Sunday, November 27, 2011

For the Holidays and the Everydays: Valerie Confections

Valerie Confections was probably most well known for their toffees and their salt and pepper truffles, but their other items (including some new offerings) are also not to be missed.

They recently held a week-long Open House where each day they gave out free samples of a different product. I went to the cookies and hot chocolate one, but they also had samples of something else.
The new Super-Choc-O-Food is a collaboration with Commune Design. Much more than a chocolate bar, this dense, addictive goodness is filled with almonds, cashews, peanuts, macadamias, golden raisins, dried pears, apricots, sunflower seeds, soy salt, and caramel. So good, and uhh healthy(ish), right?

There are three different packaging for the Super Choc-o-Food. You'll find parts of a picture inside that you can collect, completing this Adam and Eve picture.
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Among their cookies, my favorites were the Durango Cookies and the Gingersnap. The Durango was the best in flavor, made with chocolate chip and smoked salt, while the Gingersnap was the chewiest.
Durango Cookies

Valerie Confections also launched a new line of tea, blended for them by the American Tea Room in Beverly Hills. I got samples of three but so far have only tried one, the Black and Blue Tea, a blend of black tea and blueberry which smelled absolutely divine.
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There are other products appropriate for that gift basket you're planning on giving your favorite food lover (*cough* me) like their hot chocolate mix, truffles, and preserves. Or, you can just treat yourself to some cookies.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Foie Friday #4: Foie Gras Farm vs Chicken Farm

For this week's Foie Friday, I wanted to contrast two different videos. In the first, Anthony Bourdain visits Hudson Valley, one of the most well known foie gras producers in the US, and talks to an expert about the force feeding of ducks and why it isn't as cruel as some people make it out to be. On the other hand, the second video shows a typical chicken farm in the US, as featured in the documentary Food, Inc. (I heard this farmer has since then lost all her contracts and, as a consequence, her farm, because she decided to let her farm be filmed.)


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Dionicess IX: A Craft Beer Cocktail Pairing for Charity

Dionicess is an annual beer-centric charity event hosted by Gev Kazanchyan and benefits Real Medicine Foundation. The ninth iteration recently took place at Steingarten and upped the bar with craft beer cocktails and food pairing. The pairing is a collaboration by bartender Matt Biancaniellio from Library Bar and Dave Watrous from Beachwood BBQ who were preparing the beer cocktails, and Randy Clemens, author of the Sriracha Cookbook, who prepared all the food (along with the staff at Steingarten LA)

We were greeted by some mint water while Matt and Dave were hard at work shaking up the first cocktail:
“The Lambic Pentameter” - white balsamic, basil, strawberries, elderflower liqueur and Drie Fontinien Spirit of Armand.

Lambic Pentameter
The name Pentameter was chosen because the drink consisted of 5 ingredients. The Armand is a rare distilled Lambic from Belgium that is not typically not available in the US. Only one website in the world sells it!
Watrous told an interesting story behind the Armand. Purportedly they were trying to make lambic but the thermostat broke during lambic fermentation so he basically had cooked the lambic. They considered throwing it out, which was going to drive them out of business, but the distiller decided to try to distill and save it. The cocktail had a tartness that all came from the spirit, as there was no added citrus. (Traditional lambic is not the sweet type like peche lambic that we are mostly familiar with here, but it's tart and acidic).

This cocktail was paired with:
“Don’t Let This Get Your Goat, Just Figure It Out” – figs and herbed Chevre.
Fig and Chevre

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Second course: “The Cascading Hophead” made with gin infused with seasonal Cascade hops for 3-4 days, grapefruit, honey, lemon and Beachwood Brewing Thrill Seeker IPA. This was the first beer cocktail Matt had ever created.
This drink was very hoppy, just like a straight up beer, except that it was 40% alcohol.

Second bite: "The Hop and The Hound" - Cabot Clothbound cheddar with yuzu marmalade, pickled habanero, and micro greens.
Spicy Clothhound
The pickled habanero in  the marmalade was very spicy. I had to take most of it off but it was a good pairing with the hops.

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