Chocolate Prune Torte, 40-year-old Balsamic, Aged Yuzu Citrus,Casa Del Grano, Agro di Mosto and more at chefshop.com/enews EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBER 5% OFF CODE peppers  Recipes | Chef's Pantries | Shop for Food & Ingredients | Food Blog They’re More Than Just Nature's Best Candy! Prunes D’Agen! Though we automatically pop these particular prunes into our mouths right away because they are such a treat, prunes are a special way to naturally sweeten your recipes. Prunes do especially well with pork in savory dishes. Even simple ones like bacon-wrapped sausages with prunes are super easy to make and celebrate the prune. California is the source of most of the prunes in this country, but France is the home of the most splendid prune of all – Pruneaux D’Agen from Agen, France. When you try one of these for the first time, you realize that not all prunes are the same. Those dried, wrinkly, chewy ones I grew up with are nothing like these, which are a totally different eating experience. I’ve been very lucky in my time in the food business to try a lot of food, and in a previous life to have traveled around the world, and there are many foods that are interesting, exciting, delicious and special. But when it comes to food and travel, Agen, France is at the top of my bucket list to visit for the prune harvest. Do people still have bucket lists? I don’t have many things on lists, but these prunes have a top spot! With their micro-thin skins, they are absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and just as good for snacking as they are for either, sweet or savory dishes, like Bruce Aidells' and Denis Kelly's Braised Pork with Port and Prunes, or rich North African-style tagines, which incorporate warm spices like cinnamon or allspice with prunes and meat, often lamb. What's so special these about Agen prunes?! They come from plums that are a hybrid of a local fruit and the exotic damask plum, first brought to France from Syria in the 12th century. The plums are shaken from the trees, dried first in the sun and then finished in a barely warm oven. The result is a large, plump prune with a deep spicy aroma and rich, lovely flavor - a summer harvest that's ready to be enjoyed all winter long! Shop now for Pruneaux D'Agen Click Here To See Everything Featured in This Newsletter! Chocolate and Prune Torte Recipe This is richly good! Whipping the egg whites is the most intensive task in this recipe, otherwise simply fold in the ingredients and bake! Easy and delicious and the prunes make the intense chocolate experience special! Click here to see the Recipe! Sausage and Prunes Wrapped in Bacon recipe Heat the oven, toss the sausage in honey, wrap the sausage and prune with bacon. Bake and eat! Click here to see the Sausage and Prunes Wrapped in Bacon Recipe! Known as The Claw of the Hawk Because of its Talon Shape. The Takanotsume Pepper Takanotsume are known as The Claw of the Hawk because of their talon shape, and are a favorite pepper for people to grow at home. Takanotsume is a wonderful ornamental plant which yields 2 1/2 to 3 cm long peppers that grow upright in a bunch and can give you a lot of peppers! Tangy, slightly salty, initially very friendly and flavor-rich, with a delay that finishes with big heat, this is the hottest heirloom chili pepper grown in Japan. Takanotsume are excellent cooking peppers and can be used whole in dishes or chopped for a stir fry. Commercially this pepper is often dried or powdered and treated as an ingredient to enhance other food. For hot people, it is considered a medium heat; it is a capsicum annuum with a heat rating of 20,000 – 30,000 SHU, which in a normal mouth is pretty gosh darn hot. Overall, this is good heat that does not pounce or bite at you; it’s more rounded, a nice “open up your taste buds” heat. At Yamatsu Tsujita Co. Ltd, Tsujita-san, the craftsman who makes this pepper available, is on a mission to keep these peppers growing in Japan, where over 90% of red chili peppers eaten there come from somewhere else. This is why the Takanotsume peppers inside the jar are hand-selected for their shape and good looks; Tsujita-san is eager to share these wonderful peppers with the world. Shop now for the Takanotsume Pepper! Broccolini with Garlic, Anchovies and Hot Chili Pepper recipe This is a great recipe to try the new peppers. Remember a little goes a long way. See the Broccolini with Garlic, Anchovies and Hot Chili Pepper Recipe! La Vecchia Dispensa 40-yr Balsamic Modena, Italy This Balsamic Condimento can trace its roots back forty years - and it's a rarity for something so old to be put on the market, and its thickness is a telltale sign of good things to come. This is an aged balsamic, naturally thickened by evaporation. It has a smell that reveals only a whiff of caramelized sugar and acid, with no hint of the joys to come. The flavor opens with woody