5 Pro Chefs Reveal Their Go-To Specialty Ingredient _ Test Kitchen Talks _ Bon Appétit
**A Love Affair with Cream and Pistachio**
It's hard to resist the allure of a good cream and pistachio combination. I recently discovered this indulgent duo, and my world was opened to a new realm of flavor possibilities. The first thing that struck me about this creamy delight was its luscious texture - it's like a cross between avocado mousse and peanut butter. The moment you dip your spoon in, you know you're in for a treat.
I brought the cream and pistachio home and immediately began experimenting with it. I spread it on toast, just as I would with any nut butter, and was blown away by its rich flavor. It's a game-changer in baking, too - I've used it to make cheesecakes, muffins, and even blondies. The pistachio adds a deep, nutty flavor that elevates these sweet treats to a whole new level.
One of my favorite ways to use the cream and pistachio is in a blondie recipe. When you swirl the creamy mixture throughout the batter, it creates a delightful surprise in every bite. I love how the sweetness of the blondie pairs with the richness of the cream and pistachio - it's like a match made in heaven.
The beauty of this ingredient lies in its versatility. While it's perfect for sweet treats, I've also discovered that it adds depth and complexity to savory dishes. Whether you're looking to add a boost of flavor to your favorite soups or stews, the cream and pistachio is definitely worth trying out.
**A Mushroom Liquid That Packs a Punch**
In a bold move, I decided to try something new - a mushroom liquid that's been powdered into granules. The name "duxelles" might sound intimidating, but trust me when I say it's a flavor enhancer like no other. This concentrated extract is packed with umami flavor and adds an instant depth to any dish.
I was skeptical at first, but the moment I sprinkled this duxelles into my chicken soup, I knew I'd made the right choice. The flavor was rich and savory, with just a hint of sweetness. It's like having a perfect balance of saltiness and complexity in every spoonful.
What sets this duxelles apart from other mushroom powders is its ability to enhance rather than overpower. Unlike some bullion cubes or concentrates that can be overwhelming, the duxelles adds a nuanced flavor that elevates even the simplest dishes into something special.
**The Science Behind the Flavor**
One of the most fascinating aspects of the cream and pistachio (and indeed the duxelles) is how it works its magic on our taste buds. It's not just about adding salt or seasoning - it's about amplifying the natural flavors of the ingredients themselves.
Like MSG, this ingredient adds a depth of flavor that's hard to put into words. It's like the difference between a bland, factory-produced chicken soup and one made with love and care. The cream and pistachio do the same thing - they take your favorite dishes from good to great, while also introducing new dimensions of flavor.
**A Game-Changing Ingredient**
If you're looking for an ingredient that will revolutionize your cooking and baking, look no further than cream and pistachio (or duxelles). These ingredients are game-changers - whether you're making sweet treats or savory soups. They add a level of depth and complexity that's hard to achieve with other ingredients.
In short, this is not an ingredient for the faint of heart. It's bold, it's exciting, and it's definitely worth trying out if you're looking to take your cooking and baking to the next level.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyou know I've never seen this in my life today we're in the Test Kitchen revealing our favorite specialty ingredient I'm sorry this is so good it's really incredible it just like takes it to another level some ingredients are worth going out of your way for my specialty ingredient is it's very intense okay what do I like to cook a lot Indian food sure okay so it's is it an Indian ingredient I can't tell you that okay well you gave me that hint so it's shot Masala is it yes ah yes we know each other too well so this is Chaat Masala and this brand is mdh chunky Chaat Masala it is it's the classic beloved Indian Chaat Masala brand it's been around for years it is a South Asian spice mix and it has so many different ingredients in it for me it's the um tour powder the dried mango powder in it that makes it like very unique that sort of tanginess that you can get only from the like unripe mango yeah is unreal in this ratio and combination make Chaat Masala what it is and it's just like Irreplaceable It's Magic It's Magic in a little box truly it really is it's definitely funky smelling yeah it's the black salt it's the black salt but that's okay you know Funk is good I like funk just super Savory and salty it's delicious it's so good yeah it's really good you get the allium flavor in the back because of the Hing yeah it's Tangy because of the mango it's a little spicy there's like black pepper in this version but it's not like overwhelmingly spicy I like to use it um in a little bit of yogurt yes like just like stirring it into yogurt and like dipping with potato chips it's so worse at all yes it is a lot of times it can be used as a finishing agent and truly it just makes the dish that are specifically like tailors which are fruit cuts and all they sell is cut up fruits with Chaat Masala on top it's delicious on fruit because you get the super sweet super Savory sweet salty vibes okay I'll do a mango