Author: John Fladd

Planteray Rum, rebranded from Plantation Rum and owned by Cognac Ferrand, If you ask people about their banana preference, they will probably back slowly away from you and make excuses about forgetting their children at day care. But suppose you are in an elevator or something, and they can’t get away easily. Put on the spot, most Americans will tell you that they like their bananas very yellow, with no soft or brown spots on them — maybe even a little bit green along the stem.

Which is a little strange when you think about it — though, in fairness, not any stranger than asking people about bananas in the elevator — because solid yellow, firm bananas don’t taste particularly banana-y. And they hurt the roof of your mouth a little. Bananas are at their most flavorful when they are covered with freckles over about half the surface of their peels.

Because most shoppers like their bananas barely ripe, it can be difficult to find truly ripe, sweet, banana-y bananas in the supermarket. True, you could just buy some not-quite-ready bananas and leave them on your counter until they are truly ripe, but bananas are extremely sensitive emotionally and don’t deal well with this type of aloofness on your part.

After living in an area for a while, most of us discover the best places to buy particular foods – the best place for fresh rhubarb, for instance, is in the grocery department of a big box store that rhymes with “Glooper Ball Cart.” The best place to find truly ripe, ready to eat bananas is in front of the cash register at a convenience store, where they are optimistically placed for hurried shoppers to grab a healthy snack on the run.

True, they start out the week firm, yellow, and full of joie de vivre, but by Thursday or Friday they have been completely devastated emotionally and are freckly and pitifully eager to go home with you to bake. Reassure them that they are safe with you now and that everything will be alright. It won’t be, of course; this is a lie to lull the bananas into a false sense of security, but it will make the experience less traumatic in the short-term for everybody involved.

Banana Pudding Cookies

Dry ingredients:

2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour

3.4-ounce box of instant banana pudding mix

1¼ teaspoons coarse sea salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

Wet ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup (213 g) brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 large, very ripe banana

1½ teaspoons crème de banana, or vanilla

Stir-In ingredients:

24 Nilla Wafer cookies, broken into ¼- to ½-inch pieces

¾ cup (128 g) peanut butter baking chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. One at a time, beat in each of the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.

By hand, mix in the cookie pieces and peanut butter chips.

Spoon out six cookies, about 2 tablespoons each, onto each baking sheet. Chill the remaining cookie dough in the refrigerator.

Wish the cookies Godspeed, and bake for seven minutes, then switch and rotate the pans, and bake for another seven minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, for a total of two dozen cookies.

Your convenience store banana’s Last Grand Gesture was not in vain. These are solidly banana-y cookies, crispy along the edges and chewy in the middle, with random crunchiness from the Nilla Wafers, and random pops of salt. They are outstanding with vanilla ice cream.

Featured Photo: Photo by John Fladd.

Greek food worth the wait

By John Fladd
[email protected]

If you wanted to throw a world-class Greek food and culture festival, you’d need to start with a ton and a half of lamb shanks, half a dozen giant gale-proof tents, and an army of steely-eyed church ladies.

George Skaperdas is the President of the board of directors at Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral (650 Hanover St., Manchester, 622-9113, stgeorgenh.org) and the Chairman of Glendi, Manchester’s largest food and culture festival. He is in charge of everything from renting tents and arranging permits to ordering a seriously gigantic amount of fresh lamb. He said that even in Glendi’s 45th year it remains a logistical challenge.

“The planning for this really starts in February,” Skaperdas said, “even though we laugh and say it starts the Monday after Glendi’s over, with getting the permits, making sure we got the insurance, reserving the tents, the porta-potties, all of that. And then starts the real nitty-gritty. What do we have to order for supplies and all that? Some of the cooking starts taking place in the middle of summer so we can freeze it, and then it’s not completely cooked through. The lamb shanks start being cooked Thursday before Glendi and we start braising them at 5:30 in the morning on Friday morning so they’re ready for everybody to go, for everybody to have their lamb shanks.”

The amount of food to prepare for Glendi is staggering.

