In this installment
Yuzu Shishimi Togarashi
Crater Lake Blue Tea
Zhug Cilantro Sauce
Cherub Cherry & Rhubarb Preserves
Rustichella Senatore Capelli Spaghetti
Spicy Mango Snacks
Elvira Loamie Olive Oil
Smoked Trout
Yuzu Shishimi Togarashi
Catherine O’Hare and Avery Resor started Daybreak Seaweed in 2017 with the hope of farming seaweed themselves. “We were working with Hog Island Oysters company in northern San Francisco and planted our seaweed in the same area where they maintained their oyster farms.” Catherine explained via video chat. The two endeavors went hand in hand so it made sense at first, but “the regulations for seaweed got out of control in California. So we started searching up and down the west coast for where we could buy or harvest seaweed that was sustainably raised.”
I learned a lot about the seaweed industry talking with Catherine, such as how hard it is to find quality seaweed at a decent price since much of the seaweed market is flooded with cheap, questionably raised seaweed from other countries. The regulations all along the west coast have been very particular about the management and care of these burgeoning seaweed farms, which is a good thing in the long run, but a bit frustrating here at the beginning. “Eventually we found a farm in Alaska that checked all the boxes,” Catherine continued. “Now we work with seven different seaweed farms that are community focused and small.” It makes life a bit more predictable when it comes to supply since farming seaweed isn’t necessarily easy. “It’s still farming. It still comes with risks and the harvest might not be as big as you hoped, or a storm disrupts everything at the wrong time.” Just like on land. But there are lots of benefits to farming seaweed, too. Shellfish and seaweed go hand in hand when it comes to aqua-farming and like shellfish, seaweed can help filter and clean the water of pollutants. But you don’t want to see that in your edible seaweed so they test all their batches for any unwanted elements before processing. It’s not as big of an issue way up north where the Alaskan waters are pristine, but they still test each batch.
Catherine and Avery come from culinary and farming backgrounds, so bringing seaweed into the kitchen was always the goal. “Seaweed is an easy thing to incorporate once you get used to it, but there are hurdles to understanding.” Catherine said. “People know nori and sushi wraps and thanks to Costco they know it as a snack, but we’re trying to educate folks that it’s more than a snack, it’s a seasoning.
Daybreak Seaweed started in a business incubator in Oakland, California. Their neighbors in this artisan warehouse became a fantastic Japanese restaurant called Soba Ichi and they paired up to create their own shichimi togarashi blends. For the chefs at Soba Ichi, it harkened back to their childhoods in Japan while highlighting California’s ingredients and influences. “We created the blend at the beginning of the pandemic when restaurants had to shut down and were looking for support.” Catherine said. “Soba Ichi wanted a shelf stable product that could augment their sales with their take-out orders—and then it won the Good Food Award Winner for “Fish/Seaweed” Category!”
It’s been their best seller ever since. It’s spicy, but the yuzu and orange really come out with a bit of moisture in the dish and then the flavors just blossom. They mill the chiles themselves, so they always taste bright and fresh. The seaweed contributes an umami/salty depth of flavor that is hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you eat it! Sprinkle it over everything. Especially when you’re looking for a kick.
Crater Lake Blue Tea
In the last installment I included a bag of coffee from a different roaster than Zingerman’s (don’t tell them), so this installment I wanted to include a tea. It’s not nearly as politically charged as sending a bag of coffee, but sharing a hot beverage during the summer months can come with some challenges. Or at least a few raised eye brows. Still, I think this tea is perfect for summer. Sure, it’s a very pleasant herbal brew that you could enjoy hot in the morning out on the veranda while watching the dew evaporate under the heat of a dawning sun…or you could make iced tea with this sparkling blue blend and liven up your next gathering with a refreshing drink that looks like it came from the lido deck of the Starship Enterprise.
This tea is all herbal and it has nose and notes to prove it. It’s a blend of five different herbs: lemon balm, rosemary, hyssop, butterfly pea flower, and sage. All except the pea flower are grown in Oregon. The combination of herbs is befitting the wild blue color that comes from the pea flower and it has a distinct taste of the forest. Slightly piney, with a brightness that’s perfect for summer.
Zhug Cilantro Sauce
Like many foods with influence, “zhug” goes by many different (yet similar) names depending on where you are: zhoug, zhough, schug, schugg, skhug…they all mean zhug, just different spellings. Zhug is a mildish sort of hot sauce popular in Yemen, though this one is made in Brooklyn by our friends at Blank Slate Kitchen (they love all things spicy).
The heat for this sauce comes from jalapenos, black pepper, and garlic, which really aren’t that spicy hot, more like warmingly spicy. That’s all mixed with cilantro, parsley and lemon and some earthy herbs like cardamom and cumin to make a condiment that goes on and with pretty much everything. It’s wonderful with Yemeni cuisine or dishes like falafel, atop hummus, shawarma, rice…but it’s great over roasted vegetables, eggs in the morning, chicken, grilled meats, everywhere you want to rachet up the spice factor just a little bit. And then a little bit more because this stuff is really good.
Cherub Cherry & Rhubarb Preserves
The name on the jar says “Cherub,” but don’t be fooled: this preserve is devilishly delicious. Sorry. Couldn’t resist a little marketing excercise! We receive more jam and preserve samples than any other type of food. We taste through them all and while there are a few that stand out (American Spoon is a personal favorite), many of them fall into the “good but we don’t need it” category for one reason or another. So when we taste a preserve that gets our attention and stands out amidst the myriad of makers and samples we see, I’m always intrigued. The fact that it’s made here in Detroit made it an easy decision.