I want an ocean Berry yes um it's just so good it's just like there's really nothing else to say like fruit is delicious and then you sprinkle it with Chaat and it it just like takes it to another level so I love the sweet salty a little bit spicy Tangy combo and it just makes me wanna eat another one mdh is like the most common brand that you will find but does a couple of specialty brands that I like if it's not at your South Asian supermarket you can get it online very easily from like diasporaco spice Walla it is such an amazing and flavorful window into like South Asian culture and food and there's so many different ways to use it you could sprinkle it on steamed fish yeah honestly like make a little vinaigrette yeah the neutral oil some Chaat a little bit of lemon juice lemon juice chicken everything drum roll ground vanilla is a powder it is it's ground vanilla powder you know I've never seen this in my life it's amazing it's Madagascar bourbon vanilla right which is the good stuff it looks like really finely ground coffee it's really fragrant and you smell that sweetness already whoa right whoa it tastes like warm yep like it has this warm floral note it's almost like kind of woodsy too the fact that it's in powder form means that it can take a lot of places where vanilla extract or vanilla paste can't go I'm thinking like a barbecue rub the way that sometimes people will put cinnamon or even a little bit of cocoa in like a barbecue rub I feel like this would be amazing it's even good for like toast yeah or just simple ways to implement sweetness yeah so if I'm Sweeting up a beverage I'm gonna throw this in there I'm always gonna rock with lafaza I feel like the potency of this one it's unmatched and this is kind of pricey this is a little pricier than paste or extract or Market but it's worth it so my absolute favorite way to enjoy vanilla powder is hot chocolate when I saw these come out I literally squealed oh my goodness oh man that's so good the chocolate is so much more Punchy because it has the vanilla sort of like bubbling it up the vanilla powder here is lending such richness and there's also some in the whipped cream it looks like vanilla bean ice cream all you did is add a little bit of this regular whipped cream and it suddenly makes it extra special and it looks it because of the flex this is my show stopper this isn't something that I'm going to use every day this is definitely like you're in town I missed you yep no let's crack it open you're important to me I need this in my life I think it's going to amplify all of my cooking this ingredient gets used very often for me it's something that's called for in a lot of recipes oh so this is my favorite finishing olive oil which is different than the kind of olive oil that you would cook with it's harvested really early before the olives are ripe so you get a really bright pungent flavor and it's not something that you want to cook because you'll lose all the flavor I have seen this brand floating around but I've never had the chance to try it what I particularly love about this besides the flavor is the like squeeze bottle oh it's so good oh right like immediately it's not like sitting in the background it's very much at the front of your palette it's peppery it's grassy in terms of density of the oil as well I felt like this almost disappeared on my tongue whereas if you were to just try you know a cooking olive oil that would be just much more thick and like oily and it just kind of like sits and coats your mouth so much it just has a very robust flavor profile the grassiness is obvious there's like a hint of bitterness to it as well that like is a marker of a really good quality olive oil the oil aisle is like very vast and so I totally get why it would be intimidating to sort of pick the best finishing olive oil I love how sort of naturally I came about this brand and how high quality it is and I know that this olive oil was bottled on June 17th and it'll be good for a little while but it lasts about a month in my house it's really good on toast soups salads dressing like literally everything and anything that I want to finish with olive oil I'll use this egg Savory oatmeal pasta oh ice cream oh yeah vanilla ice cream I feel like a great way to test the quality and flavor of an olive oil is to literally just dip bread into it with a little bit of salt and you can immediately taste the oil and it's like truest form good crusty bread yeah important okay oh I'm so excited this makes me so happy I think an olive oil like this is very versatile in the sense you can drizzle on sweet things on Savory things everything in between it's just as important as seasoning correctly it really does like start your recipe off on on the right foot my hands is that you match did you guess pistachio paste did not look at the color story with the gold and the gold this is for you this is pistachio pastry cream of pistachio interesting so basically what it is is Nutella but pistachio this has sugar milk olive oil a little bit of cocoa butter in addition to pistachios so so much body so much body I cannot get enough of this it is dangerous I've never seen it before Oh man they are not cheap I think this is probably like nine dollars so more than your average nut butter or Nutella product and there's so many things you can do with it but you can obviously also just eat it plain I'm gonna need you to open it though because I'm notoriously really bad with jars you know there's a there's