In the kitchen with Debbie Burritt

Debbie Burritt of Pembroke is the owner of the Sweet Crunch Bakeshop & Catering Co. (sweetcrunchbakeshop.com, find her on Facebook @sweetcrunchbakeshop), a mobile food trailer offering fresh-baked cookies, cookie ice cream sandwiches and other treats. The trailer appears at events across New Hampshire, usually featuring around a dozen flavors of cookies that Burritt bakes on site, from traditional favorites like chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles and coconut macaroons to more unique options like maple cream and s’mores. Vanilla is the most common ice cream flavor that Burritt uses in her cookie sandwiches, but other flavors are available depending on the event and the time of year. Prior to launching the trailer, Burritt graduated from Newbury College in Brookline, Mass., with a degree in culinary arts before holding multiple chef jobs in Vermont, Virginia and the Boston area. The Sweet Crunch Bakeshop & Catering Co. will be a featured vendor at the Queen City Pride Festival at Arms Park (10 Arms St., Manchester) on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 2 to 8 p.m.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

It’s always either side towels or oven mitts, because I’m constantly pulling cookies out of the oven and rotating flavors out.

What would you have for your last meal?

I’d love gnocchi with wild mushrooms and roasted vegetables in a nice cream sauce.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

The Foundry in Manchester has really impressed me the most.

What celebrity would you like to have seen trying one of your cookies?

Julia Child would’ve been one for the books! In my off season I do cookie gift baskets and I have some celebrity clients, like [Shark Tank investor] Daymond John.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

My favorite is what I refer to as the Cowboy Cookie, which is basically everything and the kitchen sink thrown into a cookie. My version is an oatmeal cinnamon cookie with raisins, pecans and chocolate chips. Cowboy cookies are a big deal out west.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

I’ve noticed an uptick in gourmet doughnut places. Plant-based eating is huge now too.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

I like to make pizzas with all kinds of veggies, always with onions and garlic but also sometimes with mushrooms, zucchini, peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. During the cooler seasons I love to make soup at home.

Maple carrot cake with maple cream cheese icing
From the kitchen of Debbie Burritt of the Sweet Crunch Bakeshop & Catering Co.

3 cups shredded carrots
4 eggs
½ cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup real maple syrup
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

For the icing:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 pound butter, softened
3 cups 10X sugar
2 teaspoons maple extract
⅛ cup maple syrup

Combine carrots, eggs, oil, sugar and maple syrup, then add salt, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Grease and flour an eight-inch round cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 to 60 minutes. Mix together cream cheese icing ingredients and spread between layers and outside of cake. Keep refrigerated.

The Weekly Dish 20/09/03

Intown Farmstand extended: Intown Manchester’s Farmstand, which began on June 25 and was expected to run through the end of August, has now been extended through Sept. 24. The stand is held every Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. at Victory Park (Concord and Chestnut streets, Manchester), featuring farmers with Fresh Start Farms, a program of the Manchester-based Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success. Each week the stand has featured a variety of summer vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and okra, as well as ethnic crops like amaranth greens and African eggplant and selections from local businesses like Dandido Sauce and DJ’s Pure Natural Honey. Find them on Facebook @manchesterfood or visit intownmanchester.com.

School Street Cafe opens in Dunbarton: A new cafe offering homemade sandwiches, baked goods and locally roasted coffees opened Aug. 15 at 1007 School St. in Dunbarton Center. The School Street Cafe is located where MG’s Farmhouse Cafe closed earlier this year, co-owners Lindsey Andrews and Carrie Hobi said. The menu features fresh sandwiches, like an avocado chicken panini, a chicken salad sandwich, a turkey club and a veggie wrap, plus pastries like cookies and cinnamon rolls, and yogurt parfaits with vanilla Greek yogurt, fresh berries and homemade gluten-free granola. Coffees are roasted at the Manchester-based Hometown Coffee Roasters and include a house blend and some rotating specialty blends. About a dozen flavors of Blake’s Ice Cream are available too. According to Andrews, soups will likely be introduced to the menu in the coming weeks. The School Street Cafe is open Wednesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with extended hours for ice cream on Friday and Saturday, from 6 to 8 p.m., now through September. Visit schoolstreetcafe.com or call 774-CAFE (2233).

