Don't let food gifts languish in the pantry: Put them to work

02:09 PM PST on Thursday, December 30, 2004

By JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS / The Dallas Morning News

Most home pantries occasionally devolve into orphanages for lost gourmet goodies. Ours is no exception.

Natalie Caudill / DMN

Scattered in our pantry closet's dark outer reaches — way behind the Mediterranean sea salt and the Harrods tin of Earl Grey breakfast tea — are slightly dusty stray jars of questionable provenance, lurking like the Ghosts of Christmas Gifts Past.

Here is a perfectly good, never-opened bottle of Fischer & Wieser's Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce. An unused jar of "Switzerland's Best," Hero Black Currant Preserves. A virginal pot of Inglehoffer Sweet Honey Mustard.

And yet more unopened delights: a small jar of Hale Groves Tangelo Marmalade and two adorably tiny jars of Bonne Maman products, one being French honey and one strawberry preserves. The latter, unfortunately, passed its sell-by date last April. I unearth a couple of still-sealed 2-ounce jars of Romanoff red and black lumpfish roe. How long, I wonder, does bargain caviar stay good?

I also find a two-serving sample of Marmite, a concentrated yeast-extract paste that is beloved by Brits and Aussies but detested by almost everyone else on the planet. Fortunately the label's stamp indicates that the Marmite honorably expired in mid-October 2003, so I feel no guilt about throwing it away.

Aside from the Marmite, which probably got carried home in 2002 as a jokey souvenir of London, I have little recollection of acquiring any of these. I'm pretty sure that my sister gave me the Romanoff roe, so I can only assume the other orphan jars also were gifts at one time or another.

It happens to everyone: The holidays roll around and, by the time New Year's Day arrives, you've been given several pretty jars of fancy edibles. Such special gourmet goodies! If only you knew what to do with them.

Somehow, you feel, the great American weekend ritual of watching endless bowl games on TV does not warrant breaking open the imported soft Brie as a spread for Ritz crackers. On the other hand, you shouldn't dream up too many excuses to reserve such delicacies for another buffet, another day.

After all, for what possible occasion are you saving these tasty gifts? You should find a way to use them, and soon — or face the probability that they will simply gather dust. They'll end up being wasted, just like the lovely wedding crystal, china, silver and table linens that stay stashed inside your sideboard because they're "too good" for everyday use.

Well, stop waiting — and start eating and enjoying. Scroll down the page for some suggestions for making the most of the holiday yummies that may have come your way.

What to do with panettone

Panettone, described as a "high-domed cylinder of fruit-studded sweet bread," is a staple of Christmastide in Italy. This festive bread, traditionally containing golden raisins, other dried fruits, citrus zest and nuts, has become a popular specialty import in recent years. Many people seem to like getting (or giving) panettone in preference to the heavier traditional American fruitcakes.

Natalie Caudill / DMN When life gives you panettone ...

If you don't manage to gobble all of your gift loaf before Christmas, panettone can be used to make a fancy version of French toast for a holiday breakfast. And leftover panettone, which starts out on the dry side anyhow, also is good for making bread puddings and home-baked croutons.

Giada De Laurentiis' Panettone French Toast

Ingredients:

1 (1.1 pound; 500 gram) loaf panettone bread, baking paper removed
6 large eggs
3/4 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup whole milk
¼cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½cup mascarpone cheese
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Cinnamon Syrup (recipe follows)

Directions:

Prepare syrup.

Natalie Caudill / DMN ... make French toast with cinnamon syrup.

To make toast, preheat the oven to 200 F. Trim the bottom crust of the panettone. Starting at the bottom end of the panettone, cut it crosswise into 6 (¾-inch thick) round slices (reserve the top piece for toast).

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until well blended. Add the cream, milk and sugar and whisk until well mixed. Melt 1 tablespoon butter on a large nonstick griddle over medium heat. Dip 3 slices of panettone into the custard, turning to allow both sides to absorb the custard. Grill the soaked panettone slices until they are golden brown and firm to the touch, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the French toast to a baking sheet and keep them warm in the oven. Repeat with the remaining butter, panettone slices and custard.

Transfer the French toast to plates. Dollop the mascarpone atop each. Lightly dust with the powdered sugar. Drizzle the Cinnamon Syrup over and around the French toast and serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.

Cinnamon Syrup: Combine 1 cup of water and 1 cup packed dark brown sugar in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil until the syrup reduces to 1 cup, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons whipping cream and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Keep the syrup warm. (The syrup can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before serving.)

SOURCE: FoodNetwork.com

Better by the bottle

Bottled sauces often grace holiday gift baskets, and recipients most often use them as marinades or to accompany grilled meats. But an imaginatively blended sauce also can be used in more unconventional ways.