a trick he never says this is the trip you apply some pressure to the bottom okay well I've just been shown up but basically it's this really super luscious creamy I love that texture red yeah it's kind of giving me like avocado mousse oh yeah it's like a little thicker than peanut butter but still very spreadable and delightful anyway you gotta stick your spoon in there and get some because it is dumb how good it is whoa It's like frosting made of nuts first thing I did was I brought it home and dipped my spoon in much like just now and I was like my world is opening what can I do with this and since then I've done a lot of things obviously great on toast anywhere that you would put nut butter in to baking like in a cheesecake or muffins if you do puff pastry and then spread a bunch out and then sprinkle it and slice and bake incredible I could definitely also just like see this with some apples any sort of like oh really cute I would love to have that with this here is one of my favorite ways to use cream and pistachio it's in a blondie whoa so if you've ever had a Nutella Blondie or peanut butter Blondie usually you make the batter and then you swirl the peanut butter or the Nutella throughout it has this really awesome nutty richness in the batter itself you can smell a little bit of that pistachio in there you can definitely smell that I exclusively use this in sweet situations because the second ingredient is sugar but to me it just adds like a nice deepness and a richness and you can see it's a little bit darker than your average Blondie now and that nutty flavor I'm sold like I didn't need to be I already bought it I'm not getting too much of the sugar like I'm getting a clean pistachio taste which I really appreciate it is this like beautiful special thing when I'm like setting out to make a delightful dessert or a treat for company or something I will go to a special G store and pick it up if you have like an Italian Market in your hometown this is something that you probably will be able to find there and I think it's worth seeking it out it is an ingredient so big and so powerful that it cannot be contained by the glove of Destiny sure stay no idea what it is this slays I don't know what you could even call that yeah it's like pellets you know maybe not like the sexiest word but granules it's like granules okay it's a mushroom liquid that's then like powdered and turned into these granules and you can just sprinkle this into broths you can sprinkle this into like even dressings anywhere that's like it's destined for something that's like gonna be liquid it adds Umami it adds mushroom flavor I'm so excited to see how salty this is I'm definitely a fan of this I've never heard of it before but tasting it I'm a salty girl I love love love this it's not not salty but it's so Savory I'm getting more flavor than I feel like my typical everyday mushroom powder it's Simply Delicious I've never been a big bullion fan you know bullion cubes um bullying concentrates this performs much the same function this is like oh with my braised green suddenly I'm not wishing I'd taken the time to like sweat out some bacon in it now I have this like Savory meatiness this depth of flavor and I didn't really have to work that hard at it this is straight up regular chicken soup so it's like pretty you know it's pretty well seasoned it's like a good bit of sweetness there it's already a pretty good depth of flavor a little pinch Build It Up work it in and see what it does this is it this is science folks it's kind of doing this a similar thing to like what MSG does in something where like sure it's adding salt but it's adding something even deeper and more complex and it's bringing out an expression of these ingredients that sort of hard to put your finger off it is very hard to describe making it taste more like chicken soup and even like there's maybe a touch of like mushroom flavor peeking in even though I really love my boo Youngs like I really do appreciate how equivalent it feels but also just like a cleaner lighter alternative yeah and the fact that it's 100 did they say Vegan it also sells me sourcing this could be tricky depending on what markets are you know available to you like you can certainly Source it online there might be other brands but like this is the one that I found and it's totally baller honestly they would have done us better if they had given us worst soup this is actually pretty delicious so I'm not even sure what we're doing here congratulations you made really good soupyou know I've never seen this in my life today we're in the Test Kitchen revealing our favorite specialty ingredient I'm sorry this is so good it's really incredible it just like takes it to another level some ingredients are worth going out of your way for my specialty ingredient is it's very intense okay what do I like to cook a lot Indian food sure okay so it's is it an Indian ingredient I can't tell you that okay well you gave me that hint so it's shot Masala is it yes ah yes we know each other too well so this is Chaat Masala and this brand is mdh chunky Chaat Masala it is it's the classic beloved Indian Chaat Masala brand it's been around for years it is a South Asian spice mix and it has so many different ingredients in it for me it's the um tour powder the dried mango powder in it that makes it like very unique that sort of tanginess that you can get only from the like unripe mango yeah is unreal in this ratio and combination make Chaat Masala