|
Pistachio, Pesto, Salt, Vinegar, Hibiscus, Cherries, Recipes and more at chefshop.com/enews |
 |
|
|||||
| Recipes | Chef's Pantries | Shop for Food & Ingredients | Food Blog |
Elite Crema di Pistachio! Pistachio Cream with White Chocolate!! This rich, pistachio green color crema is so soft to the tongue it literally melts like a “chocolate” bar of pistachio! It is an Italian pistachio spread of luxury wrapped up in a jar. Squeeze and lick your chops and the pistachio gusto starts in the middle (of your mouth) and then flows to the edges. As the crema moves outwards through your taste sensors, the white chocolate creaminess follows. Then, during the dissipation of the first morsel, the pistachio flavor reaches the outer edges of your taste buds and then quietly finishes with joys of smoothness with a subtle mix of creamy white chocolate and pistachio. So smooooth you can spread it like butter on just about anything. From toast to crackers, to topping a simple donut or muffin, sharing this pleasure with pistachio lovers is one of the ultimate experiences you just might have. Sweetness, the very special pointy Sicilian pistachios and white chocolate describes the taste best! What else could you want in life! Mix it in with your Ricotta for your next cannoli. Add it to your next Banana cream pie. or Boston cream pie. (Is that blasphemy?)?? Make a Creme Anglaise or just simply, have a spoonful to savor like a fine balsamic. A pistachio cream sauce Spread wisely, liberally and everywhere you can think of. Or just pull out the biggest spoon you can find, a good book and settle in. Shop now for Brontedolci Pistachio Cream! |
Pasta with Pesto Green Beans & Potatoes Recipe This is a classic Italian pasta dish - perfect for the early fall when the potatoes and beans are coming into the market and you begin to have a hankering for heartier fair. Although it is traditionally made with Fettuccine, any long pasta will work - including La Romagna Pappardelle. In this case, the recipe calls for walnuts, as well as pine nuts. If the pesto becomes too thick, you can use some of the pasta water to thin the sauce. You should be careful to add the liquid a little bit at a time - after you have combined the pasta, pesto and veggies together. I prefer though, pesto from Italy. It is easier and better than I can make. Click here to see the Pasta with Pesto, Green Beans & Potatoes Recipe! |
Pistachio Pesto! That's right, strange as it seems, it is delicious! This pesto from Brontedolci in Sicily is, as you may have guessed, the main ingredient is Sicilian pistachios (55%) along with sunflower oil, salt and pepper. No Basil. Yet, if we think of pesto as mortar & pestle, then this is a savory pistachio pesto. Look in the jar and see green (with texture). It’s the beautiful green of Sicilian pistachios with flakes of black pepper. When you taste it you will get this wonderful smooth feel that is creamy and then finishes with little tiny bits of pistachios in the pits of your teeth. The “bite” really never ends as you move your tongue around tasting pistachio! Using this Brontedolci pesto di pistachio as it was intended is even better than that. Take a pasta, cook it al dente, drain with touch of the leftover pasta water, twirl and twist in the pesto in the pan and plate into small bowls. This is the perfect side dish and very filling! Or if convention is not your thing, think a dollop on your fish or with tofu! About pesto: Pesto is full of basil. Well, not always. Interestingly, it is translated here (and many places in the world) as a green sauce made with basil. Except that pesto has more than just one meaning. It also means to: pound, beat, grind, trample on, work over and pestle. To pestare, pestle perhaps is pesto. One could speculate that the ancient Romans, who made and ate a paste of cheese, herbs, salt, oil, vinegar, and nuts are the originators of pesto. The nucleus of modern day pesto started in North Africa and India, when basil became the main ingredient. Basil pesto took hold in Provence (as pistou) and in Liguria (as Pesto alla Genovese). In the 1860's a recipe for pesto with basil is published in La Cuciniera Genovese. Then the recipe traveled with the immigrants to the New World. Italian basil pesto was introduced to a much wider audience when Italian immigrant and University of Washington Professor, Angelo Pellegrini's pesto recipe was published in a 1946 issue of Sunset Magazine. The recipe consisted of a little bit of this and a little bit of that, with no precise measurement. This makes sense when you think that pesto, which means to crush or bash, is a combination of just a handful of ingredients mashed together. You can see how you might want to add a little more or a little less of one thing or another to match your palate. To make a "typical" pesto, you crush fresh young basil, Italian pine nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano, sea salt and olive oil. (The Silver Spoon New Edition). That's all it takes; a mortar and pestle, elbow grease, and you can make your own. Or, you can use a food processor, though the results are less textural and more mushy, like a moist paste. Shop now for Brontedolci Pistachio Pesto! |
