Author: John Fladd

Tips for making this most perfect dish

I read a science fiction/martial arts novel once where the main character, in classic Kung Fu tradition, searches out a reclusive martial arts master and begs him to train him. The old man reluctantly agrees, on the condition that the young man doesn’t ask any questions. His main teaching method is to jump out, surprise his student, then beat him mercilessly with a stick.

Eventually the young man learns the most important lesson in martial arts — how to develop the instincts to avoid trouble.

Making pancakes is a little like that.

There are a few things you can do to improve your pancake-making — cooking over a relatively low temperature, for instance, so the surface doesn’t cook too quickly, leaving the inside under-done. Or letting the pancake batter rest for a few minutes before cooking it, to let the ingredients get themselves in the right frame of mind.

But ultimately, it comes down to developing Pancake Instincts. You won’t be able to really know, intellectually, when a pancake is ready to flip. It’s only after you’ve made three or four in a batch that you will get an instinctive feeling for when a pancake is ready to turn over. There’s an old piece of wisdom that the first pancake isn’t very good. There’s something to that; it will definitely not be your prettiest one.

Be kind to yourself and don’t get discouraged. You’ve got this.

As we move into maple season, our thoughts turn to pancakes. Here are a few to widen your pancake vocabulary.

Simple Straightforward, Classic Pancakes (With Blueberries If You Want Them)

Basically the King Arthur Baking Company recipe you’ll find at kingarthurbaking.com.

2 eggs, room temperature

1¼ cup (283 g) milk, also room temperature

3 Tablespoons (43 g) melted butter. Have you ever noticed that there is a measuring guide printed on the side of a stick of butter? It’s almost always calibrated in tablespoons; just count down three lines and cut through the stick with a sharp knife. Unwrap your pat of butter and melt it in the microwave.

1½ cups (180 g) all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 Tablespoons (25 g) sugar

Frozen wild blueberries, or unfrozen, or regular-sized ones, or chopped strawberries or mango — I’m not here to fruit-judge you; I just happen to like the frozen wild blueberries

Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together. Set them aside.

In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, or in your blender, beat the eggs, milk and butter together, until they are light and frothy.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients until just combined, then set the batter aside for 10 or 15 minutes, while you heat your skillet or pan over medium-low heat, until it seems hot enough. You can test it with a drop of batter, or a few drops of water. If the water dances around, or the micro-pancake cooks, the pan is ready.

When your pan is properly heated, drop a generous amount of butter, maybe a teaspoonful, into the pan. Many well-intentioned pancake enthusiasts will tell you, “Hey, if you’re using a nonstick pan, you don’t need to add extra butter; there’s already butter in the recipe.” At best, these people are over-thinking things. At worst, they are unhappy and want to deprive you of this small bit of pleasure, so you can keep them company in their discontent. There is nothing that you can fry that isn’t better fried in butter. This is a stand I will defend passionately. Do this for each pancake.

Spoon two to three tablespoons of batter into the butteriest part of the pan. If you are making blueberry pancakes, sprinkle the berries over the raw batter. They will thaw and warm up when you cook the other side of the pancake.

When the first side has cooked enough — it’s OK to lift a corner and peek; it isn’t cheating — flip it over and finish the other side, and fry it until it is the shade of golden brown that you like.

As you finish two or three pancakes and have them stacked on a plate, call the least patient person in your house to come get them. These are delicious warm and stacked, but even better still hot and crispy around the edges. True, your family will not all be able to sit together at a table with a checked cloth and take joy in each other’s company, but pancakes wait for nobody.

These are your classic, platonic ideal pancakes. They are rich and buttery — because you cared enough to add the extra butter — and ready for you to add even more butter and syrup.

(Yes, more butter. If you wanted to eat healthy, you’d be having half a tomato and some Swedish crispbread. You knew what you were getting into when you decided to make pancakes.)

A glass of cold milk is perfect to cut through the doughy sweetness.

Moroccan Pancakes (Baghrir)

These are hand-held crumpet-adjacent pancakes from Morocco. If you make them once, you’ll make them many times.

1½ cups (252 g) semolina flour

¼ cup (32 g) all-purpose flour

2 cups + 2 Tablespoons (474 g) water

2 teaspoons yeast

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

Add all the ingredients to a blender, and blend for a minute or so to get everything thoroughly mixed and to beat some air into the batter.

Leave the batter alone for 30 to 45 minutes, to give the yeast time to lighten it up.

Heat your pan over medium-low heat. When your batter has rested, pour enough batter into the pan to make a 4- to 5-inch pancake.

