Author: John Fladd

Midori Sour Highball

It has always fascinated me how often we describe our senses by referencing other senses:

“He’s wearing a loud shirt.”

“That’s a sharp cheddar.”

“He hit the ground with a dull thud.”

So I think it’s entirely reasonable to think of different sorts of alcohol as musical instruments. Gin is a piano, infinitely adaptable — sophisticated as a Cole Porter gin and tonic, or loud and in your face like the barrelhouse blues of a Corpse Reviver No. 2. Whiskeys are brassy, from the trumpet of a Kentucky whiskey to the deeper notes of a scotch trombone. Vodka is a woodwind, sometimes like a piccolo playing noticeably in the front like birdsong, and at other times an oboe that blends inconspicuously into the background. Tequila is a blues harmonica.

And then there’s the accordion that is Midori.

It’s fun. Pretty much everyone likes it. But it gets no respect whatsoever. If we think of this Japanese melon liqueur at all, it’s in the context of disco-era stunt drinks. But it has real chops and can bring deep, fruity resonance to a cocktail or a highball, like a zydeco cover of “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’.”

  • 1 ½ ounces Midori melon liqueur
  • 1 ounce vodka
  • ½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
  • ½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • Plain seltzer
  • 1 ounce Ancho Reyes chili pepper liqueur, to float

Fill a tall glass with crushed ice.

Combine Midori, vodka, lime and lemon juices over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until combined, then strain over the crushed ice in the glass.

Top with seltzer and stir gently.

Gently pour the chili liqueur over the back of a large spoon, to float on the surface of the drink.

Drink with a straw while listening to “Vienna” by Billy Joel and marvel at how you never noticed that it has a 17-second accordion solo two thirds of the way through the song.

Because this drink is fizzy and neon green, you’ll expect it to be pretty sweet. In fact the Midori shows a surprising amount of restraint. This is a faintly citrusy, deeply refreshing, tall drink to serve at a garden party or a party after you’ve done some gardening.

Featured photo: Midori Sour Highball. Photo by John Fladd.

Gyro Day

St. Nicholas Church has added an extra day to its Food Festival

Traditions can carry a lot of cultural inertia; food traditions especially so. So it is a big deal when a church changes the structure of a long-running event.

Nobody knows this more than Amy Valkanos, one of the organizers of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church’s Annual Lamb Barbecue, which is in its 77th year.

“We have homemade recipes,” she said, “that have been passed down from the generation that started [it] originally. That’s what we use to make our meals. The big draw is the lamb barbecue, of course, which, man, when that starts cooking, throughout the whole neighborhood the smell of it will just penetrate your nostrils and you’ve just got to go follow that smell and find out where it is coming from. It’s just so good.”

But this year, the festival has been expanded by a day. In addition to the 400 pounds of lamb that will be cooked on Saturday, Greek food enthusiasts will have an extra day devoted to gyros. A gyro is a mixture of grilled meats and tzatziki sauce served on fluffy pita bread.

“Adding a Gyro Day,” Valkanos said, “was a decision made because we know that our community and parishioners love gyros. But, given the fact that we are a small church and with a small volunteer staff, or smaller let’s say in comparison to other churches in the area, we knew that to actually include gyros on that same day would really be a huge undertaking for us. But to meet the demand and to also stick to a different palate, we decided, ‘Well, yeah, you know what? Let’s just do a Gyro Day.’ So on Sunday, that’s what we’re having. We’re cooking the gyro meat, and we’ll serve gyro sandwiches, with a bag of chips and a drink. It’s a different interest for people who want to try a different type of food and another opportunity for our community neighbors to come see us.”

The gyro meat — a combination of lamb and beef, Valkanos said — will not be cooked on traditional upright spits, but in the St. Nicholas parish hall, then sliced thin for the sandwiches served outside.

The goal, according to Valkanos, is to serve dedicated gyro fans gyros as close as possible to a perfect gyro. And that starts with the individual ingredients. The bread, for instance, is not like the flat pocket bread that you usually find in a supermarket.

“It is not the kind you would buy that opens up and you fill it up,” she said. “Rather, this is a soft and fluffy pita that acts as a plate and you wrap around the meat.”

For Valkanos, one of the things that make a gyro so special is the combination of complementary textures that goes into it.

“It’s just a combination of all the ingredients,” she said. “You’ve got great seasoned meat and then you add the tzatziki sauce to it, which is very cool on your palate. And then you add the tomatoes and a little bit of lettuce and a little onion in it, and then the soft bread to wrap it up and eat it. It’s a really good all-around, whole food sandwich.”

Regardless of whether people attend the Lamb Barbecue, Gyro Day, or both, Valkonos said, St. Nicholas’ weekend of food is an expression of an important Greek value: hospitality.

“Our festival is unique,” she said, “in that it really is reminiscent of Old World Greece, where there is this little church in the landscape in the countryside somewhere in Greece and people just come together and have a very homegrown organic experience. It feels very much like that.”

