, from the region between Venice and the Dolomite mountains, is smooth and light, aromatic and refreshing, and a whole lot of fun to drink. In my mind, it’s Champagne without the attitude; Champagne without the de rigueur genuflections to that wine’s rich complexity and lofty pricetag. I love fine Champagne, too, mind you. But the “occasion” has to be just right. Prosecco fits in at any party, any time of day.

For the best Blood Orange Mimosa, use a stemmed wine glass or a tall, voluminous flute, NOT one of those skinny champagne flutes. This is a cocktail to drink with gusto, not sip demurelyy. Use a ratio of 1/3 or ½ fruit juice (from chilled blood oranges)  to ½ or 2/3 Prosecco. Top it all with a splash of sparkling water. The enticing photo here, from Saveur magazine, shows a sparkly Mimosa made with blood orange juice and Campari. I won’t wait ‘til next New Year’s Eve to try that one. 

A PROSECCO PRIMER

Once considered an undistinguished sweet fizzy wine, Prosecco has in the past decade achieved great respect and huge popularity.

Sixty percent of all Prosecco is produced in Italy’s Conegliano and Valdobbiadene region. These wines are protected with Italy’s quality assurance stamp, DOCG, guaranteeing the wines are produced within the specified region using defined methods and satisfying a defined quality standard.

Unlike French Champagne, which is produced by the methode champenoise in which bottles must be turned daily by hand, Prosecco is produced by the Charmat method which allows the wine to go through the second fermentation in pressurized tanks rather than in individual bottles.  The shorter (and more convenient), tank fermentation is preferable for Prosecco because it preserves the freshness and the flavor of the grapes. It also allows Prosecco to be sold at far lower prices than French Champagne. Very good Prosecco from the Valdobbiadene area is widely available for $13-$16. Mionetto is another respected, widely available brand.