Fragrant and Exotic! Ras El Hanout! This is the iconic Moroccan spice blend that brings complexity, depth, and beguiling flavor to your cooking. In Moroccan, Ras el Hanout means “head of the shop.” (It’s actually pronounced “Ras ha’-newt,’” without the “el.”) Traditionally, the mix is a mélange of the best spices a merchant has to offer. And since Ras is a gentle, slightly sweet blend, it doesn’t contain edgier, more aggressive flavors like cayenne or cumin. In Morocco, you never get exactly the same mixture twice. In the States, we also find many variations of Ras el Hanout, but far from top-of-the-line ingredients, these mixes tend to be bottom of the barrel. So when Mehdi—a native Moroccan, who now calls Seattle home—came to us and said he was bringing the flavor of Ras el Hanout from Morocco, we were thrilled! It’s taken him nearly two years to find the best purveyors and perfect his recipe (you’d think he’d traveled the original Spice Road in that amount of time), but it’s been well worth it! To create the ultimate Ras el Hanout mixture, Mehdi went to his source: his mother, Fouzia. Together the two created the perfect combo: a mixture of familiar Moroccan spices, like grains of paradise, saffron, rose buds, and orris root. Shop now for Ras El Hanout! |
Salt from the Mediterranean Trapani Sea Salt Two pounds of some fine sea salt from Sicily. We use it as our everyday salt. Not too salty to the taste, it's priced low enough to make your pasta water "salty-as-the-sea", and it's tasty enough to finish your best dishes! Shop now for Trapani Fine Sea Salt! |
Black Vinegar is different than other vinegars! It is aged magic! This traditional Japanese Black Vinegar is made by placing organic brown rice, organic yeast and water in earthenware pots, and then placing the pots outside, on the shores of Kogoshima Bay, where the vinegar ferments and ages due to exposure to the local sun, wind and rain. This particular black vinegar is aged for five years. The end result is a full, well-rounded taste, caramel color and smooth acidity. Not just because it starts with rice, like Sake, it is the fermentation process that makes it different. Wine vinegar's start the process where the sugars of the grape juice is converted to alcohol. To ferment rice you must first convert the starch to sugar. Then yeast and a mold, known as koji (Aspergillus oryzae). are added. Several enzymes are produced and break down the starches in the rice to make simple sugars which are then fermented by the yeast. Making a fermented rice mash (moromi) of the highest quality creates the best black vinegar. This process takes weeks. Black vinegar has some acetic acid, like other vinegar's and it is also rich in citric acid. The citric acid cycle, the TCA cycle, the Krebs cycle, is a central driver of cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is a processes that takes place in the cells of all organisms to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate. Or energy. It is this energy created from the citric acid cycle that is good for our brains and immune systems. In one study, moromi has been shown to have anti-tumor action. When black vinegar is aged it takes on a rich, almost smoky exterior. To the nose it is tingly vinegar acid without the linger or the wrinkling of the nose effect. Though many say Balsamic Vinegar and Black Vinegar are similar, I do not find, in the flavor profile, any similarities at all. To the sip, the vinegar flavor is familiar, yet to describe it, it is indescribable. It changes each time you take a small taste. It is a smoky feel, and it has a more than smoky flavor, it has hints of grapefruit and some earthiness, as well. The acetic acid keeps you from taking big swills as the back of your throat will tell you with a big ping and some eye scrunching that it is a vinegar. Though many sip this vinegar for their health (in small quantities), when this 5 year old aged black vinegar is added to dishes it seems to add the fifth element of interesting twists to your palate. Together with soy sauce it can add a familiar taste to stir fry. Also try it as a dipping sauce for dumplings or added to a bowl of noodles. But, it is not just for Asian dishes, you can experiment with this wonderful flavor in marinades, grilled summer vegetables and with proteins like fish, shrimp and pork. Black Vinegar of this quality is rare indeed. A taste that grows on you. The first taste might not be what you would expect. The complexity of the flavor though is remarkable. Shop now for Kakuida Organic Black Rice Vinegar aged 5 years! |
Murray River Pink Salt Salt makes life taste better! Do you need less salt in your life? Then try salting at the table with a pinch just before you put a fork (or spoon) in it. Get a hit of crunchy salt, without too much sodium, and have your palate open up to the subtleties of flavors encapsulated inside. Flaky salt, like this Murray River Pink salt, has a wonderful, gentle color for a pink flamingo cool look and gives an easy delicate crunch with an excellent bite! Murray River Salt is from the ancient saline aquifers in the Murray Darling Basin. The mineralised brines of old add a special quality to this delicious salt and make the salt high in magnesium, calcium, potassium and iodine. It is a wonderful salt to hold. Sprinkle a little today. Shop now for Murray River Pink Salt! |
Cold Tomato Soup Herbivoracious Video Recipe Michael Natkin, Chef and Author of Herbivoracious - a blog and book of the same name, shares his Cold Tomato Soup recipe. It's easy, super quick to make, and it's a cool refreshing treat! Click here to see the Cold Tomato Soup Video Recipe! |
Wild Hibiscus! Flowers in Syrup! These have been around for quite some time...and we used to only think of them for Champagne on New Year's Eve. Really though, they work wonderfully in a glass of almost anything! Make every night festive with a touch of red! Share or share alone! It's fun to do. Shop now and check out Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup! |