Take Fischer & Wieser Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce, a perennial Hill Country favorite from Fredericksburg, Texas. Would it have occurred to you to make it part of a decadent chocolate dessert?

That thought did occur to F&W chef Terry Thompson-Anderson. On the company's www.texasontheplate.com Web site, she calls her Roasted Raspberry Chocolate Cake With Seeing Double Chocolate Sauce "the perfect marriage of spice and chocolate."

"Adding Fischer & Wieser's Original Raspberry Chipotle Sauce to the batter of this rich devil's food cake produces a dense, moist cake with a nice little 'glow' at the back of your throat from the chipotle chiles. Topped with the sherry-laced Texas on the Plate Seeing Double Chocolate Sauce, it's a cake you'll never get enough of!"

Roasted Raspberry Chocolate Cake With Seeing Double Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
2 cups boiling water
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
½teaspoon baking powder
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups Fischer & Wieser Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 jar Fischer & Wieser Texas on the Plate Seeing Double Chocolate Sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 10-inch diameter Bundt pan; tap out all excess flour. Set aside.

Place the chocolate pieces in a medium bowl and whisk in the boiling water. Whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Toss with a fork to blend well; set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, combine the softened butter, sugar and eggs. Beat on medium-high speed about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce and vanilla. Beat just to blend well. At low speed beat in the flour mixture in 4 batches, alternating with the chocolate, beginning and ending with the flour. Stop mixer and scrape down side of bowl after each addition. Beat only until smooth and well-blended.

Turn the batter out into prepared pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a metal skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on wire rack for 20 minutes, then unmold onto cake plate. While the cake is still slightly warm, pour the Seeing Double Chocolate Sauce slowly over the top, letting it drip down onto sides of cake. Cool completely before slicing. Makes 12 servings.

Note: Find Fischer & Wieser at stores that sell gourmet products, or go to jelly.com. Central Market carries Texas on the Plate products.

Jammin' and jelly

Jams and jellies come in an incredible variety of sweet, flavorful combinations. So why restrict yourself to using preserves on toast, biscuits or bagels? Raspberry jam, for instance, is wonderful when spread on shortbread or baked into bars of gingerbread.

Natalie Caudill / DMN Got a nice gift of jam? Use it to make ...

Rachel Deering of Dallas includes many serving ideas along with her jars of Milo Deering's Christmas Jam, a homemade cranberry-jalapeño blend. She suggests spooning jam on top of warm Brie and serving with sesame-seed crackers; using it as a glaze on a turkey or ham; or warming it as a dip with miniature egg rolls or coconut-breaded shrimp.

Combining jam with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper adds zip to a vinaigrette dressing. Ms. Deering even uses jam in quesadillas, layering shredded Monterey Jack cheese over jam spread on a flour tortilla, which is then folded in half and pressed warm on a skillet.

She also likes making "pinwheels" out of a spinach-herb wrap, spread with whipped cream cheese and thin-sliced smoked turkey and jam, topped with chopped walnuts and alfalfa sprouts, then rolled tightly and cut into quarter-inch slices.

Jam pairs well with shortbread. Maybe you have a tin of gift cookies as well: Pair the two as tiny sandwiches, or simply spread some jam or jelly on top of the cookies. Or start from scratch with this recipe from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (The Countryman Press, $29.95) that gets extra points just for its name.

Your Favorite Jammies

Natalie Caudill / DMN ... Your Favorite Jammies.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
¾cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups unbleached flour
1 ¼ cups jam or preserves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 F. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.

In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the butter, salt, sugar and vanilla, then beat in the flour. Divide the dough in half and press it into the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with your fingers. Prick the dough with a fork in an attractive pattern.

Bake the shortbread for 35 to 40 minutes, until it's golden brown around the edges. Remove it from the oven and loosen the edges with a heat-resistant plastic knife or table knife. Wait 5 minutes, then carefully turn the shortbread out onto a clean work surface, all in 1 piece.

Using a pizza wheel, baker's bench knife or sharp knife, cut each round into 12 wedges while the shortbread is still warm. Transfer the wedges to a rack to cool.

Crumble 2 of the shortbread wedges into a small bowl and set aside. Spread the remaining wedges with a thick layer of jam. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs lightly over the jam. Makes 22 wedges.

Cutting the mustard

Maybe you've never put anything on your burgers but good old French's yellow mustard. Perhaps you've pooh-poohed Grey Poupon as a Continental affectation, unworthy of mom's hallowed, All-American potato salad.