notes and hints of truffle before blossoming into a very complex fruit mid-palate, with a cascade of blackberry and black cherry notes. It moves quickly to a nutty, almost buttery in the wine sense, and finishes with a pleasant amount of back-of-the-palate acid. Leaning into the acidity, we found this to be an exceptional "sipper", and one that would go well with duck, venison, and game birds. This vinegar, as you might expect, like the 100-year-old, is in limited supply. This is (an almost) special order and will take additional days before it ships, but definitely worth the wait. Shop now for La Vecchia Dispensa 40-yr Balsamic! Parmigiano-Reggiano with Aged Balsamic recipe This isn't really a recipe. Regardless, it's easy to do, always delicious, and is always impressive. Since there are only two ingredients involved, the quality of the ingredients is critical. See the Parmigiano-Reggiano with Aged Balsamic Recipe here! Fermented Pepper with Yuzu Citrus Aged 1.5 Years In a remote village in Japan, long before refrigeration, snow became a natural way to preserve locally-grown food for the winter. By the time spring arrived the cold snow had not only “preserved” foods, it had, in some cases, transformed the food to something new. As in the case of these Kanzuri peppers. They’re harvested in the summer, then kept in salt for six months, before being laid out on the snow for a few days early in the year. The “snow” process reduces the bitterness and the salt content of the peppers, while breaking down their fibrous structure, mellowing the punch, and bringing their sweet side out. The peppers are then mixed with koji (rice mold) and yuzu citrus. The peppers and yuzu live together for one and half years – “fermenting” their relationship - to create what is in this jar. Place a spoonful of this Yuzu chili pepper paste in a dish on a table below your face and nose and the aromas will rise and float into your nostrils. It is subtle, but as you recognize the smell it becomes more pleasantly present. If you take a big whiff you will recognize the distinct aroma of a hot pepper with a slight twizzle tickle in the nostrils. On the tongue (and in the mouth), the yuzu comes out quickly and then is gone, replaced by a mellow saltiness and the flavor of the pepper. I have to admit, putting even a small amount in my mouth directly was a little scary and I am happy to report that I survived. There is heat, but it is not all-enveloping. If there is a linger of a tingle, it’s in the lower half of the mouth, the tip of the tongue and a momentary twitch in the back of the throat. What is amazing about this fermented chili pepper paste with yuzu citrus is that it’s smooth, level, not spiky, but even-keeled, a temperament that is enhancing without too much dancing. You get the flavor of the pepper, the help of salt to open up the pores, and a nice feel of pepper heat. There is no rush of accelerated heat or unpleasant explosion of hot sauce. In use this fermented chili pepper paste is like a gentle wave across the palate. It doesn’t overwhelm, instead – like when you have it straight up – it is mellow across the board, yet you know it has a fiery core. Simply, it is quite amazing! Those in Niigata use it in hot pots, with sashimi and on the grill. Venus has replaced her yuzu kosho with Kanzuri in her famous tuna fish salad and is loving it. Much has changed in Niigata since way back when. The Kanzuri fermented pepper has not. The careful preparation has remained the same after all these years – a true slow food process in which time cannot be accelerated. The 6 year aged (expected to arrive in the fall of this year) is smoother, with rounded edges. The younger one is more like a teenager, more in your face, challenges your choices and more likely to give your tongue a lashing. Shop now for Kanzuri Fermented Pepper and Yuzu Paste! Casa Del Grano Traditional Malloreddus Pasta from Sardinia, Italy Malloreddus is a small pasta shape from Sardinia. Made with water and semolina flour in plain or saffron dough. The name has Latin origins from “malleoulus” meaning small morsel. Or, it is also believed the origin of the name comes from the word malloru, meaning bull, and that malloreddus means calves, and the shape is like the calf of a leg. No matter, this saffron-infused pasta is traditionally handmade in homes by taking small rolled dough in 15 cm pieces and pressing and rolling it against the bottom of a basket made of wicker. This method gives the exterior ribbed look while being pressed by the thumb and as it is pressed it is rolled into its shape. This shape, sometimes referred to as “gnocchi” in Italian and “cigiones” in Sassari. There are many dishes you can make with this shape. Robust, simple, full are how they all sound. Think olive oil, bacon, peas, Parmigiano-Reggiano, fennel, sausage, tomatoes, garlic, basil, saffron, etc. Any of these ingredients