“We’ve got almost 2,500 pounds of lamb shanks,” Skaperdas said, “almost 1,700 pounds of lamb kabobs. I don’t even know how many pounds of chicken — you know, the half chicken, the marinated chicken that we do? There’s 200 spanakopitas [Greek spinach and feta pastries], thousands of meatballs, stuffed grape leaves, and stuffed peppers. It’s just astounding how much food we go through.” After a moment of thought, he clarified that by 200 spanakopitas, he meant 200 18- by 26-inch sheet pans of spanakopitas.

Glendi has been a fixture of Manchester’s culture since 1980.

“Before that, it was just a little harvest bazaar,” Skaterdas remembered. “It was done for the church, and [we’d] make a few dollars here and there to help with whatever ministries and things that the church needed. Then all of a sudden, it just started growing. So in 1980, the decision was made to have Glendi — Glendi means a good time — and it’s just grown leaps and bounds. The city of Manchester expects us to have Glendi now, and it’s a great time for everybody, just good food and great times. And an awful lot of work.”

In this year’s official program, Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais called Glendi “legendary” and wrote that it is an excellent representation of the city’s Greek population: “The Greek community has a proud, prominent heritage here in Manchester and Glendi is the perfect showcase for Hellenic culture.”

Gov. Sununu was also effusive. “St. George’s is known far and wide for the pride it takes in Greek heritage and the hospitality that the parish shows to all who visit,” he wrote. “Throughout the years, the members of St. George’s have treated my family with incredible kindness, and I thank them for always making us feel so welcome.”

Of course, there are many people who come to Glendi every year for Greek music or dance, or crafts, but essentially there are two main camps of Glendi fans: the pastry enthusiasts, and the lamb buffs.

The most popular pastries, especially with children, are loukoumades: hot, fried dough balls that are soaked in syrup and covered with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Other popular cookies and pastries include kataifi(shredded phyllo dough mixed with walnuts and syrup), koulourakia (sweet butter cookies), finikia (honey-dipped walnut cookies) and at least two varieties of baklava. Skaperdas’ favorite is a dessert called galaktoboureko. “It is layers of phyllo with like a custard in between, just, it’s like heaven on earth, that stuff,” he said dreamily.

In the other camp are Glendi attendees who wait all year for the lamb.

How tender or tough a cut of meat is is determined by how much an animal exercised it before making its last great sacrifice. Tenderloin, for example, is a cut of meat that comes from the center of an animal, and because it has never had to work very hard it is extremely tender. One of the hardest-working muscles in many animals is the shank — the muscles around the shin bone. Lamb shanks are one of the most eagerly awaited dishes at Glendi, but to make them moist and tender, they must be cooked “low and slow” for 12 or more hours. “It takes more than a couple of hours to make sure that they’re nice and soft and tender,” Skaterdas said. The shanks are braised in Pappou’s sauce. “You know, ‘Pappou’ means grandfather in Greek. Every grandfather has his secret recipe for a sauce and all that and the different spices that go into it.” By the time the shanks are served, they are fall-off-the-bone tender.

The lamb kabobs and chicken are grilled over charcoal.

“I don’t know what the exact number is,” Skaterdas said, “but I think that we can have 16 skewers [of lamb] per machine. And there’s two machines, where you stack all the charcoal in the middle and it rotates the skewers around so it’s getting a nice even cook on it. The pit guys just do an amazing job marinating them and having them ready to go. It is pumping out food and the kitchen is pumping out food. Every once in a while we get behind. But we’re very fortunate that people are patient. Sometimes they’re waiting in line up to 45 minutes to get into the food tent to get food. But it’s worth it; the food is worth it.”

Glendi
When: Friday, Sept. 13, and Saturday, Sept. 14, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Food service will end at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Where: Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St., Manchester
Additional parking will be available beginning at 5 p.m. Friday at the McDonough School near Derryfield Park, with free shuttle service to the Festival.
Glendi will be held rain or shine.
More: stgeorgenh.org

News from the local food scene

• New tiki bar: What The Pho! (836 Elm St. in Manchester), described on its website whatthephorestaurant.com as an “Asian Noodle Bar & Bamboo Tiki Bar,” had its ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 16. The food has an East Asian focus, including pho (a spicy Vietnamese noodle soup), noodle bowls, rice bowls and banh mi sandwiches. Beverages include tiki drinks, specialty craft cocktails, local craft beer and wine. Reservations and takeout orders can be placed over the phone; online ordering will be available soon, according to the website.

