Author: John Fladd

A long road to shortcake

Strawberry Sunday in Hollis

By John Fladd
[email protected]

If you had to feed more than 1,000 guests, what would it take?

If you were part of the Hollis Woman’s Club (holliswomansclub.org), you’d start with 65 sheet pans of shortcake biscuits, 58 quarts of cream and 360 quarts of strawberries, then go from there.

For the past 80 years or so, the Town of Hollis has held a strawberry festival each June.

“The Town Band was founded in 1943,” said Ardie Henry, the Festival’s Director of Communications. “The first record we have of a strawberry festival is in 1946.” The Festival was a Town Band project until the 1970s. By that time, Henry said, “it had gotten too large to be handled by just one organization, so the Hollis Woman’s Club stepped in to help. Since 1978, it has been a combined effort of the Town Band, who play the music, and the Woman’s Club, [who] does the strawberry dessert part.”

For a small town event, the annual Strawberry Festival pulls in a lot of visitors.

“The most we’ve ever had is 1,300,” said Henry, “and last year we had 1,100, so we make a lot of shortcake, hull and cut a lot of strawberries, and whip a lot of cream. It’s a very large effort.” The Woman’s Club members make almost everything themselves.

“We don’t make the strawberries,” Henry said. “We get them locally from Brookdale Farm, right in Hollis. But we make everything else by hand. We have available strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream and strawberry sundaes.” The ice cream comes from Dr. Davis Ice Cream in Pepperell, Mass.

Although the festival, the band and the Woman’s Club are all centered in Hollis, the festival is a team effort spread out across many towns.

“This is one of the major fundraisers for the organizations [the Woman’s Club and the Town Band],” the Woman’s Club wrote in a recent press release, “each of which offers scholarships and supports other community endeavors. The Hollis Town Band currently has seventy members on its roster coming from eighteen different communities.” The Women’s Club is just as wide-ranging, said Ardie Henry. “It has approximately 80 members. There are women from Hollis, Brookline, Nashua, Milford, Amherst, Northwood, Merrimack and other surrounding towns, including northern Mass.” According to the press release, all members of the Women’s Club are requested to participate in some capacity. “We have several women who volunteer to bake,” Henry said, adding that other jobs include hulling, washing, slicing and sugaring more than 500 pounds of strawberries.

Henry said she personally is looking forward to good weather. Ideally, she said, “people bring their chairs and blankets, and if they want to have a late lunch and then have their strawberry shortcake, they can do that.”

The Hollis Strawberry Festival
When: Sunday, June 23, 2 to 4 p.m.
Where: Hollis Town Common, 7 Monument Square, Hollis (in the event of inclement weather, the Strawberry Festival will be moved to the Hollis Brookline Middle School, 25 Main St., Hollis)

The Weekly Dish 24/06/20

News from the local food scene

• On the grill: The Concord Food Co-Op (24 S. Main St. in Concord, 225-6840, concordfoodcoop.coop) holds a Grillin’ and Chillin’ event on Thursday, June 20, Friday, June 21, and Saturday, June 22, in its parking lot. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m the event will feature grillin’ and chillin’. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. visitors will be able to shop with local vendors. And from 2 to 5 p.m., there will be snacks and beverages.

• Lavender: There are still tickets available for lavender-inspired Farm to Table Dinners in the Barn on Saturday, June 22, and Sunday, June 23, at 5 p.m. at Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com). These will be five-course dinners with lavender-infused cuisine prepared by Chef Bryan Leary, founder of Perspective Catering, and Michael Prete, founder of Portsmouth Catering. Tickets are $150 each and available through the Farm’s website.

• Appreciating heritage foods: A family-friendly event featuring local food, drinks and entertainment, Farm-a-Q returns to Tuckaway Farm (36 Captain Smith Emerson Road, Lee) on Sunday, June 23, from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets begin at $25. Proceeds support the Heritage Harvest Project, whose mission is to promote regional heritage foods and agricultural diversity among farmers, chefs and local communities. See “Farm-a-Q” on Eventbrite to purchase tickets, which start at $25.

Frangipane

There are words floating around in the air that we’ve heard, that we’d love to use in conversation, but whose meaning we don’t know. We feel like we should know. We’ve read them in books or heard fancy people use them. We’re pretty sure that everyone else in the world knows them, but we don’t want to admit our ignorance.

My favorite one of these words is “insouciant.”

