Dark and Moody BBQ Chicken Skewers

When I saw the ingredient list of Dark & Moody BBQ sauce from Stuart & Co, I was intrigued by the coffee and dark beer.  It took me back to a few weeks ago when I had a pork chop rubbed in coffee, which was delicious and had a really nice deep flavor. So I thought I would try to make something with coffee. Of course I grabbed The Pancake Shop coffee - a robust, sweet coffee.  Instead of a rub, I decided to make a paste, which would stick to the chicken and give it a crispy coating when grilled.  I made skewers, but this paste could be used on a whole chicken or breast.   After the first rotation, I basted the chicken with the Dark and Moody Sauce.  

The dark and moody sauce is a deep flavor bbq, which is caused by the stout, coffee and molasses. It ends a bit warm, but not spicy.  

Dark and Moody BBQ Chicken Skewers

•  2 tablespoons softened butter
• 3 tablespoons Pancake Shop Brand Coffee
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic, or 2 cloves minced
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sea salt ground
• 1 pound chicken breast, cut into 2" pieces
• Stuart & Co. Dark & Moody Sauce

1. Preheat the grill.  If using gas, use medium heat.  If using charcoal, light the fire, let coals turn white, and spread coals to evenly distribute heat.
2. Mix the first five ingredients to make a paste.  Use your hands and rub it all over the chicken. Skewer chicken.
3. Place on grill.  Cook for about 5 minutes on one side.

4. Turn and baste with Dark and Moody BBQ sauce.  Cook 5 more minutes, or until juices run clear.

Recipe: Homemade Raspberry Poptarts

We sell lots of jam - Sarabeth’s Preserves, American Spoon, Scandinavian Delights, Les Moulins Jam, and Bathtub Gin - just to name a few!  Our customers are always asking us how to use jams and jellies - beyond toast.  I suggest using it for pound cake filling, fill and roll some puff pastry, or put it over some cream cheese for a dip on a cracker.  Since its “back to school” time for lots of folks young and old, I decided to share a simple homemade Poptart recipe.  You can use your favorite pie crust recipe or use a pre-made crust from the store, depending on how much time you have.  

I used Lucian Georgelin Seedless Raspberry Jam from France.  Silky and smooth, made in very small batches, this jam uses more fruit and less sugar and has a buttery finish.  

Homemade Raspberry Poptarts

• Favorite jam of your choice (I used  Lucian Georgelin seedless Raspberry Jam)
• Pie Crust (home made or store bought)
• Flour for rolling pin and work surface
• Confectioners sugar (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 350.
2. Using a floured surface and rolling pin, roll out pie dough to about ⅛ thickness.
3. Trim edges to make a large rectangle.
4. Cut into smaller rectangles. (whatever size you want your pop tarts to be, mine were about 3"x6")
5. Spread jam onto half of the rectangles.  Cover each with the remaining dough rectangles.
6. Use a fork to press the edges of the dough closed.
7. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for approximately 12 minutes.  
8. Allow pop tarts to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
9. As a topping, I mixed some confectioners sugar into some jam to create an icing and spread on top of each pop tart.

Food in the News: Summer Fancy Food Show Trends

Look at that!  What’s that?  Have you seen that before?  Love the packaging! These are the tidbits that you hear walking down the aisles of the Summer Fancy Food Show.  Keeley, Amy and I were lucky enough to spend a few days walking the show, looking for new products, talking to makers and scouting out trends.

The trends of the Winter Fancy Food Show were seen throughout the summer show. These included:

• Sriracha-flavored products (jams, hummus, popcorn)
  
• Unexpected crunchy snacks (quinoa chips, pasta chips, seaweed popcorn)
• Low-sugar sips (Unsweetened almond milk, Low sugar ginger ale)
• Mint infusions (cucumber mint soda, hibiscus mint frozen pops)
• Fancier condiments (truffle ketchup, ivory sauce, herbed mayo)

What’s Trending at the Summer Fancy Food Show

In addition to a continuation of winter trends, the Summer Fancy Food Show was full of new ideas as well.  The Savory Pantry buyers noticed these trends popping up around the show:

• Drinking Vinegars and Balsamics - Fruity, well balanced and very refreshing! Drinking Vinegars and Balsamics have been around for centuries but they are starting to see a resurgence.  Splash either in water or soda water, or mix with spirits for alcoholic cocktails. (Bevivo: Drinking Balsamic, Pok Pok Som)
• Spirited Products - Bourbon has been infused in all sorts of food products, from maple syrup to Bourbon Brittle from Olive and Sinclair, but at the show we started seeing other libations showing up in chocolate, pickles, and caramel sauce.  (Brooklyn Brine Whiskey Sour Pickles, Get Your Hot Cakes Rye Whiskey Caramel)
• Weck Jars - Packaging is very important to us at The Savory Pantry, we pick things to fill our shelves that taste great, but we also keep a close eye on packaging.  During the show we started to see more and more Weck jars being used and I am a fan. I think in the next year we will see Mason Jars in a decline and the Weck Jars taking over. (Stuart and Co. BBQ Sauces & Rubs, Bespoke Cooks Candle)  
• Ghost Peppers - Spicy is still in! The beginning of the year was about Sriracha, but this Fancy Food Show, I kept hearing Ghost Peppers.  Ghost Peppers are deemed the hottest chili out there, but that doesn’t scare off artisanal producers from working with them. (Theo Chocolate, Bissingers Apple Ghost Caramels)

Recipe: Tea infused Ice Cream with Chia Cherries

Ice cream on a hot summer’s day brings out the smiles and sticky-chinned child in everyone. This spring, I have seen the trend of making ice cream at home take off, especially recipes that don’t require an ice cream maker- a non churn recipe.  I like the idea of making my own ice cream, you control the quality of ingredients and flavors. My two go-to flavors with ice cream are mint chocolate chip and anything with peanut butter.  