This preserve is the epitome of Michigan’s top flavors. We’re still the cherry capital of the world (last I checked) and we’re well known for rhubarb (the season is just about wrapping up, according to my sources at the farmer’s market) so this jam is fitting in more ways than one. Tart and sweet, it captures the flavors of both without covering them up with too much sugar. I could tell you how to use it, but I’m sure you’ll think of something like toast and stirring into yogurt or oatmeal or even as the top of a cheesecake. But give it a shot on something savory like grilled pork tenderloin. That’s really good.
Rustichella Senatore Capelli Spaghetti
Rustichella was founded in 1924 by Gianluigi Peduzzi’s grandfather Gaetano Serviacomo. The Italian economy at the time was dire. The Italian wheat crop was not good and the prices were high, making it hard for the typical Abruzzese to afford and 95% of all the pasta consumed in the country was made at home. “When my grandfather started,” Gianluigi said, “in each city was a pasta factory. What my grandfather made was a luxury product and was mainly purchased and consumed on Sundays or during the holy days.” Gianluigi continued. “And the wheat was terrible. Only soft wheat was available, not the hard durum semolina we use today.” Sometime in the years after WWII – over three decades after Gaetano got going – things were looking up. But while pasta production overall was booming, it wasn’t a great time for small artisan producers. As in so much of the Western world, agro- industry was taking over. By 1996 – just a few years after the first shipments of artisan pasta in the brown bag arrived in America – Rustichella was one of only 150 or so still out there.
Now, some thirty years after I had my first bite of Rustichella pasta, they continue to revive heirloom grains long forgotten. Enter Senatore Capelli, a variety of wheat that’s been grown for centuries in the Abruzzo region of Italy (where Rustichella operates) but had fallen out of favor due to its lower yields and the higher quality wheat pasta makers get from North America. It has a darker color than the durum wheat pasta most of us are familiar with and its flavor is decidedly stronger: nutty, a little toasty, with characteristics that are closer to bread than factory made pasta. Like all their pastas, the grain is stone ground and extruded through copper dies to give the noodles a rougher texture that grips sauce. Most Italians prefer this pasta al dente, so go with the lower cooking time on the package.
Spicy Mango Snacks
This one is just straight up fun, yet nostalgic and a classic flavor of Mexican street cuisine. You ever heard of or noticed the red bottles of a spice blend called ‘tajin’? Basically it’s dried chiles with salt and lime so that it’s salty/spicy/bright all at once. The combination is intoxicating (as well as the inspiration for the line of “Flamin’ Hot” cheetos and the like…at least according to Hollywood) and goes great with pretty much everything, but especially fruit like mango. Street vendors selling chunks of mango, pineapple, or melon would also give you a bowl or bag of this spice blend (or shake it over all the fruit) and away you’d go. The spicy is softened by the sweet and it’s all sort of bright tasting and the heat on your lips causes a sort of rush and suddenly you’re in the middle of a total body sensory experience. All from a spice blend. So yeah, that’s what these are: dried mango pieces with that wonderful blend of chiles, lime and salt. Snack away!
Smoked Trout
I don’t know if smoked trout is going to go viral as the new food sensation, but it should be. It’s lightly smoky, flavorful without being “fishy” and really easy to use. These supple filets are de-boned and skinned before being packed in the tin with rapeseed oil, which is light enough not to get in the way of the flavor of the fish, but hefty enough to keep its flesh tender and delicate, yet toothsome.
Farmed and processed in Denmark for Minnow in NYC. They find canneries around the globe that share their values then work with them to bring the fish, here. This smoked trout is one of my favorites from Minnow because it’s so easy to use: crusty bread, some chopped up hard boiled egg, a bit of onion, squeeze of lemon and this fish. Done. Cook the pasta included in this installment and toss it with the fish and the oil from the tin. Done. See? Super easy.
Elvira Loamie Olive Oil
Without getting too deep into the weeds in explanation, I’ll just say that we (Mail Order) are one of ten different Zingerman’s businesses in what we call the “Zingerman’s Community of Businesses” or ZCoB for short. We are all independent of each other, but we work together all the time. We can each be small and nimble when we need to be while still harnessing the power and influence and tools of a 700+ person business.
That’s the long way of saying “my friends at Zingerman’s Deli were instrumental in helping me find this oil.” I’m one of three main food finders working at Zingerman’s Mail Order, but we rely on the travels, passions, and discoveries of our cohorts at the other Zingerman’s businesses all the time. Grace Singleton—one of the managing partners at Zingerman’s Deli—turned me on to this oil and brought in enough for our clubs on our last import.
There are a million plus reasons why Spanish cuisine is at the top of many of our lists. Over the past couple of decades, the flavors of the Basque region, wine from all around the country, and my favorite: tinned fish have all risen in popularity and acclaim. But there’s one food Spain makes that tops all the rest of the world’s producers combined: olive oil.
Last time I checked, Spain produced two thirds of all the olive oil in the world. Sure, Tuscany (Italy) and Provence (France) get all the fame and glory, but the oils of Spain are the real engine driving their culinary influence. So it should come as no surprise that we come back again and again to the bounty of Spain to discover the new treats they have in store.
Oleo Elvira is in the south of Spain near the city of Grenada and the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The area has been influenced by numerous cultures over the centuries and the olive trees have twisted and thrived there for millennia. This oil is a mono-cultivar, meaning it’s all from one type of olive, the loamie. It’s a pleasing oil that starts out a little sweet before meandering into nutty notes and a slightly bitter finish. Use it for vinaigrettes, drizzling over caprese salad when the tomatoes are
ready, or even atop grilled meats. Olive oil like this is a condiment in the best sense and can and should be served with lots and lots of dishes.