Category: Food

Tiki for Two

Clearly, there is never a bad time for a tiki drink, but late summer might be the best time for brightly colored drinks with umbrellas. It takes almost no effort to throw together a tiki party. All you really need are the drink ingredients and a tropical shirt. Invite three or four other aging hipster couples over, mix the drinks, and the rest will take care of itself. Because the real theme of a tiki party is relaxation, you can go as fancy or laid-back as you want with the food. Delivery pizza works perfectly well.

(As a side note: I know it’s a contentious issue, but my feeling is that the problem with most pineapple pizzas isn’t with the taste or texture, but the temperature. Nobody in the world likes hot pineapple. Add it just before serving. Don’t bake it in a pizza oven; what did it ever do to you?)

Here are recipes for two classic tiki drinks, served in mason jars instead of tiki mugs, so you can see and admire them.

Suffering Bastard

  • ½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
  • 1 ounce London dry gin
  • 1 ounce apple brandy – I like Laird’s Applejack
  • 2 dashes angostura bitters
  • 4 ounce ginger beer – when possible I use Goya brand, but Fever-Tree makes a good one, too

Fill a mason jar halfway with ice. Add the lime juice, gin, brandy and bitters. Screw the top on and shake for about 30 seconds.

Add the ginger beer and stir gently with a straw. Add ice to top. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.

Sparkling Mai Tai

  • ½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
  • ½ ounce orgeat (almond syrup)
  • ½ ounce orange liqueur – I like curaçao
  • ½ ounce overproof black rum
  • ½ ounce golden rum
  • 4 ounce prosecco

Fill another mason jar halfway with ice, add all the non-prosecco ingredients, screw on the top and shake for 30 seconds. This should seem familiar by now.

Add the prosecco and stir gently with a straw. Add more ice to top. Garnish with mint leaves and a slice of lime.

You know how sometimes you go down a rabbit hole on the internet? One link leads to another, and before you know it you find yourself reading Ten Secrets Meghan Markle’s Chiropractor Doesn’t Want You to Know (Number Eight will shock you!). This happens to me fairly frequently. One story that I find myself reading again and again is the one of twin sisters who look completely different from each other. My memory of the details is fuzzy, but, the point of the piece is that despite being made from the same genetic recipe, the twins are surprisingly different. Think of these cocktails as the Internet Twins of Tiki Drinks. Although the method used to make them is more or less identical, the resulting drinks are worlds apart.

The Suffering Bastard is sweet and spicy. The lime ties the gin and brandy together, and the bitters pull the drink back from being too sweet. The ginger beer adds a kick of spiciness and some light carbonization.

The prosecco in the Sparkling Mai Tai adds sparkle, of course, but also a background fruitiness that plays well with the rum and almond flavors. It gives a lightness to the drink.

Featured Photo: Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Omar Abuzaid

Omar Abuzaid, owner of Al Basha Grill (379 S. Willow St., Manchester, 391-5613, albashamedgrill.com)

Surprisingly, Omar Abuzaid’s background isn’t in cooking, but accounting. One day, he got tired of life in a cubicle, so he and his family opened a Mediterranean market, and then a restaurant. Al Basha is his second restaurant. He has been in the restaurant business for six years at this point. Al Basha has been open since October 2023, and the restaurant has been busy. His goal is to introduce customers to a type of food that they probably did not grow up eating, with simple ingredients, and made with care, to order.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

As an ingredient, definitely good olive oil. With Mediterranean food, olive oil goes on everything. … If I don’t have good olive oil, it screws up a lot of my seasonings

What would you have for your last meal?

It’s something that unfortunately we don’t have in the menu. It’s a Moroccan specialty called pastilla. It’s a really nice dish that my mom perfected. We make it with both seafood or with chicken and it’s really amazing. It’s something we are definitely thinking to add to our menu. It’s very complex to make, but it’s a really nice meal.

What is your favorite place to eat in the area?

I love going to Fratello’s. I like Italian and I like their flavors, it’s really very nice.

Who is somebody you would like to see eating in your restaurant?

