Author: John Fladd

Give thanks for grapes

Wine and Cheese Festival celebrates the harvest

By John Fladd
[email protected]

The grapes have been good this year for Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis.

“This year, the harvest was fantastic,” enthused owner Al Fulchino, “just super quality. [The grapes had a] low water content because it was dry, right through harvest, which was beautiful. We have very nice acidity numbers and nice quality.”

Which makes this year’s Annual Wine and Cheese Festival especially sweet for Fulchino.

“It’s like an exclamation point on the year to have this type of event,” he said. Instead of worrying, through the fall, “this year, there’s very little to do except babysit and blend and basically just cultivate the wine from the grape to being put into the bottle.”

The Wine and Cheese Festival has been a yearly tradition at Fulchino Vineyard for more than 10 years. Over the course of two days guests will be able to sample and compare cheese and cured meats from around the world, and pair them with Fulchino wines.

“We do four sessions and we limit it to 50 people each session,” Fulchino said. “That way it’s manageable and people have ample opportunity to sample all the different foods. Basically, the people can eat their way through the building. There’s going to be cheeses from around the world. We’ll have some wonderful meats, mostly Italian. There will be other things, like desserts, and of course there will be wine and sampling. People get a complimentary glass.”

“They’ll get to sample, they’ll get to eat, maybe go sit out in one of the heated igloos, maybe sit by a fire pit, maybe sit at one of our tables and try a few things and then talk to their friends and enjoy everybody’s company and then go back and eat some more.”

Fulchino is expecting a full house this year.

“[The Festival] sells out every year,” he said, “which is awesome. It’s a pretty hotly sought-after event, and it’s two weeks before Thanksgiving, so it’s just that special little time where people can have the free time to go do something socially but also have in mind that Thanksgiving is coming up.” Guests can stock their pantry for the holiday, he said, “and find some wonderful things to purchase for their Thanksgiving table or gift-giving items when they visit people.”

Because there is a natural affinity between cheese and wine, Fulchino and his staff look forward to giving pairing advice to guests and the Festival, but they are aware of how easy it can be to overwhelm them.

“We have cheeses from Italy, cheeses from France, cheeses from America, cheeses from Australia — just all around the world,” Fulchino said. “Soft cheeses, hard cheeses, goat cheese, sheep cheese, dairy cheese; there’s a little bit of everything and something for everybody’s palate. We do give [wine] advice when people come through the line. Some people feel less comfortable asking because they don’t want to feel inadequate per se. So it’s really tailored to the individual. Natural curiosity produces the questions from the customers to our staff and then, of course, they’ll answer.”

Running a small vineyard involves a lot of personal connections. Fulchino said events like the Wine and Cheese Festival give him and his staff a chance to catch up with loyal customers.

”I get to see customers that are brand new,” he said, “and then they heard about the festival. Or, they came in during the summer and they’re coming in now so I get to see the faces both familiar and new. There’s just this feeling of gratitude in seeing that, especially because it coincides with Thanksgiving. We’re getting to the end of the year. We’re all summing up our lives and what’s happened. It’s just a time to show some gratitude. So I think that’s what people will love.”

Annual Wine and Cheese Festival
When: Saturday, Nov. 16, and Sunday, Nov. 17
Where: Fulchino Vineyard, 187 Pine Hill Road, Hollis
Tickets: $55 through the Fulchino website. This event always sells out, so early purchases are recommended.
More: 438-5984, fulchinovineyard.com

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 24/11/7

News from the local food scene

• More coffee: Popular coffee provider Aroma Joe’s (aromajoes.com) has announced the opening of two new locations in Nashua. One location, which has already opened, is inside the Hannaford supermarket at 175 Coliseum Ave; it is a 180-square-foot walk-up coffee shop. The second location, slated to open later this month, will be at 495 Amherst St., next to Nashua Community College, and will offer dine-in and drive-thru services.

• Showcase tickets: There are still tickets available for the 11th Annual Distiller’s Showcase at the Doubletree Expo Center (700 Elm St., Manchester, 625-1000) Thursday, Nov. 7, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. More than 600 spirits purveyors and 25+ restaurants will provide samples and information about their products. Tickets are $75 through eventbrite.com. Proceeds will benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank.

• Wine tasting: There will be a 2nd Anniversary Party & Free Wine Tasting at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) Saturday, Nov. 9. Ambra from Crush distributors will be there for a free wine tasting from 1 to 4 p.m.

• Food and beer pairing: The Barley House Restaurant and Tavern (132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363, thebarleyhouse.com) will partner with Henniker Brewing Co. (129 Centervale Road, Henniker, 428-3579, hennikerbrewing.com) for a Harvest Beer Dinner on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m. at the Barley House, with a social hour in the bar beginning at 5 p.m. Food will be paired with beer from Henniker Brewing. Tickets are $85 per person.