Virtual food festival a success: Organizers of this year’s New Hampshire Jewish Food Festival, which had transitioned into a takeout event only, reported “an unexpected but triumphant success,” according to an Aug. 28 press release. In lieu of a traditional food festival at Temple B’Nai Israel in Laconia, a drive-thru system was implemented for customers to pick up their items after placing their orders online. The takeout menu featured many of the popular items that had been featured at past festivals, all of which were prepared in advance and sold frozen. “Once the … website opened on July 27 [for online ordering], there was an overwhelming response from the community, near and far, which led to many items beginning to sell out,” the release read. “One of the biggest surprises was the demand for matzo ball soup. Historically, 20 to 25 quarts were sold annually. This year, customers bought 107 quarts.” According to the release, 150 customers picked up their orders over a five-day period, in 175 time slot options total. The temple hopes to resume normal festival operations in 2021.

In the kitchen with Steve Chase

Steve Chase of Belmont is the owner and founder of Steve’s Original Sauces (stevesoriginalsauces.com, find them on Facebook @stevesoriginalsauces), a small-batch producer of fresh barbecue sauces he launched in April 2018. The company was born out of the positive feedback Chase from friends and family for his Kentucky Barbecue sauce, which he’s been making for about 15 years. Along with that, Chase’s product line includes a New Hampshire maple syrup barbecue sauce, a honey Sriracha sauce and a teriyaki barbecue sauce. He also makes and bottles his own barbecue rub and seasoning. Chase participates in several farmers markets, like the Concord Farmers Market (Capitol Street) on Saturdays and the Canterbury Community Farmers Market (9 Center Road) twice a month on Wednesdays. You can find Chase’s products in dozens of specialty stores, like The Wine’ing Butcher (16 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke), Mike’s Meat Shoppe (1009 Upper City Road, Pittsfield), the River Hill Market (189 Carter Hill Road, Concord) and the Temple Food Mart (121 Baker St., Manchester).

What is your must-have kitchen item?
I would say the things I mostly have in my hands are tasting spoons.

What would you have for your last meal?
A really nice thick Wagyu beef steak, with a baked potato and lots of sour cream and butter.

What is your favorite local restaurant?
The Beefside in Concord has really good roast beef. I love the ‘Super’ roast beef sandwich.

What celebrity would you like to see trying one of your sauces?
[TV chef and cookbook author] Emeril Lagasse.

What is your favorite sauce that you make?
It would have to be the Kentucky Barbecue. It’s a sweet sauce that I made up to almost mimic a mint julep. It’s got a nice oaky flavor to it with brown sugar and a hint of mint at the end.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
The whole plant-based food trend is still going strong.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I actually do a lot more baking when I’m at home. I like to do a lot of pies, or I’ll make some breakfast pastries for my wife to take to work.

New Hampshire maple-roasted chicken dinner
From the kitchen of Steve Chase of Steve’s Original Sauces

1 whole roast chicken
Steve’s Original Sauces New Hampshire maple syrup barbecue sauce
Salt
Pepper
Chili powder
Red tomatoes
Dried thyme
Granulated garlic
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Rinse and clean chicken, patting dry with a paper towel. Brush with oil and season with salt, pepper and chili powder. Place in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Coat chicken with barbecue sauce and return to the oven for 60 minutes. Cut the potatoes into cubes and coat with oil. Season with thyme, salt, pepper and garlic and place on a sheet pan. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove chicken from the oven and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes. Slice chicken and serve with roasted potatoes and vegetable of choice.

May the best chef win

Fire & Fusion chef competition returns (virtually)

A friendly contest featuring local chefs who are asked to create their best dishes in under 30 minutes using “mystery” ingredients, the Fire & Fusion executive chef competition will be held virtually this year — and the winning chef will be chosen by viewers based on production and stage presence while making their dish rather than the taste of their dish.

“It became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to have an in-person event,” said Judy Kunz Porter, director of marketing, communications and development for the Nashua Senior Activity Center, which hosts the event, “but it’s also our biggest fundraiser of the year, so we knew we needed to find a way to have it.”

The competition, now in its eighth year, will feature Mike Morin of 106.3 Frank FM radio as the host. It has been professionally produced and will stream on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m. on the Senior Activity Center’s Facebook and YouTube pages. A number of local public access television stations are also carrying the broadcast, including Channel 96 in Nashua, Channels 12 and 191 in Hollis, Channel 23 in Manchester and Channel 20 in Hudson. Channel 96 will then air the show every day for the following week.