• Oktoberfest: To Share Brewing (720 Union St, Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) will hold its annual Oktoberfest Saturday, Sept. 14, from 1 to 9 p.m. Celebrate the release of To Share’s October Altbier, with special food, branded dimpled mugs and draft specials, a stein-holding competition and more.

• Ice cream and the arts: The Friends of the Audi will host their 34th annual season-opening Gala, Arts Fair and Ice Cream Social, Sunday, Sept. 15, at 6 p.m. at the Concord City Auditorium (2 Prince St., Concord, 228-2793, theaudi.org). This will be a free, ticket-less, fun family event. Enjoy Arnie’s Ice Cream and visit displays of the area’s exciting arts groups, and don’t forget to take a chance on the $2,000 Gala raffle. Visit the Auditorium’s website.

• Old blue eyes: Fulchino Vineyard (187 Pine Hill Road, Hollis, 438-5984, fulchinovineyard.com) will host a five-course Sinatra Wine Pairing dinner, Sunday, Sept 15, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Chris Jason and Joelle Rhigetti and the nine-piece Sinatra Live Big Band perform classic favorites from Sinatra to Dean Martin and more. Tickets are $189 through the Vineyard’s website. Space is limited.

• Buzz buzz: Tuscan Market (Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 912-5467, tuscanbrands.com) will host a class Thursday, Sept. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m.: Espresso Martini, Coffee Cocktails & Dessert. Mixologist Anthony Pino will bring participants through cocktail basics while teaching how to make a classic espresso martini along with other coffee cocktails. A dessert will be paired with the martini. A server will be available to take orders from the full menu. Tickets are $85 and available through the Market’s website.

The Pot Pie Bar takes being flaky very seriously

Like many recent food businesses, The Pot Pie Bar (132 Bedford Center Road, Bedford, 432-1927, thepotpiebar.com) got its start during the Covid-19 lockdown. Caroline Arend, owner of the Pot Pie Bar as well as Caroline’s Fine Food (132 Bedford Center Road, Bedford, 637-1615, carolinesfood.com), a well-established catering company, explained, “I found that some very loyal patrons of Caroline’s wanted to help us because we were basically shut down because we couldn’t cater. So they started purchasing meals for first responders. We found ourselves making a lot of pot pies and in fact it became just insanity. We kind of made a joke out of it and said, ‘Oh, I bet we can make anything into a pot pie.’ And we started just developing recipes. That was the birth of it, I guess. And then we opened up the pot pie bar.”

The original thought was to take orders online and ship frozen pies throughout the Northeast, but that turned out to be impractical. “Our shipping carriers were not reliable,” Arend said, “and the cost of shipping was prohibitive. I had no control over those costs because we’re a small company. So we switched gears and we sell all of our pies frozen out of our storefront.” Now customers place orders, either online or over the phone, and pick up their pies in person.

Although pot pies are a classic comfort food, Arend said a lot of work is involved to make them to her standard.

“Everything in the pies is made from scratch,” she said. “For example, for our braised short ribs [pot pie], we take the ribs, we put them in a rondeau [a short, wide pan similar to a Dutch oven], we sear them, we take them out, then we put the mirepoix [a mixture of chopped onion, celery and carrots] in, we deglaze with red wine, bring that down, and then put the bones back in, and braise it in the oven for three hours. Then we pull the meat off the bones, we reduce the braising liquid, and we mix it in with the filling. The only thing we don’t make from scratch is the puff pastry. And each pie has a different little puff pastry logo on it. So, for example, the chicken pie has a cutout of a chicken. The beef stroganoff has a cutout of a cow. The veggie [pie] is a carrot. So they’re all different.”

Arend is a classically trained chef, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), and a veteran of fine dining restaurants in the Boston area. She eventually branched off into high-end catering.

“And then I moved to New Hampshire,” she said. “I didn’t do it for a while and then I missed it.”

As of now, The Pot Pie Bar offers 14 different pies, from classic chicken or vegetable pot pies to more innovative choices such as a bratwurst, beer and cheddar pie, or a lobster pie made with whole lobster claws.