• Anniversary party: Flag Hill Winery and Distillery (297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com) will celebrate 30 years of wine making and 20 years of distilling with a 1999 Party on Sunday, Nov. 10, from 3 to 8 p.m. Attendees will have an opportunity to mingle with fellow wine and spirit enthusiasts, and meet the distillers who crafted wines and spirits for Flag Hill over the years. Sip handcrafted cocktails and savor bites while enjoying live music. Tickets begin at $75, through eventbrite.com.

Celery Sour

So, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you’ve got a recipe for something that sounds really delicious and intriguing, but it’s been written by a chef, or in this case a bartender, who has access to special equipment and ingredients that a typical home enthusiast doesn’t. Because they are experts, it is likely that their version of a recipe will be excellent. The question is, will it be so much better than a DIY enthusiast’s work-around that it is worth going to the extra time and effort to make as written?

In this case, yes. Yes, it will.

As originally conceived of, this recipe supposes that the cocktail maker has access to a sous vide, a piece of laboratory or commercial kitchen equipment that keeps a water bath at a consistent temperature.

I’ve run this recipe two ways, once with sous vide-infused pineapple gin, and once with regular gin and pineapple juice. The work-around is very good; don’t get me wrong. But the version with shmancy lab-equipment-infused pineapple gin is about 75 percent better. It is simply outstanding.

Think of this as a project.

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces pineapple-infused gin (see below) – alternatively, 1½ ounces gin and 1 ounce pineapple juice
  • 1 teaspoon Licor 43
  • ¾ ounce celery syrup (see below)
  • ¾ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Greek yogurt
  • 2 dashes celery bitters

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake enthusiastically. Strain into a coupé glass.

Sip, while listening to the Bangles’ 1987 cover of “Hazy Shade of Winter.”

This cocktail tastes of gin and pineapple, and yogurt (a tiny bit), and sunshine.

Pineapple-Infused Gin

Combine equal amounts of London dry gin — Gordon’s is a good choice for this — and fresh pineapple in an air-tight container. This could be a lidded jar or a zip-close plastic bag. Soak in a 155°F water bath for two hours. If you own a sous vide, you probably used it once or maybe twice when you first got it, then put it away and haven’t touched it in several months. This will be a good opportunity to reintroduce yourself to it, and tentatively become friends.

If you don’t own a sous vide — and really, unless you are an actual chef, or desperately obsessed with cooking competition shows, why would you? — this won’t be difficult, per se, but it will be a fiddly couple of hours.

Take a small plastic or Styrofoam cooler and fill it about halfway with very hot water. Use a frying/candy thermometer to find out what the temperature of the water is. If it is above 160°F, wait until the temperature comes down to around there to insert your container of gin and pineapple into the water bath. If it is below 150°F, pour a little bit of boiling water from a kettle into the cooler, and stir, until it reaches 160°F, then put your container in the water bath.

Get a chair from the dining or living room, and sit near the water bath, checking on the temperature every five minutes or so. Each time the water drops below 150°F, nudge it back to 160°F with some more boiling water. Keep this going for two hours.

Regardless of which method you used to infuse your gin, at the end of two hours strain it with a fine-mesh strainer and run it through a coffee filter. Seal tightly and use within a week or so.

Celery Syrup

  • ¾ cup (148 g) white sugar
  • ¾ cup (179 g) water
  • 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon celery seeds

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for five minutes, then set aside, covered, for several hours. Strain with a fine-mesh strainer, and again with a coffee filter. Surprisingly, it will be a beautiful golden color. Refrigerate and keep for two to three weeks.

Featured Photo: Two celery sours. Original recipe on left, in smaller glass. Workaround recipe on right made with regular gin and pineapple juice. Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Nikki miller

Nikki Miller is Head Bartender at Barley House Restaurant and Tavern (132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363, thebarleyhouse.com). A New Hampshire native, she has “always pretty much worked in restaurants,” she said. “I have bounced around a tiny bit, but definitely have landed here at the Barley House. I’ve been here for six and a half years now. I started as a server, and made my way up to a bartender. I am a manager, now. I run the events here, I throw parties, I do a lot. Sometimes I even wash dishes. I really like bartending. I think that you kind of command your space when you’re behind the bar. And there are a lot of people who don’t care about talking to you, but I work every Sunday during the day, and I have people that make it a point to come and see me. It’s part of their routine, so to speak. I took the weekend off last weekend, and I guess some people were asking, ‘Where is the Queen, herself?’”

