"relish" news and stories

Hot dog fans, take this out to the ball game. Next time you're about to slather pickle relish on a perfectly grilled burger or frank, switch it up and top it with this relish of corn, onions, and roasted jalapeños and sweet peppers. It's a fairly simple canning project, as you can simply make the relish and pop it in the refrigerator for up to three months. And when you make a pot of chowder this fall, a dose of this stuff will give it some heft.

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• Grilling a steak may seem a like a no-brainer, but the devil is in the details.
• Bigmista's barbecue is "a famers market force" -- and a Southern California star.
• Show your colors this fourth of July. (You know -- red, white and blueberries.)
• Locals are relishing Jim Brown's artisanal burger relish.
• Even after hitting the two-decade mark, Chaya Venice is still hot.

We've all heard the conventional wisdom: print media is doomed. Last fall's demise of Gourmet, shocking as it was, was only one of dozens of magazines that have folded in the past five years. But now a phoenix appears to be rising from those journalistic ashes -- and that phoenix is wearing an apron.

Meet Dash, a new magazine slated to debut this September (online to start, at dashrecipes.com). A preview issue of the print version will follow in November, with regular monthly issues beginning in February. While Gourmet focused on cooking that was, well, gourmet, Dash promises food that is "simple," "fast," and last (but hopefully not least), "delicious."

Turns out that while many advertisers were fleeing magazines, food purveyors have been quietly buying up their ad space, according to The New York Times.

At newcomer Relish, in West Palm Beach, Florida, diners can customize their burger right down to the kind of salt sprinkled atop the patty. Between the 12 different types of burger meat (from beef to shrimp), 20 homemade relishes, four cheeses and six salts, owners Desiree and Daniel Tobin estimate that there are over 1,000 possible combinations.

"People say 'whoa' when they see the menu," Desiree acknowledges. "So far, beef has been king, but diners are interested in trying the other burgers like buffalo and lamb. There are different seafood versions, including a generous lobster burger. Our turkey burger is all white meat. We actually grind our own turkey meat in order to provide guests with the best quality white meat turkey. For vegans, there is a black bean burger."

The husband and wife team has been planning this endeavor for three years. Although this is their first foray into the restaurant business, their hard work and ingenuity is already paying off. "My husband and I believe it's important to provide people with food they are familiar with," Desiree comments. "But every business has its own niche and this is ours."

Thanksgiving or not, cranberries are invited to our table anytime, lending tartness to just about any relish, compote, jelly or chutney.

We love the way they form red carpets over New England bogs, the way they plump up and burst when they're cooked and, as the blogger who combined them with orange zest, honey, cinnamon and cardamom rhapsodizes in the caption to this photo, the way they "make the kitchen smell heavenly."

That cranberries are loaded with antioxidants and help fight infections are just two more good reasons to find yet another way to serve them, such as in a tart-and-creamy cranberry-horseradish dip.

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