“We did a beef Wellington for the holidays,” Arend said. “It was delicious. It’s a duxelle [a French paste made from mushrooms, herbs and onions] in a thick layer on top of the beef. You have the puff pastry, then you have the duxelles, and you have the grainy mustard and the beef.” Arend said she and her team kept the beef from overcooking by just searing it before putting it in the pie. “And since it’s tenderloin, it’s not going to get too tough. It’s a center cut, muscle that’s not really exercised. It’s not like a shoulder.”

The Pot Pie Bar’s customer base has been surprising to Arend.

“I thought it was going to be primarily men because it’s like comfort food,” she said. “But it’s an older crowd. A bunch of people take them to dinner parties, which I didn’t even think of, but it makes sense. And one woman came in last week and she ordered four of them, [so she could have] people over for dinner at four different times.”

Arend has just purchased an existing restaurant in Goffstown and is hoping to move into it soon. “We’re currently looking into building out a USDA kitchen so that we can wholesale the pies,” she said.

The Pot Pie Bar
Orders for pot pies can be placed online at thepotpiebar.com or at 432-1927. Walk-in customers are welcome, but are advised to call ahead to find out what pies are in stock, as they sell out daily.

News from the local food scene

• Sue’s is open: Sue’s Kimbap House (Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, 731-9085, Sueskimbaphouse.com) is officially open. Owner and chef Susan Chung will be Capitol Center for the Arts’ Culinary Artist in Residence for the next year. The new Korean street food-inspired restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. The Kimbap House website will be up soon.

• Chocolate factory tour: Van Otis Chocolates (341 Elm St., Manchester, 627-1611, vanotis.com) will host a tour of its chocolate factory Thursday, Sept. 5, from 11 a.m. to noon. Tours are approximately 45 minutes long and are recommended for ages 6+. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets are $15 through eventbrite.com.

• Herbal tea class: Herbalist Maria Noël Groves will lead a class called “Make Your Own Herbal Teas for Flavor, Immunity and Digestion” at Bedrock Gardens (19 High Road, Lee, 659-2993, bedrockgardens.org) on Friday, Sept. 6, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for members, $35 for non-members. The cass includes a day pass to Bedrock Gardens that day. Visit eventbrite.com.

• Dinner in a barn: Sanborn Mills Farm (7097 Sanborn Road, Loudon, 435-7314, sanbornmills.org) will host a Farm to Table Dinner on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. The evening will include a cocktail hour on the terrace followed by dinner and dessert in Sanborn Barn. Email [email protected].

Planteray Rum, rebranded from Plantation Rum and owned by Cognac Ferrand, makes an excellent rum. One of its most recent releases has been something called “Stiggins’ Fancy” Pineapple Rum, named after a Charles Dickens character who liked to drink a pineapple rum or three. Although this rum has been infused with pineapple in a couple different ways, it does not taste too fruity. It is sweet but not syrupy, and very smooth.

It goes very well with watermelon.

Watermelon Punch

• 2 ounces rum of your choice — I recommend Planteray’s “Stiggins’ Fancy” Pineapple Rum (see above)
• 3 ounces fresh watermelon juice (see below)
• 3 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 ounce simple syrup

Juicing a watermelon

Choose a small, ripe, flavorful watermelon. It should have a pronounced pale spot where it used to rest on the ground when it was growing in the field. Try to find one with stripes spaced the width of two fingers across.

Cut the melon in half, and scoop its flesh into a blender with an ice cream scoop. Blend the melon thoroughly — slowly at first, then really put the spurs to it during the last few seconds. Watermelons are 92 percent water, so it should liquify beautifully. Strain it with a fine mesh strainer, and discard the small amount of pink pulp and seeds. It should last for about a week in your refrigerator.

Making the punch

Fill a mason jar halfway with ice, then add the rum, juices and syrup.

Screw the top on the jar, and shake thoroughly. Remove the lid, fill the jar the rest of the way up with ice, and add a straw.

How sweet and flavorful this punch is will depend largely on the quality of your watermelon. At worst this will be a refreshing take on pink lemonade, but at its best the lemon will take the lead in the front end, followed by a deep fruitiness from the melon.

Featured Photo: Photo by John Fladd.