“It’s kind of an interesting twist, because for the past five years we’ve sold out the event at 350 tickets,” Porter said. “So more people than ever before are going to get to enjoy it now.”

Throughout the last couple of weeks, Porter, along with a crew from Molloy Sound & Video, met with each of the six participating chefs to tape their segments, which were then returned to the studio and edited for production of the show.

As with previous competitions, the chefs are all from local assisted living or long-term care facilities, a feature that came along with the event’s conception. Rejean Sheehy of The Courville at Nashua, a previous Fire & Fusion champion, is returning this year, while a few new faces, like Bailey Fischer of Bridges by Epoch at Nashua and Joanne Johnston of Benchmark Senior Living at Nashua Crossings, are competing. Other contestants include Hilton Dottin of Bedford Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Dennis Hickey of The Courville at Nashua – Aynsley Place, and Guy Streitburger of The Arbors of Bedford.

Usually the chefs are not given their ingredients until the start of the 30 minutes to make their dish. But this year, Porter said, they were given out shortly before taping and will be revealed to the viewer at the top of the show when it airs. Each chef was required to utilize all of the ingredients that were given to them.

“They knew they had no more than 30 minutes to spend, and most of them took between 17 and 20 minutes to make their dish,” Porter said. “We were amazed, and I think viewers will be too, at the number of different ways they used the same ingredients. I think especially because people are cooking more in their homes, it may open their eyes to try and switch things up a little bit.”

The show, Porter said, is expected to run about an hour and a half, featuring each of the six chefs’ segments in succession. At the end, audience members will be able to vote for their favorite chef online at nashuaseniorcenter.org, on Facebook @nashuasac or by calling 889-6155. Voting will be open for one week following the event’s air date.

“That’s new this year,” she said. “People will get to vote for whoever they think had the best production and stage presence.”

The conclusion of the show will also feature a raffle of more than 50 items. For $35 you can be entered into the raffle for a chance to win prizes, like round-trip airline tickets, passes to Disney World, ski lift tickets, wine baskets, restaurant gift cards and more. The raffle will run through Sept. 15, with drawings to take place shortly after.

Featured Photo: Chef Hilton Dottin of Bedford Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. Photo courtesy of Virtual Fire & Fusion.

8th annual Fire & Fusion executive chef competition (virtual)
When:
Wednesday, Sept. 2, 7 p.m.
How to watch: Stream the competition on the Nashua Senior Activity Center’s Facebook or YouTube pages, or on multiple local public access television channels, including Channel 96 (Nashua), Channels 12 and 191 (Hollis), Channel 23 (Manchester) and Channel 20 (Hudson).

Plant-based eats

Col’s Kitchen opens in downtown Concord

By Matt Ingersoll

[email protected]

Bow native Jordan Reynolds found out in June that Willow’s Plant-Based Eatery in Concord was closing permanently. Less than two months and countless hours of construction later, a new vegan restaurant has reopened in Willow’s place, with Reynolds and former Willow’s staff member Rob Ray at the helm.

“Willow [Mauck], who’s a friend of mine, called me up … to say that she decided to permanently close,” said Reynolds, who’s been vegan since the age of 17. “I’ve wanted to start a vegan company for a long time. I had planned on starting a food truck, but then all the gigs we had planned were getting canceled, so that ended up not happening. … So when Willow called, I just thought that maybe it was my time to get the torch passed.”

Col’s Kitchen, named after Reynolds’ nine-year-old pit bull, opened its doors on Aug. 12.

Despite the eatery’s quick turnaround, its concept — what Reynolds refers to as an “eclectic, all-American” approach to vegan foods — has been years in the making. Col’s Kitchen features a well-rounded menu of plant-based options, from appetizers and salads to entree-sized meals, desserts and brunch items on Sundays.

After signing a lease for the space in late July, Reynolds said, he spent 10 or more hours a day for nearly three weeks renovating the restaurant’s kitchen and dining space, all with the help of family members, friends and community members who volunteered their time. They put down a new hardwood floor with pine from a local sawmill, painted the walls and chairs that were donated to them, and even built their own tables out of wooden boards and gas pipes.

