New Harvest Oil from Italy, Free Pasta w/Order, Special French Cherries and more at chefshop.com/enews EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBER 5% OFF CODE holidays  Recipes | Chef's Pantries | Shop for Food & Ingredients | Food Blog Tiburtini Olio Novello Only One New Oil Available This Year The last time we had this just-harvested and pressed olive oil, it was unbelievably good! To the nose, this year’s oil is a good whiff!!! It seems like forever since I have had a nose hair tingling smell like this one. The aroma is a memory evoking explosion that happens in the cells of my brain! The first whiff is so good, one feels compelled to smell and smell again; because the aroma (in the mind) dissipates once you taste it and because all the other parts of your taste sensors will soon be bathed in the freshness of freshly-pressed olives… The clear bottle shows you the oil in all its glory. It is like your oil is wearing clear clothes. The cloudy gorgeous greens are simply glamorous. Tiburtini always looks good! Suck in a tablespoon of this green olive oil, and the taste sensation is a wonderful light, cloudy feeling, slightly buttery, but more Italian olivey than French buttery. There is a slight bitter tone on the edge of your tongue, more like a taste of bitter, not the stab of a pitchfork like so many oils can sometimes do this time of year. And then there is the involuntary cough that emits from your throat as the burn starts small and slow and then builds to a giant ball, an angry cloud, filling the back of your throat. After you survive the bite and the cough(ing) there is this wonderful pleasant, rich, quite perfect, olive flavor, which by the way, is not always true with new oils. Tiburtini Olio Novello is wonderful. And this year it is pretty gosh darn special. The smooth cloudy mouthful is just right and you will not be disappointed with the back of the throat kick. The olive flavor is not bitter, more sweet, at least in a new oil way. This Novello oil is what you dream you want olive oil to be, just better. Novello and Nuovo means new or fresh or young or tender. It is an oil that is freshly pressed and bottled before all the particulates fall out of the liquid. It makes for a bright, more-than-alive olive oil that has a short life. It is best to use this oil right away! (All the extra particulates will turn to yucky.) Use liberally and pour gobs to relish, and to smother your best friend, your taste buds! Think of a simple pasta, like Mori, cooked just right, with a nice flake crunchy salt, like Fossil River, and that is all you need, really! You could sprinkle a few capers or Parmigiano-Reggiano on top for a little more bite. Or do as we do, slice a nice open-celled Italian bread, drench in Tiburtini Olio Novello on a plate with a liberal sprinkle of flake salt. Don’t worry, all the extra oil on the plate you can dip and soak up with your next piece of bread. Tiburtini Olio Novello is the only new oil we are expecting from the 2021 harvest. California does not have enough (olives) and Italy is too concerned with shipping to send the oil. Extremely limited supply. Max 2 bottles per customer. Shop Now for Tiburtini Olio Novello! Click Here To See Everything Featured in This Newsletter! Basic Dairy-Free Pancake recipe When I first started making dairy-free pancakes, I used apple juice, and then I learned that orange juice also makes a great pancake. There is something about juice versus milk that makes for a nice, light pancake. You can make these with gluten-free flour as well, for those who avoid dairy and gluten. If you eat dairy, make them with butter for extra flavor. See the Basic Dairy-Free Pancake Recipe here! Caputo "00" Italian Pizza Flour I use this flour all the time, because I forget to get more This 11-12% dry gluten content flour is designed for high-temperature pizza ovens and fast fermentation times. Super-soft flour is the tradition in Naples, Italy - the land of pizza and pasta. Caputo "00" Pizza Flour is finely ground from the finest European winter wheat, which means a softer texture and smooth mouth-feel. Double zero flour is easy to work with and produces a superior crust with a beautiful crumb. Antico Molino Caputo was first started in 1924 in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, in Naples, Italy. This is the same mill that Carmine Caputo took over from his father, and still runs today. The mill grinds only the finest quality durum wheat, grown mostly in Italy using traditional, age-old methods. Caputo is known throughout Italy for their very finely ground ("00") flours - a