Wait.

This part takes patience. These particular pancakes are only cooked on one side. As your pancake cooks, bubbles will form on the surface and remain open. When the surface of the pancake has cooked all the way through — you’ll be able to tell by the color; if it’s still a little doughy inside, the surface will be a little bit yellow (from the semolina), and it will lighten in color when it has finished — and is covered with bubbles, remove it from the pan and finish its brothers.

These are excellent hot from the pan with butter, honey or jam — the holes are perfect for holding onto them — but they are good cooled down, too. They are a little yeasty and very slightly sweet. They are crispy on the bottom, and chewy, with a little extra texture from the semolina. These are very good for sharing with a friend over tea.

Simple Orange Pancakes

This is one of the easiest pancake recipes you will ever make. Don’t let its simplicity fool you; they are delicious and worthy of you.

Use your favorite pancake mix, but replace the milk or water called for with orange juice. Add the zest of an orange, and ½ to 1 teaspoon of orange extract.

As promised, these are deliciously orangey, but they’re not overly sweet. If you are generous with the butter or other fat when you fry them, you should get some crispy edges, which are one of the few, uncomplicated joys in this often exhausting world.

Dutch Baby

This is a jumbo, pan-sized pancake that is useful for impressing people who underestimate you.

½ cup (60 g) all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt

3 eggs, room temperature

¾ cup (170 g) milk, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 Tablespoons butter

Preheat your oven to 425ºF, with a medium-sized cast iron skillet on the center rack. You’re going to want the pan to be rocket-hot when you pour the batter in (see below).

In a small mixing bowl, mix together your dry ingredients — the flour, sugar and salt.

In a blender, purée the eggs until they are light and a little foamy.

Add the milk, flour mixture and vanilla, then blend again, until everything is well mixed.

Remove the skillet from the oven.

Here’s the thing: You’re probably not used to using a frying pan in the oven; no one is. Because you’ve learned, probably the hard way, to use a kitchen towel or an oven mitt to take something out of the oven, you’ll remember to do that. It’s after you’ve set it down on your stovetop and your brain has moved on to the next step that you’ll get annoyed that the skillet’s handle is in your way, and absentmindedly grab it to rotate the pan. The pan that is 425ºF hot. If you have any small children in your house, it is at this point that they will learn some fascinating new words.

Set the pan down, and melt the butter in it. It will sizzle and foam in a really satisfying way. Pour the batter into the hot pan.

Return the skillet to the center rack of your oven and bake for about 20 minutes (though you should start checking on it at about 15).

Take your giant pancake out of the oven when it is golden brown and a little puffy. Set it down on your stovetop, or your granite countertop — if you want to show off and you’re 100 percent positive it’s real granite — and garnish it with yogurt and fresh berries

This is an outstanding brunch dish. Instead of making 15 or 20 normal-sized pancakes to feed a few friends, you just have to make one. A Dutch Baby is the rare intersection of fanciness and comfort food. It tastes very much like a thick crepe, a little sweet and eggy, with a satisfying chewiness, without being tough.

Crepe Cake

This is a Dutch Baby’s fancy sister. It is simply a pile of crepes layered with a cream cheese frosting. It’s one of those dishes that seems complicated, but if you follow the recipe carefully it will turn out well and you’ll be deservedly really pleased with yourself.

Crepes:

½ cup (114 g) water

1 cup (227 g) milk

4 eggs

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

⅛ teaspoon salt

Frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

12 ounces (340 g) sweetened condensed milk (almost all of a 14-ounce can, without scraping down the sides)

8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese at room temperature

Add the crepe ingredients to your blender. This is weird, but you should do it in the order listed above: first the water and milk, then the eggs and melted butter, and then the dry ingredients. This keeps the flour from gelatinizing on the bottom of the blender jar. If you float the dry stuff on top, they will get pulled into the mixture smoothly and make you feel like a professional.

Turn off the blender and let the batter rest while you make the frosting.

With an electric mixer — either a hand mixer or a stand one — beat the butter and condensed milk together for a shockingly long time, seven to nine minutes, at the highest speed. After this time, the mixture will be very, very light and fluffy.

Cut off tablespoon-sized chunks of cream cheese and beat it into the butter mixture at a slightly lower speed, until it is thoroughly incorporated. Set it aside. It’s tempting to chill it in the refrigerator at this point, but you want it to be smooth, fluffy and spreadable when you put the cake together.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium-low heat. When it’s hot enough, grease the pan with butter. This is the only time you will do this. Yes, this is a violation of the Always Add More Butter rule, but crepes can be finicky; they seem to prefer not to be fried in extra butter. Who can understand the mind of a crepe?

