LaBelle News

Yes, February is gray and cold, but Valentine’s Day gives us a reason to shake off winter’s grip and redirect our attention, creativity, and love toward the special one in our life. The purpose of my blog is to inform and get you familiar with some of the neat culinary gadgets that are out there – tools that make cooking fun, easy, and interesting. With Valentine’s Day upon us, it’s time to start thinking about a really special dessert to make, and the tools you might need.

I’ll begin with something simple that needs no preparation. Maybe your Valentine is a wine lover. For oenophiles (yes, that’s a word!), perhaps it’s a favorite bottle of wine, or buying the best wine corkscrew in the world. That distinction, hands down, belongs to Monopol. Yes, they’re pricey, but they’re worth it. The best-known Monopol bar tools are the Bacchus and the Barolo. Each is a study in the beauty of design and magnificent engineering. I invite you to take a look. Two things need to be said about these corkscrews. First, Monopol corkscrews are serious barware for the serious wine lover…someone who instantly recognizes the name “Monopol”, or someone who loves their home bar as much as they love their life. Second, I need to insert a word of caution: If you are price shopping in Internetland, and find the price of Monopol on a site that seems too good to be true, it’s usually because it is. Quality item like these German-made wine tools have been copied and are not authentic. Enough said.

Back to Valentine’s Day. Since we’re a website for foodies, I want to focus on food: this month, desserts. Since it’s the Month of Love, getting you comfortable enough to tackle a dessert or two that you might have thought was a challenge…a dessert that might evoke a response from your Valentine, like – YOU DID THAT FOR ME?! – is what I want to accomplish. Planning a special Valentine treat is a great time to advance your culinary skills to a whole new level.

A Valentine’s Day favorite that is a must-try is a creamy, dreamy, heart-shaped dessert called Coeur a la Crème. There are no serious challenges here…it’s so easy and pretty inexpensive. What you will need is a heart-shaped mold, cheesecloth, and a few very simple ingredients. The recipe can be found on the web page for the Coeur a la Crème mold. This dessert is delicious, beautiful, and very special! You’ll see that there is a large mold – perfect for a small group – and individual molds. What makes this dessert so scrumptious is serving it topped with fresh fruit and a fruit sauce so that every bite has something creamy and fruity. The contrasting flavors are divine.

Moving on to another Valentine’s dessert heart throb, there isn’t a person on the planet who doesn’t love crème brulee. There are hundreds of recipes for this crowd pleaser that all share the same basic ingredients of cream, eggs, and sugar. Variations in flavor can include infusing just a bit of lemon zest, Amaretto, or lavender flowers into the custard, being careful not to overdo it. Recipes for every variety of crème brulee can be found in books or online, and are so simple to make.

Part of the allure of crème brulee is the crunchy carmelized sugar topping, so delicate that it will shatter at the touch of your spoon. By the time you’re ready to think about carmelizing the top of your crème brulee, your custard should be set. To carmelize sugar you’ll need a culinary torch. Do some research on the number of uses for a culinary torch. There are quite a few, from melting cheeses to putting finishing touches on meringues.

Remember that carmelizing the sugar on the top of the crème brulee happens right before serving. The custard should be set before sprinkling the sugar on top. Don’t be too sparing with the sugar. It takes more than just a pinch in order to carmelize. If you see that you haven’t added enough, don’t be shy — add more and torch. Be patient as you use your culinary torch. It will take the sugar a few moments to carmelize, but keep a close eye on it, because it will go quickly.

Both the Coeur a la Crème and Crème Brulee desserts will make you want to rush through dinner. I hope you don’t do that. Enjoy your meal with a nice glass of wine, knowing that good things (great things!) are worth waiting for. Bon appétit!

If you were to take a stroll through our store – or even through the website – you’ll find things you’ve never seen (or heard of) before. These are the hard-to-find kitchen tools and gadgets that make working in your kitchen fun, interesting, and, in some cases, a whole lot easier. Each month this year I’ll select a food theme and a related unusual kitchen tool to talk about. I’ll share information like the tool’s history (if available), material composition, and purpose. Some, but not all, of the items I’ll discuss are on my website, in which case I’ll provide a link so you get an image. I hope you’ll find this information informative and useful.

Since this is the ‘season of citrus’ I thought we’d begin the year with some of the best tools to access the pulp and juice from the fruit. The first is the somewhat ordinary Citrus Reamer. It wasn’t until I started getting lemons from my two cedro lemon trees that I had a new-found respect for the citrus reamer. Cedro lemons are huge and hard to handle (some are larger than baseballs!). The peel is quite thick, and the pulp is very tight. The citrus reamer is the only tool I’ve found to be effective in getting the pulp to release the juice in these monsters. Each section of the fruit has to be reamed, one at a time. The job is much easier after about the third section, and almost every drop is extracted.

Another great juice extraction tool is the Westmark Citrus Juicer. This juice press is for regular-sized citrus, not something as unwieldy as the Cedro lemon, and is designed to release every drop of juice from the fruit. With the halved fruit in place, close the press and apply pressure. To get all the juice, I often press down with upper body weight. The extraction process begins in the center of the fruit. Adjust the fruit in the press and apply pressure again to release the juice from the vitamin-rich layers toward the outside of the fruit (just underneath the peel). The Westmark Fruit Press works well for oranges, lemons, and limes – not so much for grapefruit.

One of the most overlooked parts of citrus is the rind, which in itself has nutritional benefits. Most often, citrus rind is used to amp up the flavor intensity of anything from salad dressings to cheesecakes. Rind needs to be “zested” carefully so that just the outer peel is removed and not the bitter white pith, which will detract from the flavor of the zest. Any kitchen tool that has a very fine grating surface – that is, a surface that is fine enough to grate garlic, hard cheese, or a whole nutmeg – is also good for zesting citrus. There’s no need to buy a second tool exclusively for citrus. A good grating tool for all of these items is the stainless steel grater from Ilsa.

Remember to wash your citrus with soap and water and rinse well before use. Otherwise, pesticides can enter the fruit when it’s sliced with a knife. Washing the fruit before zesting the peel is also a good ideal.

Finally, since we’re talking about all things citrus, I need to mention a beautiful, mildly citrusy confection we recently started carrying: our Limoncello Bites. If a marzipan-white chocolate pairing coated with lemon juice and coarse sea salt combination appeals to you, this may be your new favorite candy. Good eats, friends!

Happy Wine Month to all! Did you know that there are people who spend their lives and livelihoods waiting for September when the grape harvest is in full swing? I went on a wine tour recently and learned a great deal about the growing process. Just like coffee growers, grape growers need to pay particular attention to growing conditions for their crop. For grapes, rocky soils that provide an abundance of important minerals and complex nutrients create unique, great tasting wines. And sun, lot of sun. On our tour, our host provided delicious pairings with each wine sample. We often think about a particular wine being paired with a particular dish. Rather than a meal, per se, our host emphasized pairing with a simple dish that highlighted certain herbs. A dry Riesling paired with thyme or tarragon or mint; a chardonnay with cilantro or dill; a pinot noir with rosemary or sage. It was sensational! I hope you’ll take the opportunity to visit your local winery and check out the varieties they showcase in this season of the grape. In the meantime, we thought September might be a good time to put our wine accessories on sale – maybe for some early Christmas shopping for the wine lover on your list!