Bada Bing Cherries In Sugar Syrup Sonny said it first and though most likely he wasn’t referring to this awesome Bing Cherry, but if he did...the world might just be a little sweeter. First up, the Bada Bing, it is one good tasting, deep, rich, red, cherry! Quite frankly it was a total surprise on how positively delicious it is. And let’s get this out of the way, it is NOT waxy, rubbery, or feels like you are eating red die. It is instead, alive with the flavor of a real, fresh, bing cherry. A wonderful sweet crunch, it feels like a cherry in your mouth, and really, one is not enough. The good news is that a whole jar is (about 16 cherries) only 160 calories, far short of any candy bar! Add it to any mixed drink, especially ginger ale and grenadine! And really, the cherry becomes the best part! These cherries are awesome! Shop now for Bada Bing Cherries! |
Cherries Early Robin Cherries Last chance to order the season. Still time to order the Early Robins for this Monday's harvest. (Best guess at the time of this writing). Kudos for the Cherries "I just wanted to compliment you on the last order of cherries I received from you. They were the best cherries I've ever eaten. They were huge, meaty, and sweet. I didn't spot a single—not one—blemish in the whole batch. Thank you...I'll be a repeat customer for sure!" -- maura Gourmet Magazine said - "Our food editors are wild for the Bing cherries grown...in Washington State. Shipped right after being picked, each red globe is firm, juicy, and bursting with sweet flavor." Marion Burros of the New York Times said - "When I tasted the Bing cherries from...[ChefShop.com], I thought I had died and gone to Heaven." Shop now for Sweet Washington Cherries! |
Cocoa Powder! Always good to have chocolate around! Cocoa Powder is versatile and keeps a good long time. Pack it up in a container for camping! Have it ready for the morning, noon and night! The Perfect Cocoa Powder! "Like others here, I started using this when it was sold by Williams Sonoma. Then I needed to search for a (the) real source when that went away and found ChefShop. So glad I did! This cocoa powder is dreamy for baking as well as making hot chocolate and other drinks. The fat content lends a terrific texture and lingering flavor; the overall profile is intense but not overwhelmingly bitter. I think it strikes an excellent flavor balance. Highly recommend for any recipe which demands a superior quality chocolate! " -- heidi Shop now for ChefShop Cocoa Powder! |
|
Things are going along swimmingly. We miss the people in the store and are happy to see you all as you stop in for your orders! We made (and are making) updates to the website. And though sometimes change is hard to adjust to, these changes are to make it easier and better for you. Pretty much a few color changes and clarity. (Clearing your Cache will help). | |
Last Week's #1 Seller! Lummi Island Wild Tuna! While Cherry sales were crazy, there was also a "replenishment" surge for Lummi Island Wild Tuna. Meaning the people who ordered it first are re-ordering. This is always a good thing for the producers. The taste was special. As good as any tuna in a can I have ever had. It was surprising. We have had a lot of tuna over the years. Many cans have been recommended to us and rarely, if ever, are they super special. This tuna is memorable! This sashimi-grade young tuna is individually caught with single hook lines and is flash-frozen solid at sea right after it is caught, making it a sustainable canned tuna, as well as a tasty one! Averaging up to 50% less mercury than many common store brands, this tuna has more omega 3 fatty acids than most salmon! All of Lummi Island's wild-caught canned tuna comes from one second-generation tuna fisherman, Paul Hill, and his crew, who care about the fish and making sustainable canned tuna. Because of the special gear they use, they get virtually no bycatch. Shop now for Lummi Island Wild-Caught Canned Tuna! 
Cooking Classes for 2020
We will have classes again. If you have signed up for a class it is still good for any class of your choice when we do start them up again. So no worries. ChefShop Cooking Class
|
Store Hours - Monday Thru Saturday! If your order has been confirmed as ready in email (or you were called) and want it brought to you in the parking lot, call us when you arrive and we will run it out to you. 206-286-9988 Monday thru Saturday 10AM to 5PM. ChefShop.com 1425 Elliott Ave W Seattle, Wa 98119 206-286-9988 Our bigger parking lot is north of the shop and next door (south of) Champions Party Supply. Easy to reach and wide open parking lot. Click here to see the map. |
| This Week's Recipes |
|
Fresh Cherry Dessert Compote Recipe Here's a brilliant way to turn frozen or fresh (but maybe not perfect for eating) cherries into an irresistible dessert. Serve over vanilla ice cream, and you're set. Look for cherry "seconds" at your local farmers market - still delicious, but less aesthetically perfect than the "firsts". Cherry Chutney Recipe It is easy to make, tasty, and a great way to use up those extra and imperfect dark cherries. Perfect on roast pork, chicken, white fish - or even chilled on a a slice of double cream brie. Pork Chops with Ginger Apple Sauce Recipe This is one of my first successful recipes I made that I followed to a T. And I have always loved it. |
| See what you missed in previous Newsletters |
|
Harvest Soon, The Best Shortbread, More Cherries, Risotto, Parmigiano-Reggiano Easy Hummus Recipes and More |
|
||||
| DESIGN: JODI LUBY & COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK CITY, NY; EMAIL STRATEGY: CRM Group USA, SEATTLE, WA |