mainstay ingredient for sweets, breads and pastas throughout Italy and worldwide. Flour is very important to Italians, especially those who live in Naples; quality is important, and the miller is critical. So, the secret to getting that authentic Pizza di Napoli taste is to buy Italian flour online (here) and use Caputo "00" pizza flour from Naples. Shop now for Caputo "00" Pizza Flour! Maasdam's Famous Homemade Sorghum Syrup Perfect for making pancakes! Sorghum is a sweetener we knew about and when a customer asked us to find it, we went looking. Unsurprisingly, up here in the north it’s just not a common desire. In the world, sorghum is the 3rd largest grain crop! Grown to make flour, cooked like millet, and here the green stalk is squeezed to make a thick sweetener. Finding a sorghum syrup and one that a chef would use is a long story. We spent a bunch of time asking around and following up on leads only to come up empty. That's where the farmer's daughter comes into play. My sister-in-law grew up in Iowa, she’s the daughter in this story, and she knew about sorghum (what’s the big deal she says with her eyes) and her mom uses it every day. I asked if the one they used was the best there was? She always gives me that incredulous look when I ask her questions like that, and answers, “I don't know but this is the one we always use from the neighbor down-the-road.” Keep in mind, my sister-in-law is a great cook, she has that knack to make everything taste homegrown great! So I trust her opinion. So, that was the impetus to try this sorghum. And who better to ask for a second opinion than Chef Pam, who loves sorghum. She went on and on about how it worked perfectly for certain recipes and how she was a big fan. I asked her to try the sample that we had acquired. Pam tasted it, her eyes lit up, and she said, “Now that's good!” Sorghum! The new old-fashioned sweetener from the heartland of the United States. Shop now for Maasdam's Famous Homemade Sorghum Syrup! Westmorland Souffle Rarebit - A Hawkshead Relish recipe This recipe is from the cookbook Embellish with Relish, by Maria Whitehead This recipe is based on a traditional Welsh Rarebit recipe that was served in the Café at Hawkshead. It was always a favorite. Great sourdough bread makes all the difference. See the Westmorland Souffle Rarebit - A Hawkshead Relish Recipe Hawkshead Relish Westmorland Chutney Hawkshead Relish Westmorland Chutney This is Maria's and Mark's very first creation of goodness in a jar! They took the classics and made them friendly and personal. Instead of harsh and in-your-face vinegar, they mellowed the acid and made a chutney that has personality and punch and is not offensive to you or your palate. Chutney is something we need here in our lives, like ketchup and mustard, sugar and spice, hot dogs and buns, meat and potatoes, and chutney and rarebit! Having a chutney standing by in the pantry for those unexpected moments in life is a good plan and this chutney is the perfect choice. The daddy of all chutneys, this is a very traditional, dark fruity chutney. It goes with everything from cheese and cold meats to Shepherd’s Pie; no cheese sandwich should be allowed to go without Hawkshead Westmorland Chutney. We think this is one fancy-dancy chutney to use every day. Deep, rich, flavorful, perfection for meats and cheeses of all kinds. This is a condiment worth having, always! Shop now for Hawkshead Relish Westmorland Chutney! Confiture de Cerises noires Black cherry preserves Finally! In what seems like forever - forever in modern terms - this confiture is back in stock! And we understand there is plenty in country for now. Open the jar of Confiture de Cerises Noires, and whilst you inhale the inner sweetness, your inner nose tingles with a tickly lovely feel. These Black Cherry Preserves are just plain (4 ingredients) perfect. Look inside the jar and you see dark - dark red hues, and you can see the shape of the small cherries in their own liquid. It is all enticing, so you dive in with a cautious spoon to have your first taste. And what a wonderful experience! Not so tart that you wish you never tried it (like many over-processed cherries in a jar) and not even close to being pucker crazy with too much sugar. These Cherries got flavor! These little “incroyable” rare “cerises noires” (black cherries) are harvested near the village of Itxassou in the French Basque Country. So rare that today just 3 tons are harvested each year. (In contrast, Washington State produced 237,000 tons of cherries in 2015). A softness that is not mushy, the skin disappears altogether