can make a wonderful dish! With a little bounce in the bite, a space to hold flavor and an exterior that grabs the sauce, what more could you want in a pasta shape? And one with a history full of tradition! Shop now for Casa del Grano Malloreddus Pasta with Saffron! San Giacomo Agro di Mosto Reggio Emilia, Italy This balsamic vinegar is truly the best everyday Balsamic Vinegar you can find anywhere - fabulous character, a personality of flavor that is memorable and a sweet sharpness that is great for almost everything. This is balsamic in its early stages. Not thin like young balsamics that are 6 years old, but much richer, thicker, and sweeter than its early age would have you think. A hint of what lies ahead, this is a treat on its own as a wonderful everyday vinegar that is pulled before it is certified as a thick balsamic vinegar. Priced to be used liberally, per ml this is the lowest-priced balsamic vinegar we have! Don't be fooled, this is one place where price is not a reflection of quality, but in fact, a mirror of the quality of all San Giacomo products. Extracted early in the balsamic-making process, Agro di Mosto is only a few years old. It is truly amazing how sophisticated this bottle is, given its young age. This is filled from the same battery of barrels on their way to becoming San Giacomo Balsamic, and then Essenza, a truly sophisticated Balsamic, and finally a Tradizionale. This is a runaway hit in the store. Anyone who tastes it loves it! Shop Now For the Best for Daily use Balsamic Vinegar Deal! Pécou Mini Dark Chocolate Hearts France These little gems, shaped like hearts, are delicious. Pécou is an old French candy maker (1880) who still makes their candies like they used to. As simple as these candies are, most similar to M&M's, they are significantly more exciting to eat. Why? It seems to be the perfect combination, the ratio if you will, of the outer sugar coating and the chocolate. In addition, it is real chocolate and the sugar coating is not an afterthought. The sugar coating (like all their candies) has this wonderful crunch, with just the right thickness, not too thick, not too thin, just perfect! A delight in the mouth, you will eat the whole box in one movie if you are not careful! Shop now for Pécou Mini Dark Chocolate Hearts! Henri Maire Escargot - Wild Burgundy Snails from France! Wild Burgundy Snails, a timeless French delicacy, are finally available to gourmets in the United States. The finest purveyor in Paris, La Maison de l’Escargot, has been satisfying the most discriminating palettes in France since 1894. Introducing Wild Burgundy Snails of Henri Maire. Whether in three-star Michelin-rated restaurants like Paris’ Taillevent - #1 dining destination in the World, 2001 Zagat’s survey - Chez Lasserre, or Alain Ducasse’s Grande Cascade, Hélix Pomatia Linne snails have graced the finest tables in France. Similarly, consumers who frequent La Maison de l’Escargot’s shop in the 15th, or the fashionable right-bank shops of Galeries Lafayette Gourmet, serve only the best in their homes. The formula is quite simple, frankly. As with all gastronomic delicacies, French Escargot exhibit varying levels of quality. La Maison’s snails have maintained an unwavering reputation for incomparable products amid the demands of the culinary capital of the world, because they begin with purely wild Burgundy snails - Hélix Pomatia Linne - delivered live. These savory delights from Potironne Company are then hand-sorted by size, washed, and cooked in an aromatic bouillon according to the same ancestral standards used in 1894. Health Benefits of French Escargot: Snails are good for you. This is an example of how flavor and nutrition go together. - 100 grams of snail contain 119 milligrams of eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA - a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid usually found in seafood. They say an average intake of 250 milligrams a day of this kind of fatty acid may lower your risk of heart disease. - A serving of French Escargot contains 382 milligrams of potassium, but only 70 mg of sodium -- which means they are perfect for a low-sodium diet. - Snails provide 3.5 mgs of iron, or nearly 20% of the daily recommended value. The iron is also in the heme form, which is easier for our bodies to absorb. Other nutrients include Vitamin B12, selenium, vitamin E, phosphorus, and magnesium. - These French Escargot also contain a glycoprotein, which is believed to have cancer-fighting properties. - And let's not forget that they taste great - especially nestled in their shells with a little butter and lots of garlic! Wild Burgundy Snails of Henri Maire are produced by Potironne Company, which is owned and operated by a professional chef, trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Shop now for Henri Maire Escargot - Wild Burgundy Snails! Escargot Shells 12 Shells from France! How