Pour ¼ to ⅓ of a cup of batter into your pan. When it seems done — again, it’s OK to lift a corner and peek — flip it over and cook the other side. The easiest way to do this is to lift a corner with a spatula, then flip it with your fingers.

When it has cooked on both sides, transfer it to a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone mat to cool. Do not stack warm crepes together; it will be very difficult to separate them later. Once they have cooled, it’s fine to stack them, so you don’t run out of counter space. You should end up with 10 to 15 crepes.

When all the crepes have cooled, take a moment to feel good about yourself. Crepes can be really intimidating, but you have overcome them.

Choose a serving dish that you want to present this cake on, then place your Alpha Crepe on it. Frost the top of the crepe with your cream cheese frosting, starting from the middle and working your way out to the edges.

Stack your Beta Crepe on top of the first, and repeat the process. Keep doing this until you run out of crepes. Somewhere along the line you will find a particularly good-looking crepe. Save it for the top of the pile.You will probably have extra frosting left over at the end. Save it for French toast or something.

Chill your crepe cake for several hours in your refrigerator to firm up the frosting layers.

When you are ready to serve your crepe cake, run a sharp chef’s knife under hot water. This will help you make neat, non-squooshed cuts. It might help to stab the middle of the cake, then work your way down from there. Run the knife under hot water for each cut you make. If you want to be extra fancy — maybe you’re on a date or trying to show up your sister-in-law — garnish the plate with a few berries or mint leaves.

The two elements of this cake really make themselves known. The frosting is soft, sweet, and a little tart from the cream cheese. The crepes are eggy and really delicious, with a firm resistance when you bite through them.

In your heart, you always knew you were fancy.

Old-School Traditional Buckwheat Pancakes

¼ cup (57 g) warm water

1½ teaspoons yeast

½ teaspoon sugar

1 cup (227 g) cold water

½ cup (60 g) all-purpose flour

1 cup (120 g) buckwheat flour

¾ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons molasses

2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine

½ teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in ¼ cup (57 g) of water

Mix the quarter cup of water with the yeast and sugar. Set it aside for 10 minutes or so. This is called “activating” the yeast. The little granules of yeast that have been sleeping in your refrigerator, or in their little envelopes, have been taking a nap. This will wake them up and get them excited about fulfilling their destiny.

When the yeast mixture looks foamy and excited, mix it in a container with a cover with a cup of cold water, the flours and the salt. Mix them thoroughly, then cover the container and store it in the refrigerator overnight or, if you’re having Breakfast For Dinner, several hours before you plan to eat.

In the morning, remove the container from your refrigerator and mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Let the batter sit on your counter for half an hour or so, to come up to room temperature. The cold from your refrigerator has allowed the flours to build up a little bit of gluten — buckwheat flour doesn’t have much to begin with, so the all-purpose flour had to tutor it overnight — but it has also made your yeast sleepy again. Bringing the temperature back up will give the yeast a last chance to pump out some carbon dioxide and live life to the fullest one more time before facing the frying pan.

Heat a skillet or frying pan over medium-low heat.

Drop a generous blob of butter or margarine into the pan, and when it is thoroughly melted, scoop 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter into the pan. It will be light and unexpectedly stretchy. You might hear it sizzle a little bit, or you might be too busy kitchen-dancing to “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Or that might just be me.

When a few bubbles have formed along the edge of the pancake and remained open, flip it and see if it is dark enough on Side A. If it isn’t, you might have to re-flip it for a few seconds, once the B Side is done. (This is one of those examples of building a pancake instinct we’ve talked about.) Stack them on a warm plate, covered with a kitchen towel until you’ve finished making the batch.

Eat these while they are still hot, with too much butter, and Bourbon Maple Syrup (see below).

These pancakes have a deep, rich, slightly sweet flavor. They give you a wholesome, hunkering down in a log cabin during a blizzard — or, in our case, Mud Season — feeling. The crispy edges play off the chewy interior in a way that can leave you quietly happy.

Are there other recipes for Buckwheat Pancakes that don’t take 10 hours of planning ahead? Absolutely. Will they taste as good? Maybeee? Will they fill you with pride and a feeling of accomplishment? It’s doubtful.

Bourbon Maple Syrup

Warm half a cup of dark maple syrup, then stir in a tablespoon of good bourbon. The sweetness of the bourbon is a good match for the maple and gives it a slightly boozy backbone.

Local Eateries talk about how they’re faring,
Plus a pairing of restaurants and theater in Manchester

Running a restaurant has never been easy.

