In This Installment
Effie’s Crispy Corn Biscuits
Rosemary Maple Almonds
Roasted Heirloom Pepitas
Effie’s Crispy Corn Biscuits
From their bakery just south of Boston, Effie’s makes some of my all-time favorite crackers to pair with cheese, including these corn biscuits. Drawing inspiration from traditional American recipes, like cornmeal flatbreads and johnnycakes, the corn biscuits are light and crunchy, with a texture like a thick cracker and a deep cornbread flavor that’s balanced between sweet and salty. In the finish, there’s a hint of anise that serves to heighten the buttery, sweet corn flavor.
They’re an ideal candidate to serve alongside cheese, especially traditional American cheeses like Cheddar, maybe with some fresh fruit like apples or grapes. Try them crumbled on chili or chicken tortilla soup. Grind them up and mix with a little melted butter for a new take on a crumble crust for cheesecake or ice cream pie. Or nibble on them straight from the box, maybe with a cup of tea.
Rosemary Maple Almonds
Cyrilla Suwarsa first fell in love with spiced nuts in Indonesia from her grandmother’s recipes for slowroasted cashews. Her spicy cashews with lime leaves have been a hit on our shelves for years.
Now Cyrilla has turned her nut-magic focus on almonds. She takes almonds from California’s San Joaquin valley and roasts them with extra virgin olive oil, Vermont maple syrup, a bit of sea salt and—most notably—a heavy dose of rosemary. The result is a strong piney, herbal kick of the rosemary with a subtle, roasty, toasty sweetness that reminds me of the caramelized edge of an herbed steak, but with a satisfying crunch. Way too easy to eat by the fistful.
Roasted Heirloom Pepitas
These aren’t your average roasted pumpkin seeds that are a by-product of carving a Jack O’Lantern. They’re made from the seeds of a special breed of pumpkin called a kakai. Kakais are pretty, with splotchy green and orange vertical stripes. They’re best known in gardening circles for having hulless, great tasting seeds that are ready to roast or eat right from the pumpkin. The funny thing about it, though, is that the flesh of the Kakai is rather tough and fibrous. It’s not much good for eating. The pumpkins are grown only for their seeds, and the flesh is discarded and used to feed local livestock.
Once the seeds have been harvested, the team at Stony Brook Wholehearted Foods (the same folks who make the exceptional Butternut Squash Seed Oil) brine the seeds in a simple mix of salt and water for a couple of days, then roast them in a specially-built roaster built by a company that makes coffee roasters. The result is so simple, yet so tasty. The pepitas smell incredibly nutty and roasty, almost like sweet peanut butter. The texture is light and crunchy, and the flavor is a balance of salty and nutty and earthy. They’re incredibly easy to munch on.