Another of them is “frangipane.” Don’t let this intimidate you. It’s just the term for an almond cream that is used in pastry sometimes.

Frangipane-Raspberry Pie

  • 1 pre-baked pie shell – you can buy one of these premade and frozen at the supermarket or you can make your own or you can buy premade pie dough and bake it according to the instructions on the box; blind baking (making a pie crust without any filling in it) is a whole angsty topic that requires a much longer discussion than we have time for today; seriously, the premade dough makes a very credible pie crust, don’t feel guilty about using it
  • 1 1/3 stick (150 g) butter
  • ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1½ cup (150 g) almond flour – I like Bob’s Red Mill
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • ½ cup (170 g) seedless raspberry jam – I don’t like raspberry seeds, but if you’re some sort of thrill-seeker, feel free to use the full-octane stuff

Preheat your oven to 325°F.

If you’ve baked a pie shell yourself, let it cool completely.

Using a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until they are fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Most Kitchen Smart People will tell you to use softened butter, but a stand mixer will beat cold butter into submission and be happy about it. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you should probably listen to the experts.

Add the egg. Because the yolk contains a lot of fat, it will mix in with the butter-fluff without complaining, and bring protein with it to give structure to frangipane while it bakes. Follow this with the almond flour and extract.

Beat the mixture until it is fluffy again.

Meanwhile, glop spoon the raspberry jam into your pie shell and spread it around so that it covers the entire bottom.

Transfer the almond mixture to the pie shell, on top of the jam. Spread it evenly with an offset spatula if you have one. If you don’t, try the back of a large spoon. You’ll say to yourself, “What’s the big deal? I beat this until it was fluffy. Twice! I can spread it around with a butter knife!” No, you can’t. While fluffy and delicious, frangipane is stubborn; it needs to be persuaded to spread out on top of the jam instead of mixing into it. Use the spatula to spread the filling toward you until it reaches the edge of the pie pan, then rotate the pan and repeat, until you’ve covered the whole pie.

Wish your pie well, then bake it for 45 to 50 minutes. Check on it during the last 10 minutes or so of baking. If it’s starting to look a little dark, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil.

Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before serving. You might want to garnish it with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.

This is a delicious pie. It tastes primarily of almonds at first — rich, dense, and a little pecan-pie-like, but the crispy part where the frangipane has bonded with the side crust is something special. The sharpness of the raspberries cuts through the richness of the pie but adds to its sweetness.

There are two advantages to this pie. One, of course, is the pie itself. It’s a really good pie. The other is social. When you share this — and you really will want to show it off — and a friend asks what it is, you can flip your hair insouciantly, and say, “Oh, this? It’s just some frangipane. How do you feel about frangipane?” HA! Take that, Gertrude!

Featured Photo: Frangipane. Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Clifton McGee

“My journey in the food industry began as a dishwasher/caterer in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, in a four-diamond hotel-restaurant complex,” said Clifton McGee. “I entered Johnson & Wales as a student in 1984…” After 18 years holding positions from sous chef to executive chef and chef de cuisine, he started teaching culinary arts in the Manchester School District in 2002, he said. “I’ve always trained younger adults in the business and believed teaching culinary arts would be an effective fit with my skill set. I’ve never regretted the choice. I’ve had the pleasure of teaching many great high school students from Manchester and the surrounding towns.”

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I love having a good immersion blender. Many tasks are less cumbersome with a powerful hand blender.

What would you have for your last meal?

Wellfleet oysters fried or au naturel. Being a chef in New England, I default to seafood. I love the briny fresh flavor of raw Wellfleet oysters and I love them fried and served with a dry sherry.

What is your favorite local eatery?

Revival Kitchen in Concord. I live nearby and I like seasonal menus, especially New England seasonal menus. I also have an ex-student who is the sous chef there. I like supporting local businesses. I avoid corporate eateries.

Who is a celebrity you would like to see eating your food?

Jasper White and Lydia Shire … both were Boston chefs in the ’80s restaurant scene.

What is your favorite thing you teach your students to prepare?

My favorite thing to teach the students is making bread: Lean dough, soft dough, sweet dough and laminated dough. I like teaching bread lessons because it’s relatively new to my repertoire and requires evaluations and adjustments to achieve proficiency.

What would you like to accomplish professionally, in the long term?