Annual Lamb Barbecue
When: Traditional Greek food and pastries Saturday, June 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, June 22, will be Gyro Day — fresh gyro, a bag of chips and a drink will cost $13; gyros will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: St. Nicholas Orthodox Church’s, 1160 Bridge St., Manchester, 625-6115, stnicholasgreekchurch.com

Featured photo: A St. Nicholas Gyro. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 25/06/19

News from the local food scene

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

• A country gift of food: Canadian country music star Shania Twain has donated $25,000 to the New Hampshire Food Bank. As reported in a June 10 online article by WMUR, Twain, who will perform in concert at the Bank of NH Pavilion in Gilford on July 24, “is making donations to food banks in every city on her tour.” The article pointed out that the $25,000 gift is “enough to provide around 46,000 meals to those in need.”

• It’s strawberry time! The Hollis Strawberry Festival, presented by the Hollis Woman’s Club, will bring strawberry shortcake and other strawberry treats to the Town Common (7 Monument Square, Hollis) on Sunday, June 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. Visit holliswomansclub.org.

• Drag brunch: To celebrate Pride Month, there will be at least three area restaurants serving brunch featuring drag revues this weekend. 77 Sports Bar & Restaurant (138 Main St., Nashua, 589-9148, 77-sportsbar.com) will host “Bacon, Eggs, & Glam” on Saturday, June 21, from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; San Francisco Kitchen (133 Main St., Nashua, 886-8833, sfkitchen.com) will host a Pride Drag Brunch featuring Drag Superstars on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and The Hop Knot (1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-3731, hopknotnh.com) will have two seatings for its Drag Brunch on Sunday, June 22, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Visit eventbrite.com.

Lime Custard Cake

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

½ cup (1 cube) butter, melted

1¼ cup (250 g) sugar

4 eggs, separated

zest of 3 limes

¼ cup (4 Tablespoons) fresh squeezed lime juice

2 teaspoons dehydrated lime juice powder (optional) – available online, dehydrated citrus powders let you bump up citrus flavor in a recipe without throwing off your moisture content

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup (65 g) all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1¼ cup (300 ml) evaporated milk

Heat oven to 325°F.

Butter a 9-inch spring-form pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Measure and set aside all your ingredients. This is something restaurant cooks call mise en place, or “meez.” If you’ve ever watched a cooking show and wondered why everything looks so effortless, takes five minutes, and the kitchen on set doesn’t look like a war zone, it’s because an intern has already found all the ingredients, prepared them, and set them aside, so the chef isn’t running around with her sleeve on fire shouting, “HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY BE OUT OF BUTTER!!??” If you haven’t done this before, try it. It’s a game-changer.

Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. Set aside.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is light in color and fluffy.

Mix in the lime zest, lime juice, lime juice powder and vanilla. Add the flour and salt, and mix until everything is incorporated. Drizzle in the evaporated milk and mix everything together.

Stir 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the mixture to lighten it, then gently fold in the rest, one half at a time, until the batter is light and mousse-like. (Not moose-like; if that happens, something has definitely gone awry.)

Spoon the batter into your spring-form pan, and bake it for 50 to 55 minutes, until the top is slightly golden but still a little jiggly if you shake it.

Let the cake cook completely in the pan before removing it. It might collapse in on itself a little, and lose some volume, but it will still be beautiful.

Serve in small slices — it’s very rich — with glasses of seltzer over crushed ice. Eat it listening to “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. You’ll be able to tell your child — even an eye-rolling teenager — that their daddy is rich, and their momma’s good-looking, and mean it.

Featured photo: Lime Custard Cake. Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Daniel MacCrea

New Culinary Director, Pats Peak Ski Area (686 Flanders Road, Henniker, 428-3245, patspeak.com)

“Culinary’s something I kind of fell into,” MacCrea said. “I was working at a hotel when I was like 16 or 17. I was actually a busboy. And then something happened where one of the cooks was on vacation … and one cook got let go, and one guy just kind of stopped showing up. I looked at the executive chef and said, ‘Hey, you can come get me; I can fill in a few shifts.’ That was kind of how I got started. … I did some chain restaurant work. I worked in elder care as a culinary director for Expected Living for about eight or nine years. That was actually really rewarding. Then … I was the executive chef at Great Wolf Lodge for about three years before I took this Pats Peak job. I graduated high school, but then never really went to culinary school because I was already working and in the field doing it, and I love what I did, and I just wanted to work and move up the ladder and progress that way.

Do you have a particular culinary point of view or a philosophy in the kitchen?

I do. I mean, I honestly think it’s not about me; it’s really just about whatever my guest wants. I try to cater to anyone and everyone. I really got into cooking for people with allergies and specific kinds of needs. I started really in health care, but then I expanded it when I was at my last job at Great Wolf Lodge. For me, it’s just all about guest satisfaction. If I can make somebody happy with my food, I’ve done my job.