For my first pass at making ice cream at home I thought I would make a more sophisticated flavor ice cream, one that is popular in Japan and is harder to find in the Northeast - tea based ice cream.  

The Cherry Marzipan Green Tea from Tea Forte, gives the ice cream a overall flavor of Green Tea with the slightest hint of cherry. The Unbound Hazelnut and Chia Cherries really makes this ice cream quite sophisticated! The cherries add a spicy flavor and a refreshing bit between the cream texture of the ice cream.  

For your next tea time, try a cup of ice cream instead!

Tea infused Ice Cream with Chia Cherries

• 16oz Heavy Cream
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 2 tbsp Cherry Marzipan Tea
• Unbound Hazelnut & Chai Spiced Cherries

1. Add heavy cream to a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  
2. Once the heavy cream is simmering add the 2 tbsp of tea, letting it simmer for 2 more minutes, turn off heat and let tea steep for 15 more minutes.  
3. Strain with a fine mesh strainer (I didn't strain my until the heavy cream was cold, it adds a stronger tea flavor).
4. Put tea infused heavy cream into the refrigerator until very cold.  Once the cream is very cold, whip to soft peaks. 
5. Add ¼ can of condensed milk and fold into the whipped cream, until incorporated. Repeat until can of Evaporated milk is empty.  Pour some mixture into a metal pan, and layer your flavors, repeating this process until cream mixture is finished.
6. I added cherries but you could add shortbread bites, blueberries, toasted almonds, really anything you like.  

Freeze and enjoy with in 3 days! 

Travel Notes: Atlanta Peachtree Road Farmer's Market

Last month I headed to Atlanta for my sister-in-law’s college graduation, it also gave me an opportunity to check out the food scene, and see if there was anything interesting to bring to our Savory Pantry customers. In terms of food this trip exceeded my highest expectations.  We packed a lot in during a 4-day trip and I wanted to share some of my favorite stops and things I loved most about this trip to Atlanta, GA. Today I will start with all the good finds at the Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market.  

Peachtree Rd Farmer’s Market, 2744 Peachtree Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30305

This Farmer’s Market was the perfect size and had a wonderful variety of products.  The Peachtree is known as the largest producer-only farmers market in the state.  What does this mean you ask?  Well everything at the Market has been grown, raised, or made by the seller, which helps keep the pricing down.  Some notable highlights:

The Little Tart Bakeshop Grant Park, Atlanta, GA www.littletartatl.com or 404-348-4797

Everything obviously looked good, but I decided to with the Bacon Cheddar Scone and I was not disappointed.  The French-style bakery focuses on baking with local products and likes to lean towards the savory side of pastries.  Oh and I also picked up their lemon tea cookies, so crisp and the flavor was buttery and lemony, it was perfect for a late-night snack in the hotel.   

Doux South, Decatur, GA www.douxsouth.com

Doux South Pickles has great packaging.  It's fresh, clean and with the glass jars you could see the freshness of the product inside.  I tried the Drunken Tomatoes they were good.  A nice person at the booth, said they are perfectly blended for bloody Mary’s, which I could imagine.  I also tried the Little Rock Caviar, I’m a northern girl, so this was my first time having this delicacy and I loved it.  It is a mix of black-eyed peas, sweet red and green peppers, onions garlic, Worcestershire sauce and vinegars.  (Hopefully you will see them soon on the shelves of The Savory Pantry).

Two other notable finds at this market, was Banner Butter and Verdant Kitchen Ginger.

Banner Butter, Atlanta, GA, bannerbutter.com or 404-401-3735

Banner Butter sells small batched butter that is naturally cultured in Atlanta, GA, using grass fed, hormone-free cows and the freshest ingredients for their flavors. They let the cream set out before churning, so that the natural cultures start to grow.  I’m really not sure how to say this, but IT’S THE BEST BUTTER I HAVE EVER TASTED!! Clean, fresh, not waxy, all good components to a great butter.  My only heart break was that I could not buy it to bring it back home with me!

Verdant Kitchen, Savannah, GA, www.verdantkitchen.com or 912-349-2958

"Our roots are in the sandy loams of the Coastal Low lands of Svannah, Georgia. Live Well & Eat Well with our delicious farm to table products based off our organic ginger crop."

Verdant Kitchen, is all about ginger! Most of the ginger that we eat or that is used in products made in the USA, comes from China, Indonesia, Brazil, and Peru. Verdant Kitchen is one of the very few that grow the root.  They then take these roots and make delicious products, including Ginger Candied Pecans, Ginger Syrup, Crystallized Ginger and Bare Ginger.  The woman that was at the booth, was very knowledgeable and let me try everything… The ginger was spicy and warming but wasn’t overpowering.  We are hoping to have this product grace our shelves soon!