Donald Trump when he’s in town. We had Rudy Giuliani last year. He came with the whole group. And I missed him! … My assistant called me. He said, ‘You’ll never guess who was here.’ I looked at my phone and it was Rudy Giuliani.

What is your favorite dish on your menu?

Definitely the lamb leg. It’s a really nice meal, and our customers have been enjoying it. It’s been selling a lot.

What is the biggest food trend you’ve been noticing in New Hampshire recently?

In the last few years — not only Manchester, but Portsmouth, Manchester, Nashua — this area has become like a foodie destination. I used to literally wake up while I used to work as an accountant, and be so tired of the same old food. I would call a friend and say, ‘Hey, listen, you want to go to New York? I’m driving, I’m paying,’ and we’ll drive all the way to New York just to get something really authentic and nice. But now, over the last few years, I’m amazed by the selection of food in Manchester.

What is your favorite food to cook at home?

Tajine — it’s a Moroccan dish. It’s cooked very slowly and it’s something we enjoy cooking. We make it Berber-style. The Berbers are the indigenous people in Morocco. … They cook it in such a beautiful way. It’s so tender and so flavorful. Ours has lamb, and saffron, and couscous.

Tabouli with Quinoa
We make our tabouli with a little twist. We make it with quinoa instead of bulgar wheat, just because a lot of our customers either have gluten allergies or they have a gluten-free diet. So when we introduced the quinoa, people loved it.

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt plus more
2 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
¼ to ½ cup thinly sliced red onion
1½ to 2 fresh tomatoes, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped.

Bring quinoa, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Drizzle the olive oil into the lemon juice, whisking until it has combined. Season with salt and pepper. Mix half the dressing with the cooled quinoa. Set aside for half an hour.
Mix the tomatoes, parsley and onion in a bowl with the quinoa, and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with the remaining dressing.

Celebrating together

Fest features African-Caribbean and Latin communities

The We Are One Festival is something of a legacy for Sudi Lett, and like all legacies it comes at a cost.

“I’m excited to do it, “ he said. “It’s one of those things that I feel good about doing, but it is work and it takes a lot of time. We’ve been going at this since April. So I’m excited.”

The We Are One Festival got its start more than 20 years ago by Lett’s parents.

“My folks organized the first African Caribbean celebration back in 2001,” he said. “We initially started [the Festival] with this Haitian woman named Marcy Boucher. She was talking about that there wasn’t really anything for Caribbean people in terms of cuisine or entertainment or anything. And so they really went out of their way to kind of create this space for people in Manchester and in New Hampshire.”

Since then, the Festival has grown. Fifteen years ago, it joined with Manchester’s Latino Festival, making it the oldest Latino-and-African-centered cultural festival in New Hampshire, with the goal of reducing feelings of social isolation among Manchester’s Black and Spanish-speaking communities. A big part of that is the food.

“There’s a lot of overlap between African-Caribbean and Latin cuisine.” Lett said. “I think the common thread is that these cuisines, even though they overlap with each other, are really new food for this area of New England. A lot of the cultures here are not as familiar with things like goat meat and oxtail and even things like sweet plantains for that matter.”

Working with Manchester Caribbean restaurants, like La Fierra (521 Wilson St., 518-5644) and Don Quijote (362 Union St., 622-2246, donquijoteunion.com), Lett hopes to present new foods to some of the city’s residents, and give a taste of home to others.

“We have oxtail, African rice, [Caribbean] curry chicken and fried chicken,” he said. Other restaurants will serve chicharron — crispy, fried pork skin — stewed chicken, rice and beans, empanadas and pastelitos. “Every year so many people I see in the park, they always come out and say, ‘Hey, Sudi, we’re here for the food!’ I think that’s awesome.”

In addition to the food, We Are One will feature music, dancing and other expressions of Caribbean and Latin American culture. Master percussionist Theo Martley of the Akwaaba Ensemble (akwaabaensemble.com) will perform, as will the band Tuca del Norte.

After all these years, Lett is still excited about We Are One.