What is your must-have bar tool?

Definitely a shaker, I would say. So it’s just a two-piece metal Boston shaker. We build all of our drinks in pint glasses here. Also ice. We just have small, little cube ice here, but crushed ice is amazing for a cocktail.

What would you have for your last meal?

Maybe a burger. I’m really into burgers right now, and I think you could make it just a classic, or you could build it up, and throw an egg on there. We have a burger here at the Barley House that has gravy and blue cheese. That would be a good one.

What is your favorite local eatery?

I am a big fan of Mexican food, so I go around to all of our local Mexican places. There’s so much you can do — tacos, nachos, burritos. I definitely love any variation of that.

Have you ever served a drink to a celebrity?

I have served some presidential candidates. They usually just order a beer. And it’s so funny — it’s a business, you know, a meet-and-greet thing. So they’ll come in, they’ll order a beer and then they don’t even drink it.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

So we do have a Moscow Mule with some apple cider that is really tasty. It’s just a well-balanced drink. It’s got some juice, a little bit of bubbles, and then we have a bourbon one right now. It’s so good! There’s the bourbon, lime juice, ginger beer, and then some apple cider. There’s just something about it.

What is the biggest cocktail trend you see in New Hampshire right now?

I think that we all eat with the seasons. So right now, you know, we obviously are kind of an Irish-themed bar, so it’s a lot of beef stew, chicken pot pie, you know, those like warming things. And then of course in the summertime, people are eating salads, they’re eating a little bit lighter. And one of my favorite parts about bartending is sort of making cocktails with the seasons, you know, whether it’s fresh blueberries or right now apple cider is obviously one. Pretty soon we’ll be doing boozy hot chocolates with whipped cream and that will be a big hit.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home? Why?

It would have to be some sort of pasta. I have a couple of little boys. I make a butternut squash mac and cheese or American chop suey and those are always big hits.

Drunken Pumpkin
From Nikki Miller, head bartender at the Barley House

Combine 2 ounces of vanilla vodka with 3 ounces of pumpkin cider in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well, then strain into a glass with a cinnamon-sugar rim.

The wines you don’t know

Wine on Main explains ‘Misunderstood Wines’

One of Emma Stetson’s favorite parts of owning a wine shop — Wine on Main in Concord — is teaching classes.

“We do monthly wine classes,” Stetson said. “Each one has a different theme. For example, last month we [discussed wines from] Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It could have a more overarching theme, whether it’s about climate, or full-bodied red wines — things like that.”

This month the theme is “Misunderstood Wines.”

“I’ve noticed there are some wines that people are confused about,” Stetson said, “that have misconceptions around them. So I thought it would be fun to correct some of those for people. So that’s one component of the class. And then the other component is that we have Thanksgiving coming up. So the full title of the class is ‘Misunderstood Wines that are Also Perfect for Thanksgiving.’ It’s a way to clear up some misconceptions but also find unique wines for your holiday table.”

Stetson said some misconceptions about particular wines come from their names.

“An example,” she said, “is in the Loire Valley in France. There is a region called Muscadet. It’s a great wine for pairing, especially for Thanksgiving. It has bright acidity and bright fresh fruit flavors.” She finds that many customers are resistant to trying it. “They’ll tell me, ‘No, I hate sweet wines.’ My reaction is, ‘What are you talking about? Muscadet is a dry white wine from France’s Loire Valley!’ and they’re like ‘No, I hate Muscato and Muscatel’; they think in their heads because the words are so similar….”

“It was funny,” she said. “We did a wine tasting back in October with a Muscadet that was delicious, but it was a major hurdle that we had to overcome first.”

Sometimes people assume wines from a particular region are the same. “Riesling kind of goes hand in hand with that too,” Stetson said. Rieslings are white wines that originated in the Rhine River region of Germany, with a reputation for being sweet. Some of them are, Stetson said, but “riesling” covers many different wines. “I have so many people tell me, ‘I don’t like riesling,’ and for the same reason; they say because it’s too sweet. Riesling can be made in a huge array of styles, especially ones made in the Finger Lakes [of New York State]. They are so close to us, are frequently done in a dry style and so aromatic and beautiful.”

November is a good time of the year to clear up some of these misunderstandings, Stetson said. “Riesling is such a classic wine for Thanksgiving, so I wanted to present people with a dry riesling. The aromatics in the wine and even the grape itself will give hints of blossom and honeysuckle. That pairs really well with root vegetables and Thanksgiving seasonal fare. And white wine is kind of a classic pairing with turkey. You could do reds too, but you would choose a lighter red. White goes well with turkey because it won’t overwhelm the poultry.”

