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Salsa and hot sauce have long since surpassed ketchup in the U.S. as the condiment of choice (virtually guaranteeing a retro-ketchup craze in the near future, but that’s a different story). Colorful bottles of hot sauce crowd specialty shops and supermarkets, each vying for enough customers and market share to keep its precious inches of shelf space. How do customers distinguish between the hundreds of choices? Brightest label? Funkiest name? Most outrageous claim to fame?
I went to www.hotsauce.org and followed a few of the links to the home page of the industry, www.fiery-foods.com, where I learned that what consumers really want is reliability and consistency as far as the heat of the sauce goes. (Aren’t we boring?) Want to know what’s next in the hot-sauce industry? Fruit-based sauces, for one thing (mango, peach, tamarind), and the chunkier the better. And in case the whole hot-sauce industry fizzles instead of sizzles, habanero growers are finding ways to mix their chiles into exterior paint and stain to repel chewing insects. Fry your lips, Mr. Termite.
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Longest Recipe of the Month
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| Anise hyssop (purple flowers)
Borage (blue flowers)
Chamomile (tiny daisy-like flowers)
Garlic chives (white flowers dry to a creamy wheat color)
Horehound (attractive crinkled leaves)
Lavender (purple flowers and classic scent)
Oregano (purple-pink flowers retain their color)
Tansy (tightly clustered yellow flowers dry to gold; bitter scent)
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We all love our little kitchen gardens or planters filled with fresh herbs to snip daily for use in cooking. But herbs can also make beautiful and fragrant additions to dried arrangements and wreaths, so let some go to flower and seed later in the season and harvest them for drying. Here are a few of the more versatile herbs that are delicious fresh and lovely to look at when dried.
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Dense, chewy hermits—rich with molasses, spices, and raisins—are one of my family’s favorite cookies. I bake them in long logs and slice them on the diagonal after baking. Ever on a quest for something new in the world of cookies, I found this recipe at www.robinhood.ca. Think of Glazed Fruit Sticks as a "spring hermit"—lighter and fruitier, but with that familiar chewiness and appearance. You can vary the fruit to your taste. I used a mixture of golden raisins, dried cherries, and craisins (dried cranberries), 1-1/4 cups of fruit in all.
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Glazed Fruit Sticks
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/4 cups dried fruit (raisins, chopped dates, chopped apricots, cherries, cranberries, or your choice)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons water
Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cream butter and sugars together; beat in eggs. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir in dried fruit and nuts, mixing with hands if needed to distribute fruit. Divide dough into four portions and place onto two greased baking sheets. Shape each portion into a log about 10" long and 1/2" thick. Bake at 375°F for about 12 minutes, until light golden. Dough should still feel soft (it will firm up as it cools). Cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet, then carefully move to wire racks to cool.
Stir confectioners sugar and water together to make a thin glaze. Drizzle onto cool bars. Let glaze dry, then cut bars into strips diagonally. Makes about 36 bars.
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