Col’s Kitchen’s opening day coincided with Restaurant Week, a program of Intown Concord’s Market Month. The eatery was so well-received on Day 1 that its staff ran out of food three times over the course of the day and had to repeatedly replenish its stock, according to Reynolds.

“We got killed, but you could call it a pleasant surprise,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how many people would come out during a pandemic, but they were more supportive than we imagined. … Vegans were certainly hungry after not having a place here for a few months.”

Reynolds said it was important not only to give vegan customers options they would not otherwise have, but also to make the menu accessible to everyone. Seitan (pronounced “SAY-tan”), for example, is a high-gluten wheat flour used as a protein in Col’s Kitchen’s stroganoff and Philly cheesesteaks in lieu of meat.

Other options include Buffalo cauliflower wings with ranch, Brussels sprouts with sweet garlic sauce, seared tofu pad Thai with rice noodles and veggies, various smoothies and milkshakes, and coffee from White Mountain Gourmet Coffee.

Some dessert items Col’s Kitchen has featured out of the gate have been macarons, pies and root beer floats. You can also get a “pie shake,” made with either apple or strawberry rhubarb pie.

“We put a piece of pie in a blender, crust and all, and then add a couple scoops of ice cream and a little dash of milk in and just blend it up,” Reynolds said. “It’s like pie à la mode, but in a glass.”

Currently the eatery is open for lunch and dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, with brunch available on Sunday mornings. That menu features pancakes, Belgian waffles, tofu scrambles and “Scram Sammy” sandwiches with options like chili cheese and Buffalo seitan.

Reynolds said the plan is for Col’s Kitchen to be open seven days a week.

“We want to start bottling up our own sauces for sale. We make the Buffalo sauce, the ranch that goes with [the wings] and we make the Thai peanut sauce,” he said. “We’re also looking into making our own ice cream in the next couple of months.”

Buffalo Seitan Scram Sammy. Photo courtesy of Col’s Kitchen.

Col’s Kitchen
Where:
55 S. Main St., Concord
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. for brunch (hours may be subject to change)
Contact: Find them on Facebook and Instagram @colsplantbased, email [email protected] or call 227-6778

The Weekly Dish 20/08/27

Apples to apples: Gov. Chris Sununu proclaimed Aug. 25 to be New Hampshire Apple Day to celebrate the Granite State’s annual apple harvest, according to a press release. He and Agriculture Commissioner Shawn Jasper made the ceremonial first pick of the season on Aug. 25 at Apple Hill Farm in Concord. On Sept. 4, Sununu and Jasper will visit Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis to continue the apple season celebration. In Milford, McLeod Bros. Orchards will kick off its 75th season of pick-your-own apples on Saturday, Aug. 29, featuring Paula Reds, a mildly tart early season variety. They’re usually followed by McIntosh, Cortland and Gala varieties around early September, and Mutsu, Jonagold and Roxbury Russet varieties later in the fall. Visit agriculture.nh.gov or nhfruitgrowers.org for more details on where to find New Hampshire-grown apples.

Fresh food fast: The Common Man Roadside will open a new location this fall inside the Tru by Hilton Manchester Downtown hotel, at 135 Spring St., according to a press release from The Chhom Group, the local commercial real estate firm announcing the lease deal. The eatery will feature a cafe and coffee shop, as well as a 120-seat restaurant with a bar and outdoor patio. Similar to the locations in Hooksett, Plymouth and on South Willow Street in the Queen City, The Common Man Roadside’s newest location will feature made-to-order and grab-and-go items, with an emphasis on takeout and mobile and online ordering capabilities. Visit thecmanroadside.com for updates.

Agave wine cocktails: The New Hampshire Liquor Commission recently rolled out a line of premixed agave wine cocktails, according to a press release. Agave wine is made by fermentation of agave sap, producing a tequila-like beverage but with lower alcohol. Available now are the Cold Brew Espresso and Cold Brew Salted Caramel agave wine cocktails from Cafe Agave; the baja lime and strawberry margarita bottled cocktails, both from Flybird; and the House Wine premixed canned cocktails made with wine, including a canned, ready-to-drink Paloma that is tart with a fresh grapefruit flavor, and a Casa-Rita featuring flavors of agave and lime. Visit liquorandwineoutlets.com or call your local store for details.

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