do you serve l'escargot without the shell? Well, you certainly can use mushroom caps, and they can be delicious that way, but if you want to stick to tradition, it's snail shells and herbed garlic butter all the way. We've got 12 re-usable snail shells here, and that's the perfect number for 2. Shop now for Escargot Shells from France! Hawkshead Creates a Classic Jam Damson Extra Jam A winner of a Great Taste Award! Damascene is a drupaceous fruit and a species of the plum tree. The name Damson appears to have originated in Great Britain. Less sweet than other more modern plums, this plum can make you pucker up, which makes a wonderful jam. This Damson Jam is the jam of choice for those who like things less sweet. Now, don't think of it as sour, because it isn't. What it does do is keep its personality (astringent) even though it is sweetened with sugar. Classically made, this Damson Jam keeps its fruit stones in the process. The pits are not removed and are crushed in the jam making. This process adds depth to the flavor of the preserve. Think of breakfast on toast or with your afternoon tea and scones! Delicious and full of flavor! Shop Now For Hawkshead Damson Extra Jam! Slitti Gianera Creamy Dark Hazelnut Spread Tuscany, Italy My level of anticipation to open this jar of chocolate hazelnut spread was a little surprising to me. We get a lot of new food, almost every day, here. Sometimes we request it, and sometimes it shows up on its own. When we order anything untasted, based on our trust in the “maker”, in this case Andrea Slitti, the excitement is based on our memory-of-palate. Being a believer that Slitti Noccialata is the be-all end-all of all chocolate sauces in a jar, we were slow on the uptake for Slitti’s Gianera. After first “taste”, we now find them both essential to our “lunch box” for the dessert island. Upon opening the jar of dark hazelnut spread, you smell the hazelnuts entwined with cocoa. You press your popsicle stick in expecting resistance and instead the smooth, creaminess of the Gianera is not only surprising, it is absolutely delightful! It’s immediately obvious why this hazelnut cocoa spread has won a Gold Bar twice for Best Spreading Cream. So many dessert chocolate sauces achieve a cream feel with an addition of fructose syrups and the like. Gianera dark hazelnut spread, on the other hand, is nothing but round and mild Piedmontese hazelnuts from the “Langhe” area, blended with sugar and cocoa! It’s not only the spreadable part that makes it a winner, though, it’s the chocolate, hazelnut creaminess that finishes with a nice, dry, dark cocoa finish. If you swirl it delicately against the roof of your mouth, your tongue can feel that the super smoothness of the crema and the flavor of the hazelnuts are so perfectly melded in a harmonious balance of a smile. It's like Slitti Nocciolata, but smoother in texture, and no milk. Chocolate hazelnut spread sparks a craving for more, yet completely satisfies a dessert craving! Slitti Gianera, like Slitti Nocciolata, means perfection! Shop now for Slitti Gianera Creamy Dark Hazelnut Spread! 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. ChefShop Cocoa Powder Bake a cake! Cocoa powder is wonderful always to have on hand in your pantry. Decide you want to make brownies, a cake, a torte, or if you crave hot chocolate, having cocoa powder on hand is just good practice. Store in a dark cool place and it will last until you need it! Mocha! "I use this cocoa powder to make mocha's at my coffee shop, everyone loves this chocolate!" -- kevin Shop now for ChefShop Cocoa Powder! 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 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 Marinated Flank Steak Recipe I have changed my diet a fair amount. And that is probably why I am craving flank steak! This is a terrific, tangy marinade for grilled meat or chicken. We love this marinated flank steak with a simple plate of rice and a green vegetable. Easy, quick to mix, the quality of your soy sauce makes all the difference. The sesame oil and the ginger are key ingredients, as well. Quinoa Risotto with Dried Black Currants and Golden Raisins Recipe Takes the attention of a classic risotto, and the results are just as rewarding. Take your time adding the heated broth and enjoy the benefits of the time you took. English Roast Beef Recipe It's easy, it's home cooking, use your instinct to adjust to the beef and the results will be good. An English Beef Roast is also known as chuck arm roast, cross rib roast, chuck-eye roast, chuck shoulder, and pot roast. See what you missed in previous Newsletters Easy to Make Your Own Hot Chocolate and Other Recipes New Chocolate Valentine's Day, Passion Fruit and Beans Brighten Up Your Life With Lemon Olive Oil Plus Tons of Recipes 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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