What’s the latest food trend?

Umami and Bacon everything

Taste #5 Umami Paste

Umami roughly translated from Japanese means a “pleasant savoury taste.”  Umami in foods sparks the taste buds naturally and enhances flavour.  Now you can add umami to your foods from a tube.  The paste is a puree of tomato, garlic, anchovy, black olives, balsamic vinegar, porcini mushrooms, parmesan cheese, olive oil and wine vinegar.  Use a dab to add extra special flavour to vinaigrettes, pasta & pizza sauce, gravy, soup, risotto, cream sauces, dips. and sandwich spreads.  Mix some with bruschetta, mayonnaise, or deviled egg filling.

Bacon Jam · Baconnaise · BaconSalt · Bacon Mustard

Bacon is sizzlin’ hot right now in everything from ice cream to microwave popcorn.  Skillet Bacon Spread (aka Bacon Jam) is a spread of smoked bacon slow cooked balsamic glazed onions.  It was developed by Skillet Street Food in Seattle, to use on the gourmet burgers they serve from their food truck.  We like it stuffed into pork chops, chicken breasts, or spread on toast and topped with a runny yolk egg.  We have a variety of products from the BaconSalt folks, also Seattle natives.  Must be something about the rain.  Baconnaise is terrific on a sandwich with chicken or tomato.  All the flavour of bacon without the grease!  Try it also on grilled salmon or in dips.  We also have Bacon Ranch Dip & Dressing Mix, Cheddar Bacon microwave popcorn, several flavours of BaconSalt (low sodium & Kosher), and Jim Beam Bacon Bourbon Mustard.

What’s new in the store?

Fine Imported Vinegars

O Vinegars from California are infused with natural ingredients and add delicious, complex flavours to vinaigrettes.  Honey Apple Cider Vinegar is perfect for fall salads incorporating apples like our Apple Pecan Parmesan Salad.  Yuzu Rice Wine Vinegar has a citrus note perfect for Asian inspired salads, spinach salad with mandarin oranges, and to add to steamed rice.

We have some fine Spanish vinegars.  Riesling and Merlot wine vinegars have been aged 12 months in oak casks.  Sherry vinegar is also aged in the traditional method used for creating fine sherry.  It’s a classic pairing with walnut oil in a vinaigrette.

Flavoured Olive Oils

We have a line of fine Italian olive oils infused with natural flavours.  What we like about these products is that the company bottles a high quality extra virgin olive oil, and it is that same oil that they use as a base for their infusions.  What you taste first a fruity olive oil and then a hint of the infusion on the finish.  Garlic, Oregano, Lemon, and Chile.  Each has many uses from dressings and bread dippers to drizzling over vegetables, roasted meats, pasta, and pizza.

Rendered Duck Fat

... a butter substitute for the ultimate gourmand.  Use for roasting potatoes, sauteing onions & peppers, frying eggs and hashbrowns, or to replace butter in a savoury pastry.

PeterboroughEATS

This local not-for-profit is an initiative of the Community Opportunity & Innovation Network in partnership with Kawartha Choice and Made In Peterborough.  Red Pepper Jelly, Apple Pie Jam, and Strawberry Tarragon Jam.  They use locally grown produce and even the jars are made in Ontario.  When you purchase a PeterboroughEATS product, your supporting local farmers, microprocessors, and businesses.