In my next chapter, professionally, I aspire to transfer my training skills to restaurant owners, hands on, with best practices in the kitchen. This would include building an efficient team, stressing the importance of an organized work space, and menu creation. Long term, it would be a dream of mine to head north, live off the land and perhaps open a small country store/diner.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Chicken and dumplings. Home food is comfort food, simple, flavorful but not overly elaborate. It’s also the favorite dish of my stepdaughter and mother-in-law. I know what’s important.

Soft Roll Dough
From Clifton McGee
(Like most serious bakers, Chef McGee measures most of his ingredients by weight, not volume. The cups/tablespoon measurements are approximations. If possible, please use his measurements.)

12 ounces (1½ cups) water
0.4 ounces (about two envelopes) active dry yeast
1 pound 5 ounces bread flour (about 5 cups)
2 teaspoons salt
2 ounces (about ⅓ cup) sugar
1 ounce (about 3 Tablespoons) nonfat milk powder
1 ounce (1 Tablespoon) shortening
1 ounce (1 Tablespoon) butter

Add active dry yeast to 105°F water. Mix well and set aside for 5 minutes.
Add all dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and fats. Mix briefly with a dough hook.
Add the yeast and water mixture to the bowl and mix on speed 1 until the dough forms a ball and the bowl is clean and incorporated into the dough ball.
Put mixer on speed 2 for 4 to 6 minutes. Remove bowl from mixer and cover. Keep bowl in a warm area 70F° to 80F° until dough doubles in size (1½ to 2 hours).
Remove dough from bowl and press out the air (flatten and fold).
Cut dough into 1- to 2-ounce pieces and roll. Put on pan with parchment and cover with film wrap until doubled in size (30 minutes to 1 hour).
Bake at 400°F for 8 to 12 minutes.

Featured Photo: Clifton McGee, Chef and Instructor at Manchester School of Technology. Courtesy photo.

Fiddleheads & barley bread

The Colonial springtime menu

So let’s say, hypothetically, you’ve made it through another Colonial winter. It’s springtime in the 1750s, and you, your husband, and your eight children managed not to throttle each other while stuck together in a one-room cabin all winter. The leaves are on the trees, the birds are singing; things are definitely looking up.

Except that everyone’s getting extremely hungry.

“Spring was the worst time to be a settler,” said Allyson Szabo, who lives in Jaffrey and is an expert on Colonial-era cooking and author of The Re-enactor’s Cookbook, which was published in October 2020. “You’ve run out of the food you had stored from last year, and the food that was left over is now in the ground; you’ve committed it to the new crop. You’re trying to make do with whatever comes up in the spring.”

This isn’t to say there was nothing to eat — there was food to be found if you looked hard enough — but it was hard going for English colonists in New Hampshire. The native tribes had been here for hundreds of years and knew exactly where to find what they needed. The French colonists to the north had largely figured out how to make do until their crops came in. The problem for northern New Englanders was bread, or rather the lack of it. Szabo said the English colonists depended on bread to an extent that would surprise us today.

“Bread was about 60 percent of the colonists’ diet,” she said. And it wasn’t the bread that we are used to today. “Bread was much darker than it is today.” What we consider whole-wheat bread would have been considered white bread in the 1700s. “And that would have been very fine bread indeed, in the 18th century.”

You might bake your bread in a Dutch oven in hot coals, or you might have a beehive oven to bake your bread in. It might be outside — in which case, it would be shaped like a beehive — or it might be built into the fireplace where you did all your cooking. You might have seen these in old fireplaces — little cast-iron doors set off to the side of the hearth. During the 1750s, though, iron was too valuable to use on a door, so Colonial You would have a series of wooden ones that would have to be replaced fairly regularly.

But what happens when you use up the last of your wheat? Szabo said almost anything might be ground up and made into bread.

“I might be grinding barley, “ she said. “I might be grinding up beans. I recently learned that they might have used flour made from dried mushrooms.”

At this point in the Colonial year, you wouldn’t have eaten anything green since October; if you and your family didn’t have full-blown scurvy, you were certainly feeling scurvy-adjacent. Nothing you’ve planted is ready to eat yet — winters lasted longer, 250 years ago — so you would need to forage pretty intensely for vegetables.

“Greens are one of the early things that you can eat right now,” Szabo said. “There would be fiddleheads and nettles. I had horseradish greens this past week in one of my pies; I expected it to be spicy, but it was sweet — almost, but not quite, an apple flavor.”