What’s your must-have kitchen item?

Other than the very obvious, like just a good quality chef’s knife, I feel like oregano is my secret ingredient. I add oregano to a lot of dishes. I just like fresh herbs. I think if you have fresh herbs in general, you’re going to be better off. Fresh herbs, I think they elevate just about every dish.

What do you think is the most important skill in the kitchen?

For me, the most important skill is really being able to interact with a lot of different kinds of people. People skills are huge. You’re interacting with people from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, all different personalities, and to be able to get the most out of those people that work around you I think is just so important

What would you have for your last meal?

I’d probably just have like a nice steak, like a nice T-bone or porterhouse, cooked medium rare, with something like creamy mashed potatoes and garlic green beans on the side.

What’s the best dish that you ever ate at a restaurant?

I was in Chicago — I think the place was called Gibson’s Italia. It was all family style, but literally everything I tried on that table was amazing — great steak, great pasta, great everything. We were at a leadership course thing, it was like a long weekend, and this woman was local to Chicago and she was taking us to all these places. I mean she’s walking up to these restaurants, no signage, no nothing, you wouldn’t know it was a restaurant unless you lived there. The service was incredible. The food was incredible.

Who’s a celebrity you’d like to see eating your food?

I’d be terrified, but I would love to have Gordon Ramsay eat my food. Although I admit I would be absolutely terrified, but, I mean, he’ll tell you like it is.

What’s your favorite dish to put on a menu?

When I’m planning a menu, I like to have some barbecue items. I love pulled pork, I love smoked brisket. I just like smoked meats. It’s a lot of the kind of weird cuts that way back when people didn’t appreciate them, and then we started making them into fantastic meals and I just love that.

What’s your favorite cookbook?

I’ve read a lot of cookbooks. I don’t know if I have an exact favorite one. I know they’re not actually cookbooks, but I like anything by [Anthony] Bourdain. I love that stuff. The cookbook I go to the most is literally a culinary textbook from Johnson & Wales. I just sort of picked that up, and it’s just amazing. It’s so easy to use, it has everything you could want. Right now, I’m reading about smoking.

What’s a big new food trend that you see?

There’s a lot of stuff I think that is trending, but hot honey is huge right now. I also think people are trying to get back to basics. I think overdone dishes with a million ingredients are kind of a way of the past. I think simple dishes, simple flavors, just good quality fresh ingredients is kind of on the rise. And I love that.

What’s your favorite thing to cook at home?

I like to cook a lot of Asian-fusion food. I like to make orange chicken and Szechuan chicken, things like that. I like to make simple meals that I can make really quick that are really flavorful. Really, my wife’s pretty picky, so anything that I can get her to eat and say is good is huge for me.

Featured Image: Daniel MacCrea, New Culinary Director, Pats Peak Ski Area. Courtesy photo.

Cute Coops

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

In May, the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation held a statewide Chicken Coop Contest.

“People love chickens,” said Leandra Pritchard from the Farm Bureau Federation, “especially our backyard farmers. We knew we would probably reach a good amount of people with a chicken coop competition. A lot of the backyard farmers like to put their creativity to work, and they take good care of their chickens because they love their eggs and [practice] good animal husbandry and taking care of their animals. We wanted to celebrate that.”

In partnership with the Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) and Osborne’s Farm and Garden Center in Concord the Farm Bureau Federation invited New Hampshire chicken enthusiasts to send it photos of their coops. There were three categories: Most Likeable by a Chicken, Best Reuse of Existing Materials, and Best Youth-Built.

The winner in each category won a prize package of a Farm Bureau membership, a NOFA membership, a grain certificate and a chicken care basket. “And a sign that they can put on their cupola,” she said.

Pritchard, who raises chickens herself, pointed out that while raising chickens is fun and emotionally rewarding, it involves a lot of work. People shouldn’t make the decision of keeping a coop lightly, she said.

“Chickens need fresh water every day. They need plenty of good feed and they need their roosting boxes filled with fresh bedding. You have to check on them at minimum once a day, but I’m sure more people do more than that because they’re not going to produce good eggs for you unless you have proper water and food for them.”

This year’s contest winners with descpitions according to the Federation:

Best Re-Use of Existing Materials: The Cluck Wagon by Ted West This won for its durable, mobile design built largely from repurposed parts, housing up to 25 chickens with features like a gravity-fed waterer, a predator-safe ramp, and a circus wagon flair.

Best Youth-Built: Feather Fort by The Paone and Lebel Family This winner features kid-led construction with classic wood framing, T1-11 siding, asphalt shingles and a charming Dutch door.

Most Likeable by a Chicken: The Compost Coop-oration by Liz Barbour This won for its integrated coop, run and “chunnel” system that lets chickens safely roam and compost garden waste. It also offers features like heated water, a poop bench and a sand floor for happy, healthy hens.

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