as you “macher”. Ideas pop into your head on how you can bring this cherry into your life. Traditionally used for Gateau Basque, simply Basque Cake, “the cake of the house”, these special cherries are “parfait” in a cream puff, in a croissant, topping vanilla ice cream, or on every piece of cheesecake. And it’s not just for sweets, think of a soft cheese or the core of a lovely duck sauce! With just a twist of the wrist to remove the lid, you will expose your inner taste buds to a unique slice of food heaven with a spoonful of these black cherry preserves! These are pretty gosh darn special! Use like a jam, on your meat, on a cake, or as I like, on a spoon! Shop now for Basque Black Cherry Preserves! Lemon Olive Oil Cake recipe This is the perfect time to make an olive oil cake. As the new harvest oils will be coming sometime in the New Year, you can use some of that extra oil you have lying around. When you serve this soft, succulent, easy to make, olive oil cake no one will be able to resist taking a second and even a third piece - especially if you use the best oil you can find and the freshest eggs! Options for this simple lemon olive oil cake recipe include using any citrus fruit in place of the orange like lime, lemon or grapefruit. Or combine two or three citrus to make a zesty treat! See the Lemon Olive Oil Cake Recipe here! Chateau Virant A.O.C. Olive Oil Amazing Gold Medal Award-Winning French Olive Oil!! This is from the 2020 harvest. Does it matter? No! This oil is bottled as needed and stored in a special place to maintain the quality and flavor. And it is not an oil that is meant to be in your throat making you cough. This oil is smooth and special every year. To the nose, it is wild and full of olive and is super tingly to the inner nostril hairs. The color is a light yellow green, without any dark shadows or edges on the spoon. To the tip of the tongue, there are some great wonderful soft touches. It feels good. The flavor of the oil is distinct and you can taste it with just a touch. Full of richness, a mouthful will surprise you. It starts like a nice French oil, buttery and vapory, and just as it disappears there is an explosion of olive and just before, if you pay attention, your nose will tingle again, and then you will get this, almost an assault, a large push of tickle, actually a massive tickle that makes you cough. Some might think it is a peppery finish, which it is, yet it is not an Italian peppery kick. It starts so round and finishes with a great olive cloud. The punch is the surprise and the flavor is so special. This is the best this oil has been in forever! Chateau Virant Famille Cheylan, AOP Huile d’Olive D’aix-en-Provence, is the Concours Général Agricole, Médaille d’OR (Gold Medal) winner, Paris 2020! Shop now for Chateau Virant A.O.C. Olive Oil! Powdered Fondant and Icing Sugar! This incredible powdered cane sugar from India Tree used to be only available in bulk and sold to commercial kitchens. Twice as fine as regular powdered sugar, it is designated XX (as opposed to supermarket X). Your final product will be unbelievably smooth, and very, very glossy. India Tree powdered cane sugar makes remarkable royal icing and fondant fillings for candy. When you use it, you know right away it is special. This is good stuff! Shop now for India Tree Powdered Fondant & Icing Sugar! Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - a recipe One of my father's favorite desserts. When looking for any recipe that one would consider "comfort food", we always turn to Marian Burros' book, "Cooking for Comfort" first. See the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake recipe here! Dark Muscovado Sugar from India Tree This sugar is at the top of my list to always have on hand. Use this once and you will see that this is how you want sugar to be. It has flavor, it has personality, it is alive! Muscovado is a soft, moist, fine brown sugar. It's also known as Barbados sugar, where it was once made. But ours comes from the island of Mauritius off the African coast. While most brown sugar these days is made by combining already-refined sugar with added molasses-like syrup, this is the real thing. This is a less refined product with rich, complex flavor. This sugar adds a deeper dimension to cakes, fudge, pecan pie, and other desserts with its rich butterscotch flavors. Use it as you would brown sugar - take your morning oatmeal to new heights with a spoonful of Dark Muscovado on top! Shop now for India Tree Dark Muscovado Sugar! Basic Pasta with Olive Oil a recipe! This recipe is inspired by how to celebrate