There would be the very last of the salt pork left, although it might be looking a little worse for wear at this point, and a few scoops of dried peas, lentils, beans or barley.

“Most families would have a cow for milk and butter, “ Szabo said, “and there’d be some chicken. Once the new flock has been laid, you get to a certain point where you start eating the older hens who’ve stopped laying eggs. [Fortunately] at this time of the year … chickens would lay two or even three eggs per day.”

Colonists would have used eggs in everything, Szabo said, describing a common Colonial dish called “Salt Cod with Eggy Sauce”. The eggs would be hard-boiled, and the yolks would be ground up and stirred into the sauce. The hard-boiled egg whites would be grated and mixed in, and the sauce would be poured over the reconstituted dried fish.

Szabo said farmers in New Hampshire 250 years ago would look forward eagerly to the summer. Much like us, the colonists would have been watching their gardens with an eagle eye. Unlike us, they weren’t looking for validation though peonies; they were waiting on lettuce, because, you know — survival.

St. Nicholas Lamb Barbecue and Food Festival
Where: 1160 Bridge St., Manchester
When: Saturday, June 15, noon to 5 p.m

The food is traditional

And so is the festival

When you cook a lot of food for a passionate food crowd, there’s always a dilemma: Do you tweak a recipe to put your own spin on it, or do you keep everything traditional? For the parishioners at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, it isn’t really even a choice. They stand solidly on the side of tradition.

As they prepare for this weekend’s annual Lamb Barbecue and Food Festival, it is important to them to make traditional Greek foods using recipes from the generations who came before them. Spokesperson Emorfia Valkanos (Amy, for short) said that passing on traditions is one of the central points of the event.

“This is our 76th year. It [the Festival] is very much intergenerational. The recipes have been passed down from our founding fathers and mothers to us,” Valkanos said.

Take their baklava, for instance. This is a pastry made throughout the Mediterranean, from dozens of layers of phyllo dough, butter, nuts and syrup. There are countless variations of it, but the bakers at St. Nicholas have stuck with the same style from the beginning. Valkanos said that their version is made from “phyllo dough, crushed walnuts interspersed between the phyllo, and then there is a simple syrup that’s made.” She said that unlike many other recipes their baklava isn’t bathed in honey. “It’s not all honey,” she said, “just a bit.” This dials back the flavor of the honey, which can be a bit overwhelming at times, and allows for the addition of some subtle flavors like orange blossom water or rose water.

“Yes,” she said, “you absolutely could do that. We don’t.” Because that’s not the St. Nicholas tradition.

“What really captures me,” she said, “is that I feel the heart in our event. It’s coming from a lot of people who love our community, love our food, and love our traditions.” The same spirit of tradition applies to the other foods the parish prepares.

“We are really known for our lamb barbecue,” Valkanos said. “We put it on skewers and we marinate it. It’s one of those recipes that the founding fathers and mothers have passed to us. We have the pastitsio — that’s actually one of my favorites. It’s like a lasagna with a [white] bechamel sauce, layered with meat.” Presumably, lamb.

“You could make it with lamb,” she said with steel in her voice. “We’ve always made it with beef.”

The community at St. Nicholas has been preparing for this weekend’s event for three months. “We have a schedule,” Valkanos said, “where we will start with certain items that freeze well — a lot of the desserts. We make them ahead of time and then freeze. And then of course we have the week before as our very intense cooking week, where we make pita [spanakopita — a spinach and feta pastry], and we make the pastitsio, and we marinate the lamb and we marinate our chicken. That’s our intense prep week.”

While St. Nicholas is the smallest of Manchester’s Greek parishes, Valkanos said that their barbecue has a devoted fan base.

“We’ve been part of the neighborhood for 76 years, she said. “We’ve really had a following coming to our event because of the lamb and because of the food that’s been prepared for years and years and years. People want it. These recipes really do capture the heart of Greece; we’re bringing Greece here.”

As the parishioners at St. Nicholas age, they look to pass their food traditions on to younger members of their community.

“You have yia-yias 80 or 90 years old holding a lot of this together,” Valkanos observed. “Hopefully, we can light a fire under the younger generation and inspire them to learn how to do these things, to maintain the traditions of our culture. Truly, it is a good thing to know your roots.”

St. Nicholas Lamb Barbecue and Food Festival
Where: 1160 Bridge St., Manchester
When: Saturday, June 15, noon to 5 p.m

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