what it is and it's just like Irreplaceable It's Magic It's Magic in a little box truly it really is it's definitely funky smelling yeah it's the black salt it's the black salt but that's okay you know Funk is good I like funk just super Savory and salty it's delicious it's so good yeah it's really good you get the allium flavor in the back because of the Hing yeah it's Tangy because of the mango it's a little spicy there's like black pepper in this version but it's not like overwhelmingly spicy I like to use it um in a little bit of yogurt yes like just like stirring it into yogurt and like dipping with potato chips it's so worse at all yes it is a lot of times it can be used as a finishing agent and truly it just makes the dish that are specifically like tailors which are fruit cuts and all they sell is cut up fruits with Chaat Masala on top it's delicious on fruit because you get the super sweet super Savory sweet salty vibes okay I'll do a mango I want an ocean Berry yes um it's just so good it's just like there's really nothing else to say like fruit is delicious and then you sprinkle it with Chaat and it it just like takes it to another level so I love the sweet salty a little bit spicy Tangy combo and it just makes me wanna eat another one mdh is like the most common brand that you will find but does a couple of specialty brands that I like if it's not at your South Asian supermarket you can get it online very easily from like diasporaco spice Walla it is such an amazing and flavorful window into like South Asian culture and food and there's so many different ways to use it you could sprinkle it on steamed fish yeah honestly like make a little vinaigrette yeah the neutral oil some Chaat a little bit of lemon juice lemon juice chicken everything drum roll ground vanilla is a powder it is it's ground vanilla powder you know I've never seen this in my life it's amazing it's Madagascar bourbon vanilla right which is the good stuff it looks like really finely ground coffee it's really fragrant and you smell that sweetness already whoa right whoa it tastes like warm yep like it has this warm floral note it's almost like kind of woodsy too the fact that it's in powder form means that it can take a lot of places where vanilla extract or vanilla paste can't go I'm thinking like a barbecue rub the way that sometimes people will put cinnamon or even a little bit of cocoa in like a barbecue rub I feel like this would be amazing it's even good for like toast yeah or just simple ways to implement sweetness yeah so if I'm Sweeting up a beverage I'm gonna throw this in there I'm always gonna rock with lafaza I feel like the potency of this one it's unmatched and this is kind of pricey this is a little pricier than paste or extract or Market but it's worth it so my absolute favorite way to enjoy vanilla powder is hot chocolate when I saw these come out I literally squealed oh my goodness oh man that's so good the chocolate is so much more Punchy because it has the vanilla sort of like bubbling it up the vanilla powder here is lending such richness and there's also some in the whipped cream it looks like vanilla bean ice cream all you did is add a little bit of this regular whipped cream and it suddenly makes it extra special and it looks it because of the flex this is my show stopper this isn't something that I'm going to use every day this is definitely like you're in town I missed you yep no let's crack it open you're important to me I need this in my life I think it's going to amplify all of my cooking this ingredient gets used very often for me it's something that's called for in a lot of recipes oh so this is my favorite finishing olive oil which is different than the kind of olive oil that you would cook with it's harvested really early before the olives are ripe so you get a really bright pungent flavor and it's not something that you want to cook because you'll lose all the flavor I have seen this brand floating around but I've never had the chance to try it what I particularly love about this besides the flavor is the like squeeze bottle oh it's so good oh right like immediately it's not like sitting in the background it's very much at the front of your palette it's peppery it's grassy in terms of density of the oil as well I felt like this almost disappeared on my tongue whereas if you were to just try you know a cooking olive oil that would be just much more thick and like oily and it just kind of like sits and coats your mouth so much it just has a very robust flavor profile the grassiness is obvious there's like a hint of bitterness to it as well that like is a marker of a really good quality olive oil the oil aisle is like very vast and so I totally get why it would be intimidating to sort of pick the best finishing olive oil I love how sort of naturally I came about this brand and how high quality it is and I know that this olive oil was bottled on June 17th and it'll be good for a little while but it lasts about a month in my house it's really good on toast soups salads dressing like literally everything and anything that I want to finish with olive oil I'll use this egg Savory oatmeal pasta oh ice cream oh yeah vanilla ice cream I feel like a great way to test the quality and flavor of an olive oil is to literally just dip bread into it with a little bit of salt and you can immediately taste the oil and it's like truest form good crusty bread yeah important okay oh I'm so excited this makes me so happy I think an olive oil like