“The festival combines obviously African, as well as African American culture, music, food, as well as Latino and Latino American culture, music and food,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity. We’re hoping to get some really good weather because we go rain or shine. Some years, we’ve had unbelievably great weather. And I mean unbelievably great, like 71 to 75. But also weather, where it’s rained or it’s been 92 and it’s just so hot outside. It’s a great thing for me because it really just kind of shows a little bit about life, like the years come and go. Some years are better than others, some years are great.”

Lett says that regardless of the weather, the food will be spectacular.

”You can’t argue taste, man. You can’t argue taste.”

We Are One Festival
Saturday, Aug. 17, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Veterans Memorial Park, 723 Elm St., Manchester
Admission is free.
Visit manchesterproud.org/the-event/we-are-one-festival.

Time for Mahrajan

Lebanese food is on the menu for the annual fest at Our Lady of the Cedars

“Mahrajan” — pronounced “MAR-john” — is an Arabic word that carries meanings of “festival” or “celebration.” For more than 50 years, Our Lady of the Cedars Church in Manchester has been throwing a mahrajan for the community every summer to share Lebanese food and culture with its neighbors.

“The food is Lebanese,” the Rev. Thomas Steinmetz, the Church’s pastor, said. “The parish itself was founded by people from Lebanon. And now, we have a real mix of Lebanese people and everybody else here. The Lebanese [parishioners] have taught a lot of the other people how to do [this type of] cooking too.”

Lebanese cooking has many similarities to the foods from other Mediterranean countries. A Greek or Israeli visitor to the Mahrajan Festival would feel very much at home.

“We call it a Middle Eastern food festival,” said Nikki Bullock, one of the parishioners responsible for the food, “but the emphasis is really on Lebanese specialties. We do have the classics — the lamb kebab and the chicken kebabs and the grape leaves are a big favorite — but we also have some things that maybe you can’t get as easily in this state. So we have our lamb shawarma and we have freshly made falafel, which is my favorite part of the festival.”

Unlike many food festival coordinators, who are so busy that they don’t have an opportunity to actually eat any of the food, Bullock is happy to work right next to the falafel ladies. ”So there’s crunchy, fresh falafel balls all weekend, so that’s great,” she said. “There’s just lots of home food for people who grew up with it, but also, because there’s not really many places to get it around here, it’s definitely exciting for us to be able to share it.”

Almost no Middle Eastern party would consider itself a proper mahrajan without lamb.

“Well, of course, I think the lamb is always a big hit,” Steinmetz said, “and we have that in two forms. One is the [charcoal-grilled] lamb kebabs, which is traditional, and the other is lamb shawarma.” This is a cone of thinly sliced meat that is roasted on a slow-turning vertical spit. “We also have chicken kebabs and chicken shawarma. But along with that, it’s a lot of the typical Arabic, Middle Eastern, Lebanese fare. What comes to mind is the stuffed grape leaves, which are very popular.”

The stuffed grape leaves are a good example of the attention the cooks behind the Festival bring to the details of each dish.

“We try to make everything that we can ourselves,” Bullock said. “You know, the grape leaves? Those leaves are picked from our vines. The whole church goes and picks their grape leaves. Our vine is my great-grandmother’s grape vine, so it’s special. It’s really wonderful because it is sort of this family affair, whether we’re related by blood or not.”

Guests can look forward to other Lebanese specialties like hummus, tabbouleh and kibbeh, but for many of the regulars the highlight of the Festival is the desserts, particularly the baklawa. “We call it ‘bet-LAY-wah’ in Lebanese,” Bullock said, explaining that there will be several varieties of the pastry. “We have walnut, we have pistachio, and we have a chocolate-hazelnut version. And you can buy a mix of those, which is great. And the Lebanese baklawa is a little lighter than the Greek, because It has a simple syrup versus the honey.”

This year’s festival is bittersweet for Bullock. Her mother, Marylou Lazos, whom she lost recently, was the long-time co-chair of the Festival. “She was the heart of our kitchen,” said Bullock. “All the things I know, I learned from her; our food definitely started with her in her heart.”

The from-the-heart aspect is the whole point, said Steinmetz, and something that makes him proud. “We want this to be a good kind of family-oriented event for people. We get to enjoy having people here enjoying the event. That’s a pleasure for us as well.”

Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival
Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Church, 140 Mitchell St., Manchester
Friday, Aug. 16, from 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 17, from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 18, from noon to 5 p.m.
Admission is free. Visit bestfestnh.com.

The Weekly Dish 24/08/15

News from the local food scene

• Nashua Burger Month: As reported in a July 25 Nashua Telegraph article, Nashua’s Department of Economic Development has designated August Nashua Burger Month. Nine participating restaurants have chosen a week during the month to feature a specialty burger. Customers who post a selfie online with one of the burgers and tag it with #NashuaBurgerMonth will be automatically entered to win a $50 gift card. Ten winners will be selected each week. The participating restaurants are Odd Fellows Brewery and O’Brien’s Sports Bar, Bistro603, Stella Blu, The Peddler’s Daughter, Fody’s Tavern, Rambling House, Riverwalk Bakery and Café, Martha’s Exchange, and Casey Magee’s.

• Mocktails with romance authors: To celebrate the sixth annual Bookstore Romance Day, Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) will hold a mocktail party with three popular romance authors on Saturday, Aug. 17 at 2 p.m. The Gibson’s website said, “Come meet some authors, mingle and chat, talk tropes, debate who is the best book boyfriend/girlfriend, and enjoy some delicious drinks from Gibson’s Cafe.” Jilly Gagnon, author of Love You, Mean It, Sarina Bowen, author of the True North series and the Brooklyn Hockey series, and Margaret Porter, author of A Change of Location and over a dozen historical romance novels, will be in attendance.

Rhubarb Bars

Cookie base and topping

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
  • 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3¼ cups (405 g) all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder

Rhubarb filling

  • 2½ cups (285 g) chopped frozen rhubarb
  • 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
  • juice of half a lemon

Glaze

  • juice of the other half lemon
  • ¾ cup (85 g) powdered sugar
  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8” baking pan.

Cream the butter and sugar together, and beat until it is fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Not that this will mean anything to you, but the mixture should be the same color as my Oma’s bathroom tiles.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together, then spoon the dry mixture into the batter. Put about half the mixture into the prepared baking dish and press it with the back of a spatula or a measuring cup to push it into all four corners. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges just start to turn brown. Remove from the oven and set aside. Chill the other half of the dough in your refrigerator. Don’t let it make you feel guilty by giving you a wounded look; its time will come.

In a small saucepan, combine the frozen rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice, and cook over medium-low heat. As the rhubarb thaws, it will release a fair amount of liquid. Stir frequently. Bring to a low boil, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until it passes the Spoon Test. This is something you read about all the time in old cookbooks. Coat the back of a spoon with the rhubarb syrup, then run a finger through it. If it leaves a clear line, your mixture has turned to jam. Set the jam aside to cool.

At this point, you have the baked dough, the raw dough and the rhubarb jam all taking time-outs in separate corners. Do not feel sorry for them. They know what they did.

After the jam has cooled slightly, tell it that it has finished with time out and can play with its friends. Spoon it over the baked cookie base, and spread it to cover. Remove the rest of the cookie dough from the refrigerator, and drop thumb-sized chunks of it over the top of the jam. It should pretty much cover it, with hints of jam peeking out here and there.

Return the baking dish to the oven, and bake for another 45-50 minutes. Pat it lightly on top with your hand to see if it has finished baking. Take it out of the oven and set it aside to cool.

Mix the powdered sugar and the juice from the other half of your lemon together to make a pourable glaze. Spoon it over the top of the rhubarb-cookie mixture.

When everything has cooled, remove the cookie mixture from the baking dish and cut into bars. How many bars is up to you. I got 12, but if you look down and see one gigantic bar, that’s between you and your pancreas.

Because of all the brown sugar, these bars have a nutty brown color and look suspiciously like they might be made with whole wheat. Rest assured, these do not taste healthy. The butter and brown sugar give a warm, butterscotch flavor that is balanced out by the tartness of the rhubarb and the zinginess of the lemon. They taste like a blondie with benefits.

Featured Photo: Photo by John Fladd.

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