"creme fraiche" news and stories

• Rick Nichols visits the Philadelphia Italian Market -- home to the famous Rocky jogging montage -- and ponders the question: Can this faltering strip be saved?
• Why tailgate when you can eat and watch the game in the comfort of your own home? The Sunday Night Foodball Cookbook argues just that point.
• The Market Basket is overflowing with environmentally friendly non-stick cookware, thin, spiced Swedish cookies and a Made in Pennsylvania vodka.
• Creme Fraiche can enhance even the simplest of dishes. If the market price is too steep for you, why not make your own?
• The Rush Hour Gourmet is serving up Pork Medallions with Squash and Greens.
• Craig LaBan picks Quicke's Cheddar as the Cheese of the Month.

• Creme fraiche is a great way to perk up soups, desserts and anything else that could do with a bit of extra creamy zing.
• Nine Baltimore-area cooks stretch and flex their cassoulet muscles at the eighth annual cassoulet cook-off.
• Just in time for harvest, Rob Kasper checks out beers made with apples and narrows the field down to some of his favorites.
• This week's Wine Find is the Dow's Trademark Finest Reserve Porto - a creamy, sweet and balanced dessert wine.
• Elizabeth Large's Top Ten is a round up of restaurants that aren't quite institutions but still reserve that sense of permanence.
• It's time, once again, to send in your favorite cookie recipes for this year's cookie contest. Recipes must be in by Nov. 5th to be considered.

An ever-growing number of restaurants are putting it on their menus and it is more frequently called for in recipes than it was even a year or two ago, but crème fraîche is still not an easy-to-find ingredient, nor is it one that everyone is familiar with. Crème fraîche is a thickened cream, with a slight tang and a texture that is somewhere between sour cream and whipped butter. In France, the cream is made with unpasteurized cream and is allowed to thicken naturally with bacteria already present in the milk. In the US, the cream must be pasteurized (heated to kill bacteria), so crème fraîche is made by adding a small amount of buttermilk or sour cream to get the thickening process started, then it is pasteurized again to kill the bacteria before sale.

Sour cream makes a good substitute for crème fraîche in most recipes, but unlike crème fraîche, sour cream can break or curdle when exposed to high heat. Fortunately, it is easy to make a version of crème fraîche at home. Simply add 2 tbsp buttermilk to 1 cup of heavy cream and let the mixture stand at room temperature for 8-24 hours, until thickened, before refrigerating.

Caviar is synonymous with class and elegance, even though it is such a small thing. While it sounds exotic, I have recently noticed that it is becoming more and more common. I'm not referring to banned beluga or other imported caviars, but to domestic ones. I recently saw caviar offered for sale in the refrigerator case at my local Trader Joe's and the caviar in the photo above is a domestic from the Seattle Caviar Company, which deals with both imported options and with domestics. Luxist offers us a wealth of caviar options at a variety of prices, including a vegetarian option. To impress with caviar without breaking the bank, try looking at the domestics. A high quality domestic will be less expensive and just a delicious as an imported caviar.

Perhaps not surprisingly, caviar tastes fishy, so  it's best to serve it to guests who like fish. One of the great benefits of serving it is that there is no cooking required - except for the use of a toaster. I like to make toast soldiers, which are strips of toasted whole wheat bread, and dab the end with sour cream, creme fraiche or mascarpone cheese. Top the cheese with a bit of caviar, or let the guests do it themselves. Be sure to leave one end of the toast uncovered, so they're easy to handle.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]