Small classes provide a relaxed, focused atmosphere for wine drinkers to wrap their heads around wines, Stetson said.

“Class goers get the opportunity to have a more in-depth understanding of each wine,” she said, “and ask their questions as opposed to at a wine tasting where it’s quick and they’re contending with other people who might be here. I think it’s a great environment for them to have a more personalized experience.”

“I want them to start to figure out what their palate is like,” Stetson said, “what kinds of wines they enjoy and what they gravitate to. For this particular class, I hope people find really fun wines for the holidays that they can share with their family and friends and talk knowledgeably about. Hopefully, clearing up some of these misconceptions in a Misunderstood Wines class will encourage people to try wines that they might have steered clear of because they thought they wouldn’t like them or just didn’t know about them.”

Misunderstood Wines Class
When: Tuesday, Nov. 12, or Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Where: Wine on Main, 9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828
More: wineonmainnh.com
Each class is limited to 20 people and includes six wines and light snacks. The cost is $35 per person.

Featured Photo: Emma Stetson leading a class. Courtesy photo.

Sleazy Vegan parks the truck

Popular purveyor serves food at Pembroke City Limits

For Kelly Sue Leblanc, a turning point in the direction her life was headed came in the form of a vegan cooking class.

Leblanc, who goes by KSL, was curious about plant-based foods, but was frustrated by how limited her dinner choices seemed to be. “I was definitely a carnivore,” she said. “I’d been eating that way my whole life. I honestly was like, ‘OK, I made a stir-fry and a salad and some pasta and now I’ve run out of vegetable things to cook for myself. Am I just going to be stuck eating pasta and salad and stir-fry for the rest of my life?’ I didn’t know how to cook without butter or dairy.”

A cooking class led KSL to a deeper understanding of how food is constructed — why certain ingredients go together, and what the elements were that made some dishes work, and some crash and burn. Learning about food became fascinating to her, which, in short order, led to buying a food truck.

“We bought the truck in June of ’22,” KSL said, “and that first season we kind of stuck around Manchester because of the crazy amount of different health licenses that are in the 16 self-governed towns of New Hampshire. Being a mobile food truck in New Hampshire is a very strange kind of gig because of the way that we [New Hampshire towns] manage our health licenses.” Limited by the cooking space in a food truck, she did the lion’s share of cooking in a commercial kitchen in Manchester and then finished each order on site.

She named the truck The Sleazy Vegan.

“The Sleazy Vegan got its name in a couple of different ways,” KSL said. ”I plan on living on a sailboat at some point, and I was playing with business names that began with S-V, and that came into my mind, and worked for me in that way, but it also worked because of the philosophy of food.” She remembered that when she first switched to a plant-based diet she felt like she was being judged. “I went to a couple of different places that were vegan restaurants, and I was made to feel very, very uncomfortable because I was wearing leather shoes or had a leather handbag. And the penny hadn’t dropped on me about what the word ‘vegan’ really meant and how fully loaded it could be. And Sleazy Vegan is sort of my acceptance of being an imperfect vegan and wanting to just make sure that everybody knows that about the food and about what we’re doing before they get there. The name Sleazy Vegan kind of ties together our whole concept of being a vegan food provider.”

Earlier this year The Sleazy Vegan became the food provider at Pembroke City Limits (134 Main St., Suncook, 210-2409, pembrokecitylimits.com), a multi-use entertainment venue. KSL said cooking in the new space is not too different from working from her food truck.

“The space that we have at Pembroke City Limits is smaller than what’s on my truck,” she said. She and her head cook, Trafton Hanscom, who describes himself as a “Sleaze Wrangler,” still do all their preliminary cooking at her commercial kitchen, then finish each dish to order at the brick-and-mortar restaurant. “What we have been doing at Pembroke City Limits is introducing things that we’ve done in the food truck,” she said. “I am an unruly cook because I am constantly making new items. But that’s, I mean, that’s why I’m doing this, right? If I look at our current menu — between our snacks and apps, bigger bites, drinks and sweets — we are doing over 30 items from that tiny little kitchen.”

KSL sees her new restaurant as the next stage in an evolving story.

“Being that my history is in tech,” she said, “I view everything as a prototype. We’re prototyping this idea that we can put in something that would cost about the same as a food truck or less into a small establishment and be able to run Sleazy Vegan as a busy vegan kitchen, so that maybe we can grow this idea up and repeat it.”

The Sleazy Vegan
Where: 134 Main St., Pembroke
Hours: Open Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday, 2 to 10 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
Info: 233-5078, thesleazyvegan.com
The menu is available online, as well as links to The Sleazy Vegan’s social media accounts. The Sleazy Vegan can cater occasions from weddings to corporate events.

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

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