Waste not, want not. It’s a basic tenet for sourcing, cooking, and eating sustainably. Here, the edible MAINE staff serves up ways to use up any special ingredients the recipes in this issue may have brought into your kitchen.
Crème de Cacao
Crème de cacao is a sweet, syrupy liqueur flavored with chocolate beans and vanilla. It comes in dark and white varieties. Typically used in espresso martinis, it is also nice poured over ice cream or whipped into cream for chocolate pie.
Herbes de Provence
This herb mix, representative of France’s Provence region, typically comprises thyme, rosemary, savory, marjoram, and oregano, but sometimes includes tarragon, fennel seeds, bay leaves, or chervil. Traditionally, it’s used to flavor roasted and grilled meats.
GRILLED SWORDFISH PROVENCAL
Coat a 1 ½-inch thick piece of swordfish with olive oil; season it with kosher salt and herbes de Provence. Before placing the fish on the grill, sprinkle a pinch of herbes de Provence over the hot coals. The flavored smoke will elevate the taste of the herbs on the fish.
Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar
This sweet and tart vinegar is typically made with lemons from Sicily. Specialty shops in Maine like Eventide in Boothbay Harbor; Fiore in Bar Harbor, Brewer, Ellsworth, Freeport, Lewiston, and Rockland; and Maine-ly Drizzle in Kennebunkport sell their own versions. Use it with olive oil and garlic for a chicken marinade, or stir a tablespoon into strawberries meant to top shortcake.
Mascarpone Cheese
Mascarpone (pronounced mahs-car-POH-nay) is a smooth and slightly sweet spreadable cow’s milk cheese. It can be used instead of sour cream in baked goods or in place of cream in nearly savory sauce. Topped with honey and chopped, salted pistachios, it is a simple dessert.
Raw Cane Sugar
Raw sugar is sugarcane juice that’s been clarified, crystallized, and centrifuged to remove most of the cane molasses. The resulting crystals are larger than granulated sugar and carry a delicate flavor and light brown color. Also called turbinado, demerara, and evaporated cane juice sugar, it can be substituted for granulated sugar in many recipes but can affect the texture of baked goods. That’s good if you’re adding a sweet crunch to the top of a pie crust, but bad if you’re shooting for a cake with a fine crumb.
Vanilla Bean Paste
Vanilla bean paste is a mixture of vanilla powder and vanilla extract ground into a paste. It also includes flecks of vanilla bean pods and a natural thickener to hold the paste together. Use it as a 1:1 substitute for vanilla extract when you want an intense vanilla flavor in baked goods.