freshly-pressed olive oil. Make pasta, pour a bottle of olive oil over it and toss and share! If you don't have a table set up in your olive orchard, or 25 people to share with, consider this: Cook your pasta al dente - you want your bite to have a little chew, and liberally drizzle the oil over the pasta. Then crumble a nice flake salt over everything, and you will see how the oil you have chosen sings and will tell you a compelling story. This is a wonderful way to feature great ingredients, because each, from the pasta to the oil to the salt, will shine in the spotlight on the plate! Simple is glorious! Click here to see the Basic Pasta with Olive Oil Recipe! Bigoli Nobili Mori Pasta Spaghetti from Sgambaro This spaghetti is absolutely fabulous! How is it possible that a pasta can taste this good? We don't know but we love it! If you can have only one pasta, it might have to be this one! Bigoli is a traditional pasta from the Veneto region of northeast Italy and references to Bigoli date from the mid-1400s. In 2002 Pastificio Sgambaro reintroduced its bronze-drawn Bigoli in three versions: Mori, Bianchi e Sottili, and al Radicchio Rosso. They gave these amazing pastas the name "Bigoli Nobili" to pay tribute to the best culinary traditions of the Veneto region. About the size of spaghetti, Bigoli takes its name from the extrusion press used to create it. Sgambaro "Mori" (dark) is made from the best durum semolina grown in Italy; it's slightly darker and denser than most pasta, and its surface has a rougher texture, perfect for encouraging sauces to cling - and the taste is sensational! And with this newsletter, if you order anything else we will include a free box of Mori Pasta for you to try. It is our way of saying thank you for all the well wishes, the "hi's" you send in the notes on checkout, and for reading our newsletter! Limited to orders placed December 25th to December 26th with this week's newsletter coupon code. Limited supply - no backorders - no rain checks. Thanks! Shop now to get your free box of Bigoli Nobili Mori Pasta! Maritime Lavender Honey from Les Ruchers de Bourgogne! This is one of my all-time favorite honeys! From the shores of the Mediterranean, this French Lavender species (there are over 45 different species and more than 450 varieties) has an incredible flavor with hints of the salty air it grows in. A firm honey, it is spreadable and definitely spoonable. It is sweet, like candy, and has a gentle and pronounced personality. This honey is delicious. Shop now for Les Ruchers de Bourgogne Maritime Lavender Honey! Mango Chutney a relish that you can feel good about! Chutney is a much-loved condiment and is relished in England and everywhere, except here. I have been trying to go back in my mind as to why we have such an aversion to chutneys here. I can’t find anything (a blank mind is a terrible thing to waste). Overall, this is a winner; it is friendly, it is a condiment that can be put on a sandwich, or combined into recipes for an acceleration of goodness. To the nose, there is an aggressive jump up into your nostrils as you smell cardamom, turmeric and hot peppers. This is followed by a feel of citrus that turns into acid. Leave the cover off and the acidic volatiles evaporate and what remains is the cardamom, turmeric and the hint of pepper. There is also a nose of pickling. There is a tinge of excitement for the mouth, not knowing what is going to happen! There are three main groups here. The initial whole mouth texture is the mango, which is the underlying taste, though you would be hard-pressed to exclaim: I taste mango! Then there is the “sauce” which is smooth like a nice thick syrup, and it contains all the flavors. There is the sweetness of the mango and sugar, and there is the sour sweet of the lemon and lime, and there is the melding of all the spices. It’s pretty tasty! With a mouthful, it is a lot to take in. There is a sour element that can make your eyes close, but only for a brief moment. The mango is in little pieces that are soft and that disappear quickly. The little pieces of red pepper are (not hot) interlopers of chewy bits, perhaps the only thing that doesn’t feel like it dissolves on its own. Overall though it is a combination of everything into one. In use you would never view it as separate elements, only as one glorious flavor. It’s the complexity of all the flavors that makes it tongue smacking good! In this weird world, food combination rules are out the window. I had chicken I was dicing up for my cat, and decided to slice myself some pieces. I had a hot dog bun (not a good