The past four years have surpassed the definition of “challenging” for the restaurant industry — from the pandemic that shut New Hampshire restaurants down in March 2020 to all the supply chain, staffing and inflation issues that have come after. So how’s it going now?

How it’s going

Less than optimal, according to Todd Roy, owner of Cheers Grille and Bar in Concord.

“It’s not great,” he said. “Everything is down; I can tell you that.”

Roy blames a combination of inflation and too many restaurants in the Concord area.

“There’s just not enough population to support all of us,” he said. But he sees inflation as a bigger challenge to his business. Rent, utilities, and especially food costs have gone up, but there are secondary effects as well. When money is tight, he clarifies, restaurant patrons have to set priorities: “Going out to eat goes farther down the list.”

“We’re all struggling. I’ve added breakfast on the weekends to raise our revenue,” Roy said.

Jeff Paige, chef and co-owner of Cotton in Manchester, is happier about business conditions. “Business has been great,” Paige said. Overall, his regulars have been very loyal.

“We’ve been able to build a relationship with our customers over the years,” Paige said. “A few of them come in so regularly that they call in to let us know if they can’t make it in.”

He agrees that staffing can be challenging. Cotton, which pre-pandemic was open weekdays for lunch, has had to drop lunch service.

“Lunch was busy; we just didn’t have the staff,” Paige said. Fortunately, most of Paige’s core kitchen staff have been with him for 20 years or more. “We make sure we take care of those people. We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to pay more than a lot of other restaurants.”

Amanda Wihby, co-owner and COO of Red Arrow, agrees that business is good. During uncertain times customers crave comfort food — something that diners like the Red Arrow specialize in.

“It’s been a tumultuous four years,” she said. “We’re finally coming out of the effects of the pandemic. Because of inflation, we’re seeing the customers coming back.”

Ready to eat?

Keith Sarasin, cookbook author, chef and owner of The Farmer’s Dinner Dining Group, sees a change in many restaurant customers, who have traditionally had conservative tastes in food. “It’s encouraging,” he said. “People are embracing foods that they aren’t familiar with — that haven’t been represented in the mainstream up until now. The education piece has been much higher for the average diner. As a chef, that’s super encouraging.”

He also sees more of a relationship between customers and individual chefs.

“I’m seeing trends where people are getting involved with the [local] chef community. I see diners following chefs from restaurant to restaurant,” Sarasin said.

Chris Viaud, the chef and owner of Greenleaf (serving seasonal, contemporary American style food) and Ansamn (Haitian cuisine) restaurants in Milford, has been surprised and gratified by the loyalty of his customers over the past few years.

“Our guests have been so supportive,” he said. “In 2019, we got off to a great start, then boom! But our customers have been supportive of both our restaurants, coming out during Covid and helping build us back up.”

Viaud, too, sees customers becoming more adventurous.

“They’re definitely more sophisticated than they used to be,” he said. “Diners do want to see different and new things. As a chef, my excitement comes from being able to adapt and change. I’m excited that there is such excitement for new and different cuisines.”

On the menu

While traditional comfort foods will always play an important role in New Hampshire dining, across the board, cuisine diversity was frequently mentioned as the biggest change in the local restaurant scene.

“I think we’re getting more international food,” said Jessica Martin, Executive Director of Intown Concord. “We’ve got our classics, but we’re getting a lot more restaurants in Concord that reflect how diverse our population is becoming.” She cited Batulo’s Kitchen, a Concord restaurant that specializes in Somali-inspired cuisine, as one example.

“There’s Buba Noodle (a Vietnamese restaurant), N’awlins Grille (Creole), and STREET, which specializes in dishes inspired by street food from around the world,” Martin said.

Sarasin agrees that the New Hampshire restaurant community is embracing diversity and food from around the world. He points to Classic Biryani, Kabab and Curry — an Indian restaurant on Manchester’s West Side.

“I travel all over the country, tasting food everywhere. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best kebab house in the country. It’s incredibly encouraging that a community like Manchester can support an Indian restaurant of that quality,” Sarasin said.

Wihby of the Red Arrow agrees.

“I’d like to see even more diversity in fine-dining restaurants,” she said. “It would be great to see more places popping up.” She expressed a fondness for Thai Food Connection, which has restaurants in Manchester and Bedford.

Viaud, whose Ansanm restaurant in Milford specializes in Haitian-fusion cuisine, feels vindicated by the expansion of offerings.

