Ok, we know it's a little early to talk about apricots, but it's starting to warm up out there and with peak season just around the corner (from May to September depending on where you live) we just can't help ourselves.
The plump, golden-orange fruit is one our favorite farmer's market finds. A fine snack in its dried incarnation, it also makes for stellar tarts and preserves.
Keep it simple with fresh apricots. Drizzle them with honey and pair with ricotta or goat cheese or toss them on the grill. This season we have an eye on Food & Wine's simple recipe for broiled apricots caramelized with honey, an ideal foil for sweet vanilla ice cream. Below are eight tempting recipes to choose from:
Towards the middle of spring, fava beans or as the English call them -- broad beans -- can be found at farmer's markets across the country. Their rich buttery texture and heavenly nutty taste not only complement meats, fish and other fruits and vegetables, but also make them standouts on their own.
Fava beans are eaten around the world as a snack and as a full meal. They're used as essential ingredients in meals ranging from salad to pork shoulder to bean paste. In the Middle East, fava beans are crushed in a sauce and eaten for breakfast in a dish called "ful medames."
In Iran, fava beans are conserved in metal cans and eaten throughout the winter with salt and pepper. They can also be fried and eaten as a delicious crunchy snack, as done in Mexico, Peru, China and Thailand.
The first seasonal strawberries appear as early as April. The deliciously tart fruit we've come to know today originated in grassy woodlands all over Europe. Find out how to transform these red, ripe, sweet and succulent treats of nature into fabulous desserts.
Strawberries taste delicious eaten plain with a glass of champagne. But in a pie, their juiciness creates a distinctly bitter-sweet flavor that sits on the palate and seems to melt into the pie crust.
Strawberries taste especially rich when paired with milky desserts, like panna cotta and mascarpone. Or, simply add slices of strawberries to a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
This candy-like fruit easily creates a sweet distinctive jam without adding any pectin. Below are eight especially delicious strawberry desserts to try at home:
I will never forget my experience browsing through the open-air market in Potsdam, Germany and discovering the culinary delights of white asparagus. My eyes were overwhelmed by the magnificent sight of thick, extremely straight white asparagus spears. That evening, I cooked this delicate white asparagus and topped it off with hollandaise sauce.
Ever since that experience, I never thought of asparagus in the same way. It went from being a vegetable that I detested throughout childhood to a respected art of nature.
April is the prime month for the asparagus season. While the evenings get warmer, the quantity of the harvest increases. There are four main varieties: green, white, violet and wild. Green asparagus is the one most commonly grown in the United States.
There are numerous ways to use asparagus in a dish. But, as we enter spring, it's time to think about refreshing salads that place this delicious crunchy vegetable at the center. Below are eight different recipes for asparagus salad:
As someone who has spent hours reading about how to perfect the omelet, the Italian frittata is another egg-based culinary delight I admit takes a certain skill. Like making an omelet, you must use just the right amount of ingredients so that the dish is not too cheesy or full of too many mushrooms. A frittata is somewhat a mix of an omelet and a quiche. It cooks over the stove in a skillet and is finished off in the broiler.
When entertaining, I often make frittata, because just one can serve up to 6 people. There are several different ways to make frittata. In southern Italian cuisine, especially Neapolitan cuisine, the frittata can contain spaghetti, macaroni, or another kind of pasta. Check out AOL's leftover spaghetti frittata recipe. A more traditional yet simple frittata might contain onions and Parmesan cheese.
I was grocery shopping yesterday, and I couldn't get my eyes off of cute mini artichokes from California. Ah, the gorgeous produce from California! I bought these artichokes and stuffed them with a marjoram stuffing. I'm a fan of the entire artichoke - the leaves and the heart.
Artichoke hearts taste delicious plain or thrown into a salad. They can also make the perfect braised chicken dish. In Italy, artichoke hearts are mixed with olive oil and transformed into an exquisite spread that's often applied to pizza. Besides stuffing the flower, you can also deep fry it. Or, you can simply go for steamed artichokes with an aioli dip.
Not only are artichokes eaten, but they are also used in drinks. In Vietnam, they're made into an herbal tea. And, in Italy the Italian bitter apéritif liqueur Cynar has artichoke as its primary flavor.
Kumquats are truly nature's candy. Apart from the texture, the taste has a blend of sweet and sour that reminds me of Sour Patched Kids, it's gummy drastically less healthy alternative. Besides snacking on them plain, kumquats make an incredible sauce. They also pair well in a dessert.
They can be candied and then used to decorate and flavor a cake. The hyper-citrus flavors taste exquisite with chocolate or cheesecake. Try it with roasted duck or with braised chicken. Unlike oranges, lemons, and limes, kumquats are distinctly sugary and bitter. Yet, like other citrus fruits, they are versatile and work well in both savory dishes and sweet desserts.
Below are 8 ways to incorporate kumquats into a meal:
When I was in Mexico, I tried a simple sweet and spicy dessert - chunks of pineapple sprinkled with dried chili flakes and salt, and drizzled with limes. A pineapple can be prepared for a complicated dessert or for something as simple as fruit salad.
This exquisite tropical fruit can be grilled or roasted. Recently, I tried Martha Stewart's recipe for grilled pineapple with coconut sorbet. It's the perfect antidote to the cold wintry weather. Pineapples work well in desserts due to its unique tropical sweetness and its bright yellow color. I'll never forget the light fluffy cake toppled with pineapples that I tried last May at Pierre Hermé in Paris.