one) that was going to go stale, so I toasted it, put mayo on it, then the dry chicken and topped it with mango chutney. Under normal circumstances it would have been bearable, but not worth eating. Instead the mango chutney brought some life into an otherwise bad sandwich. It was a good test. Just imagine what it would be like with Kerelan Mango Chicken! Shop now for Hawkshead Relish Mango Chutney! Got questions? Call or email and we will do our best to answer your questions! We love sharing our taste opinions about all our products. STORE HOURS: Monday thru Saturday, 10 to 5. Please let us know if you would like a private shopping time and we will do our best to accommodate you. We now have multiple HEPA medical grade air filters running 24 hours a day in the shop. Please keep in mind we are limiting the number of people in the shop at one time and masks are required. If you are feeling sick for any reason please choose a different time to visit. We may perform random temperature checks. Black Sesame Seed Toffee Brittle This is addictive! Toffee is so easy to make. Sugar, butter, water and toppings. And even though it so easy to make, I never want to. Toffee is such a super treat to eat, I love it when someone else makes it! It's a gift of simplicity rewarded with a crunch, bite, and flavor! And this toffee? It is not too sweet, it is a great refreshing treat, and it is not thick, like some. Instead it is thin and svelte, with a perfect gentle crunch. This toffee will not break your teeth! my kind of treat! "This black sesame seed toffee brittle chocolate is my kind of treat. It’s the perfect amount of sweet to feel indulgent but not guilty. The rich burnt sugar taste of the toffee is great with the black sesame crunch, pulled out with a smidge of salt. Coated in chocolate. Really good." -- tina Toffee Brittle with Black Sesame Seeds! "Bought for son and his wife and they both really liked it and gave it 5 stars!!" -- jennie Shop now for NeoCocoa Black Sesame Seed Toffee Brittle! Give the Gift of Love through Food Gift Certificates available for any amount you choose. Choose the amount in $25 increments by changing the quantity number and we will take care of the rest. Share ChefShop with a Gift Certificates HOLIDAY Store Hours - Monday thru Saturday 10 to 5. If your order has been confirmed as "ORDER READY FOR PICKUP" 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 - FOR Pick-up orders placed online you need to get to the select shipping method page in the shopping cart. 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 Keralan Mango Chicken Recipe Hawkshead Relish Company not only makes great relish and chutney, they came out with a great cookbook last year [Embellish with Relish by Maria Whitehead] - chock full of quick and delicious recipe ideas using their products. It's a great thing to have around when you need a quick recipe idea, and have a nice collection of Hawkshead Relish products in your panty - which I highly recommend. Here is one of them. Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde Recipe Sauce Verde is a piquant herb sauce traditionally made with parsley. Albert has added a handful of other appropriate herbs for a slight variation. A good olive oil adds a nice rich flavor to the herbs. This baked salsa verde chicken recipe is courtesy of Albert and Kim Katz of Katz and Company. Spaghetti con Acciughe Recipe Known in Italian as "Spaghetti con Acciughe," this recipe is quick, easy and oh, so good. A classic Neapolitan dish, Spaghetti and Anchovies is a great way to get your anchovy fix for the day. See what you missed in previous Newsletters Recipe Ideas to Enjoy! Stocking Stuffer Ideas, Shipping Cut-Off soon The Best Foods to Have On Hand For Everyone! ChefShop.com Toll-free: 1-800-596-0885 You've received this email because you have purchased from us or subscribed. We respect your privacy online, and will never share your email address. To unsubscribe just click UNSUBSCRIBE or send a request to info@chefshop.com with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. Hard copy requests may be sent by mail to: ChefShop.com, 1425 Elliott Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119. To view our privacy policy, please click here. To unsubscribe just click UNSUBSCRIBE or send a request to info@chefshop.com with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. Hard copy requests may be sent by mail to: ChefShop.com, 1425 Elliott Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119. To view our privacy policy, please click here. 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