“Coming up in the industry, you get pigeonholed,” Viaud said. “I feel strongly that this is my background, and I want to share it. Customers have definitely become more sophisticated. Indian, Mexican, Italian — they’re open to it all.”

Kaji Maharjan of Kathmandu Spice, a Nepali/Indian restaurant in Manchester, said before Covid most of his business was in-house dining.

“2021 was a very bad year, though,” Maharjan said. “Now, 25 to 30 percent of our customers eat here; the rest of our business is takeout, at this point.”

He said that in addition to customers using Grubhub, UberEats and DoorDash, his restaurant has changed its online presence. “Now people can order online or call in their orders,” which, he said, translates into even more takeout business.

Maharjan said that over the past year, however, in-house dining has been on the rise.

“There are more people eating here,” he said. “It’s slowly getting better.”

What’s next

According to Jessica Martin at IntownConcord, there are some very positive developments on the horizon. She points to the Capitol Center For the Arts’ Culinary Artist in Residence program, which works with newly arrived community members who want to start a food business. The culinary residents are able to use the Capitol Center’s two commercial kitchens to develop a customer base and to work out recipes on a commercial scale.

She also points to State Street Kitchen’s incubator program, which helps provide equipment and training for prospective small food businesses. Traditional restaurant models are changing. “We’ve been working on bringing more food trucks to the area,” she said, such as the food trucks that show up for the monthly First Friday shopping events.

Jeff Paige at Cotton sees more changes to traditional service models in the future.

“I’m seeing a trend toward dinner-only service,” he said. Staffing issues and kitchen efficiencies make eliminating lunch more attractive to restaurant owners. He also points to the difficulty of staying open seven days a week.

“Tuesday through Sunday makes the most sense for most of us,” he said, “and holiday Mondays.” Paige said that although the past few years have been tough, he’s cautiously optimistic. “We’re doing really well and a few of our friends who own restaurants are doing well, too.”

Kaji Maharjan at Kathmandu Spice agrees. His restaurant has been open seven days a week for years, but has just started closing on Tuesdays.

“Being open all the time is just too hard,” he said. “My staff needs a break.”

Roy at Cheers continues to worry about rising business costs: “I just signed a three-year contract with my food reps to keep prices down.”

Sarasin sees New Hampshire’s restaurant scene as only becoming more diverse, and more focused on superior ingredients. “More small, chef-driven restaurants centered around high-quality, fresh, seasonal ingredients are going to thrive,” he said.

Viaud sees area restaurants working together to build a culinary community where restaurants play off each other. As customers at one restaurant open themselves up to new experiences, hopefully they will take that spirit of adventure with them to other restaurants.

Different restaurants with different cuisines pull together to build a common culinary vocabulary. “I’m hoping the industry continues to be collaborative,” he said.

Great Manchester Restaurant Week

Greater Manchester Restaurant Week runs through March 14. The Greater Manchester Chamber and the Palace Theatre are working together this year, to promote the Palace’s production of the Broadway musical The Prom (running weekends March 1 to March 24) by collaborating with more than 25 participating Manchester restaurants, who will have special offerings from custom cocktails to prix-fixe meals.

“Pairing a Restaurant Week with the Palace Theatre’s production of Prom is quite a creative way to experience the culinary and cultural contributions of the Greater Manchester community,” said Cole Riel, Director of Small Business and Community Development at the Greater Manchester Chamber, in a press release.

“We’ve been wanting to sponsor a restaurant week for a couple of years now,” says Kelsey Collins, the Marketing Director for the Palace Theatre. “Prom is a new show for us and we’re very excited about it, so we decided to do it now.”

The Prom is a musical comedy about four overly enthusiastic Broadway actors who try to help an Indiana teenager, who has been banned from attending her prom. Their over-the-top efforts are overwhelming to the teenage girl, who just wants to be left alone.

Many participating restaurants will be serving prom-themed cocktails and meals. Campo Enoteca has developed a pair of bespoke cocktails called “The King of Prom” and “The Queen of Prom.” The Gyro Spot is featuring an “After Prom Special” — two gyros of the customer’s choice, and a special chocolate-covered loukoumades. Current Kitchen & Bar at DoubleTree is serving a Honey Nut Cheerios ‘Prom-tini’ with Honey Nut Cheerios-infused rum, Angry Orchard hard cider and honey cinnamon simple syrup.

“A lot of theater-goers are going out to dinner,” Collins explains, “either before or after a show. This is a good way to let them know about the great restaurants in the area, and vice versa.”

The Prom is running at the Palace Theatre until March 21. For tickets and a list of participating restaurants, see palacetheatre.org/restaurant-week.