Studies reveal that certain sweets, like chocolate activate the libido. Just last week, The Times of India had an article reporting on the aphrodisiac effects of chocolate particularly on men. Food scientists tracked down a specific ingredient responsible for these effects - Eurycoma Longifolia Jack.
Chocolates have long been associated with romance. As far back as the eighteenth century, food enthusiasts, like Brillat Savarin, raved about chocolate's corporal effects. So, when thinking about sweets for Valentine's Day, I often think of various chocolate confections and cakes.
Below are 8 chocolates I highly recommend this Valentine's Day:
Dozen Box of Roni's Roses - These chocolates are flavored with rose petal jam, powdered rose petals and exotic rose liqueur. If you're in NY, I highly suggest that you check out Roni-Sue's in the Essex Street Market in the Lower East Side.
Poco Dolce Burt Caramel Tiles - Everything made by Poco Dolce is phenomenal. They have truly mastered the delicious combination of salt and sweet.
Each many Friday afternoons, I sort through the list of recipes, newspaper articles and blog posts that I've bookmarked over the previous week (or two) in order to dish up a tasty assorted eight. Here's the selection this week:
Several weeks ago, Amy made Franks & Beans and I just haven't been able to get them out of my mind.
Love the taste of roasted garlic, but can't quite seem to manage to make it successfully in the oven? CNET's Appliance and Kitchen Gadgets blog introduces us to the counter-top garlic roaster.
I grew up on Swiss Miss hot chocolate - cocoa powder and hot water, as simple as that. While living in Paris, I tried rich thick hot chocolates that made my Swiss Miss alternative seem overly watery and lacking in flavor and texture. So, when I returned to NY, I became intrigued by the many different ways to make this simple drink more exquisite. Mexican hot chocolate is probably my favorite.
If you're looking to spice up your hot chocolate, you don't necessarily have to add anything to the combination besides water, milk, and chocolate. Think about using different kinds of chocolates. For example, a Mexican hot chocolate is made from chocolate that has often been blended with sugar, vanilla and spices, like cinnamon. Taza Chocolate in Somerville, Massachusetts produces a particularly delicious Mexican chocolate that you can purchase online. It's amazing what cinnamon does for hot chocolate.
Of course, you can also create different hot chocolates by adding some rum and a variety of creams. Check out these 8 remarkable hot chocolate recipes below and let us know which ones are your favorite:
When I think of pistachios, I automatically think sweet. Perhaps, this is due to the Egyptian and Syrian side of my family. From an early age, I associated pistachios with sweet syrupy nutty baklava and pistachio ice cream. We would alternate between pistachio baklava and the traditional one made with walnuts and almonds.
As I got older, I started to explore other pistachio flavored desserts. On a recent culinary adventure to Café Sabarsky in Manhattan I discovered the Austrian cake Mozart Torte. This one was made with pistachios, chocolate, and nougat cream. I haven't had any luck yet finding the recipe.
Below are 8 delicious pistachio recipes that are sure to fulfill your craving for something sweet and nutty:
One of my favorite dishes as a child was meatloaf. I loved its rich meaty taste and cake-like consistency, and of course its combination with hot tomato sauce. Today however, I'm more interested in exploring the many different versions of the typical meatloaf, such as Stefánia Szelet, a Hungarian meatloaf baked with three hard boiled eggs in the middle.
Meatloaf dates back to Antiquity when Romans would make minced meat loaves. In fact, the Italian meatball is made in a strikingly similar way. The meatloaf that most Americans grow up eating is made from a mixture of ground pork and cornmeal. It has been part of American cuisine since colonial times and was brought over by Dutch and German settlers. Today, you can find meatloaves made with turkey meat instead of pork and beef. You can even make a vegetarian meatloaf.
Growing up, macaroni and cheese usually involved boiling macaroni and then mixing it with a powdered cheese, milk, and butter. It was not until I discovered the diversity of cheeses available that I began to experiment. I say, throw away the powder and go to your local cheese purveyor to discover the various ways you can master the mac n' cheese.
Like fondues, I think that using more than one cheese can add a heightened richness. During these cold months, I crave a warm, creamy, milky, crunchy macaroni and cheese with a savory flavor. I often use cheddar cheese as the base. Then, I add a small amount of Gorgonzola Dolce and Emmenthaler.
Below are 8 ways to make the perfect mac n' cheese:
Eachmost Friday afternoons, I sort through the list of recipes, newspaper articles and blog posts that I've bookmarked over the previous week (or two) in order to dish up a tasty assorted eight. Here's the selection this week:
Entertaining at home is a great way to spend time with friends while saving some cash. Check out Maggie Mason's (queen of the Mighty Goods/Junior/Haus shopping empire) cheese plate jar which makes impromptu entertaining a snap.
Attention Bacon Bits lovers! You would be well-served to skip any food service bits you come across for the near future, as 3,600 pounds of bits were recently recalled.
I love the no-knead bread recipe, but sometimes I want bread that doesn't take 24 hours to make. I am intrigued by Katy (The Non-Consumer Advocate's) recipe for One Hour Bread.
Nearly every week, Stefania (aka CityMama) posts a recipe on her site that makes me start a shopping list so I can re-create it at home. This week I am in love with her Mandoo Soup.
We can change the way we make eggs -- scrambled, poached, fried -- but what about changing the eggs themselves? Mix up your scrambling routine with quail eggs.
Ok, we know it's a little early to talk about apricots, but it's starting to warm up out there and with peak season just around the corner (from May to September depending on where you live) we just can't help ourselves.
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