this is very versatile in the sense you can drizzle on sweet things on Savory things everything in between it's just as important as seasoning correctly it really does like start your recipe off on on the right foot my hands is that you match did you guess pistachio paste did not look at the color story with the gold and the gold this is for you this is pistachio pastry cream of pistachio interesting so basically what it is is Nutella but pistachio this has sugar milk olive oil a little bit of cocoa butter in addition to pistachios so so much body so much body I cannot get enough of this it is dangerous I've never seen it before Oh man they are not cheap I think this is probably like nine dollars so more than your average nut butter or Nutella product and there's so many things you can do with it but you can obviously also just eat it plain I'm gonna need you to open it though because I'm notoriously really bad with jars you know there's a there's a trick he never says this is the trip you apply some pressure to the bottom okay well I've just been shown up but basically it's this really super luscious creamy I love that texture red yeah it's kind of giving me like avocado mousse oh yeah it's like a little thicker than peanut butter but still very spreadable and delightful anyway you gotta stick your spoon in there and get some because it is dumb how good it is whoa It's like frosting made of nuts first thing I did was I brought it home and dipped my spoon in much like just now and I was like my world is opening what can I do with this and since then I've done a lot of things obviously great on toast anywhere that you would put nut butter in to baking like in a cheesecake or muffins if you do puff pastry and then spread a bunch out and then sprinkle it and slice and bake incredible I could definitely also just like see this with some apples any sort of like oh really cute I would love to have that with this here is one of my favorite ways to use cream and pistachio it's in a blondie whoa so if you've ever had a Nutella Blondie or peanut butter Blondie usually you make the batter and then you swirl the peanut butter or the Nutella throughout it has this really awesome nutty richness in the batter itself you can smell a little bit of that pistachio in there you can definitely smell that I exclusively use this in sweet situations because the second ingredient is sugar but to me it just adds like a nice deepness and a richness and you can see it's a little bit darker than your average Blondie now and that nutty flavor I'm sold like I didn't need to be I already bought it I'm not getting too much of the sugar like I'm getting a clean pistachio taste which I really appreciate it is this like beautiful special thing when I'm like setting out to make a delightful dessert or a treat for company or something I will go to a special G store and pick it up if you have like an Italian Market in your hometown this is something that you probably will be able to find there and I think it's worth seeking it out it is an ingredient so big and so powerful that it cannot be contained by the glove of Destiny sure stay no idea what it is this slays I don't know what you could even call that yeah it's like pellets you know maybe not like the sexiest word but granules it's like granules okay it's a mushroom liquid that's then like powdered and turned into these granules and you can just sprinkle this into broths you can sprinkle this into like even dressings anywhere that's like it's destined for something that's like gonna be liquid it adds Umami it adds mushroom flavor I'm so excited to see how salty this is I'm definitely a fan of this I've never heard of it before but tasting it I'm a salty girl I love love love this it's not not salty but it's so Savory I'm getting more flavor than I feel like my typical everyday mushroom powder it's Simply Delicious I've never been a big bullion fan you know bullion cubes um bullying concentrates this performs much the same function this is like oh with my braised green suddenly I'm not wishing I'd taken the time to like sweat out some bacon in it now I have this like Savory meatiness this depth of flavor and I didn't really have to work that hard at it this is straight up regular chicken soup so it's like pretty you know it's pretty well seasoned it's like a good bit of sweetness there it's already a pretty good depth of flavor a little pinch Build It Up work it in and see what it does this is it this is science folks it's kind of doing this a similar thing to like what MSG does in something where like sure it's adding salt but it's adding something even deeper and more complex and it's bringing out an expression of these ingredients that sort of hard to put your finger off it is very hard to describe making it taste more like chicken soup and even like there's maybe a touch of like mushroom flavor peeking in even though I really love my boo Youngs like I really do appreciate how equivalent it feels but also just like a cleaner lighter alternative yeah and the fact that it's 100 did they say Vegan it also sells me sourcing this could be tricky depending on what markets are you know available to you like you can certainly Source it online there might be other brands but like this is the one that I found and it's totally baller honestly they would have done us better if they had given us worst soup this is actually pretty delicious so I'm not even sure what we're doing here congratulations you made really good soup\n"