But you may be missing something by not trying the Dijon region's variety of mustards, which range from mild to hot 'n' spicy. For, with or without horseradish, herbs and wine, a quality mustard (prepared or dry) combines well with honey and peppers or other spices for a flavorful glaze on beef, pork, fish or chicken.

Add mustard to port wine or cognac for a meat sauce. Use white or Champagne vinegar and olive oil with mustard for a vinaigrette. And for something as casual as a Super Bowl-watching buffet, mustard's also the perfect dip for pretzels.

Brigid Callinan's Triple Mustard Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 large shallot, minced
3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons dry mustard
Salt and pepper
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small bunch parsley, leaves only, chopped

Directions:

Place mustard seed in a small skillet and cook over medium-high heat, shaking pan frequently, until seeds start to pop. Immediately transfer seeds to a small bowl. Add shallot, vinegar, grain mustard, honey and dry mustard and whisk to combine. Add some salt and pepper and allow mixture to sit for 5 to 10 minutes to meld flavors and dissolve salt. Whisk in olive oil, then add parsley and adjust seasoning, to taste.

Serve at room temperature as an accompaniment to sautéed sea bass or any other firm white fish. Makes 4 servings.

SOURCE: FoodNetwork.com

The gift of meat

We've always liked getting those "twofer" gifts — you know, the ones thoughtfully packaging hard salami or summer sausage along with a good chunk of smoked cheddar or provolone.

Natalie Caudill / DMN Did Santa's sleigh include cheese and salami?

While you can always use these for the expected sausage-and-cheese-board at your next party, there are other, more inventive ways to incorporate such gifts into a meal.

This alternative, an Italian torta, manages to combine dried sausage, cheese (smoked and not), eggs and mashed potatoes into a one-dish wonder that can be made ahead and will quite handily feed a family.

Gratto di Patate (Potato Torta)

Ingredients:

½onion, finely chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil (divided use)
2 ½ cups canned Italian tomatoes with juice, chopped
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 pounds all-purpose potatoes
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup coarsely chopped salami or other dried sausage
1 cup diced mozzarella
¾cup diced smoked provolone, Gouda or other smoked cheese of your choice
½cup grated Parmesan cheese
½cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup bread crumbs (divided use)

Directions:

Sauté onion in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a skillet over low heat until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until the tomato sauce is thick and dry (may be prepared the day before assembling).

Natalie Caudill / DMN ... then you're ready to start assembling ingredients for an Italian torta.

Peel potatoes. Halve them (quarter them if they are large) and place them in a large pot with water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tender (a sharp knife inserted in the center should go in with no resistance). Drain the potatoes in a colander, then return them to the pot. Set the pot over low heat and stir for a minute, to evaporate any residual moisture.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mash potatoes in a bowl with a fork, or with an electric mixer (do NOT use a food processor or they will become gluey).

In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes with the eggs, salami, mozzarella, smoked cheese, Parmesan, parsley and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix well.

Generously butter a 9x2 ½-inch springform pan. Coat heavily with bread crumbs, reserving some for the top. Spread 1/3 of the potato mixture evenly in the bottom of the pan. Spread half the tomato sauce over the potatoes. Spread another third of the potato mixture evenly over the tomato sauce. Repeat with the remaining tomato sauce and potato mixture. Smooth the top. Sprinkle with the remaining breadcrumbs. Drizzle with the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours, or until the top is crusty and brown. Let cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight to make slicing easier (may be prepared several days ahead). Serve at room temperature. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

SOURCE: Adapted from Cucina Fresca

Bee my honey

You've always heard that a great fresh-fruit salad is even better with clover honey in the dressing. But what should you mix in with the honey?

Pretty much anything, really. Honey combines nicely with vinegar and oil, with sea salt and sugar, with lemon, lime or orange juices. Celery seeds and a hint of mint are popular ingredients, and some people use vanilla yogurt or sour cream to give the dressing a creamy texture.

A touch of spice (such as nutmeg, ginger, turmeric, paprika, dry mustard, ground cloves or cinnamon) can work in a honey dressing, too. Others add a bit of Worcestershire sauce, finely grated onion or even chili sauce for a tangy zing.

Here's a basic version of honey dressing for fruit salad, but you can experiment with it. Just add a favorite ingredient or two, whatever blends well with the fruits you choose, and make it your own.

Honey Dressing for Fruit Salad: In a blender, combine 1/2 cup good-quality honey, 1/2 cup lime juice and a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon. Blend until smooth. In a medium bowl, toss with 1 quart sliced fruit (any combination of fresh berries, apples, melon, etc.) Refrigerate. Makes 4 servings.

SOURCE: www.ruralmissouri.org