Category: Food

Soup’s on

Concord’s SouperFest returns

By Alexandra Colella

[email protected]

Food can always bring a community together, no matter the circumstances. The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness is partnering with local eateries once again for its annual SouperFest event, set for Saturday, March 26, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at White Park in Concord.

Each year local restaurant owners donate a selection one of their soups to raise money for the Coalition, which aims to raise awareness about homelessness in the community through its many partnerships. The Coalition hopes to raise $50,000 with SouperFest and, if the weather is nice, feature a live performance from the New Orleans-influenced State Street Jazz Band.

brass band playing in park on sunny day
Photo courtesy of Mulberry Creek Imagery.

Eight Concord restaurants are participating in this year’s event, and the soup flavors are diverse, ranging from a mushroom beef and barley soup courtesy of Revival Kitchen & Bar to vegan and vegetarian chilis from Col’s Kitchen and Hermanos Cocina Mexicana, respectively. There’s also going to be a Hungarian mushroom soup provided by the Concord Food Co-op, and a lentil soup from The Works Bakery Cafe, among others.

“The soup selection … is awesome, and it will be wonderful to see friends and supporters again,” said Ellen Groh, executive director of the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness, “and, I must say, hearing the State Street Jazz Band makes for a great festive mood.”

Online orders can be made before the event. Advanced online ordering is a better option to secure the soup you want for the event. Weather permitting, soup lovers are invited to bring chairs to the park to watch the live band perform, or you can take your soup to go and enjoy at home. Anyone who orders online will be prompted to choose a designated pickup time during the event’s hours.

Previous SouperFest events have been held indoors, bringing together hundreds of attendees to enjoy several dozen locally made soups. The pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020, while last year’s event was the first in its history to make the transition outdoors to a mostly takeout format.

Event organizer Greg Lessard called SouperFest “a tremendous testament to the Concord community’s compassion, generosity and commitment” to ending homelessness in the city.

“This was evidenced when the call went out to local restaurants to ask them to donate soup,” he said. “Although over the past two years restaurants have had a challenging time, eight … immediately confirmed their commitment to the event.”

Of its $50,000 goal with the event, $40,000 has already been raised from local businesses. Soups may be available on the day of the event, but selections are expected to be limited.

SouperFest
When: Saturday, March 26, 1:30 to 4 p.m.
Where: White Park, 1 White St., Concord
Visit: concordhomeless.org/souperfest

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Mulberry Creek Imagery.

Breaking bread

Woodman’s Artisan Bakery to open storefront in Nashua

Bill Woodman gained a following across the local farmers market scene for his European-style artisan breads, first selling in Salem in 2018 before branching out to six markets by the following summer. Nearly four years later, Woodman is expanding his startup bread business into a storefront, giving him his own permanent spot to bake as well as an opportunity to serve coffees, teas, sandwiches and grab-and-go pastries.

Woodman’s Artisan Bakery is due to open in the coming weeks on the corner of Amherst and Sunapee streets in North Nashua — it’s in the former spot of Great Harvest Bread Co., which has sat vacant since December 2019. Upon coming into the space, Woodman connected with former Great Harvest owner Jeremy St. Hilaire, who welcomed him to the neighborhood, shared his own experiences, and helped go over the basics of its unique multiton 48-pan oven.

Rows of salted pretzels from an artisan bakery
Photo courtesy of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery.

Woodman’s breads are 100 percent scratch-baked and range from various country ryes and sourdoughs to flavored options like a cranberry walnut and an Italian focaccia with Parmesan and rosemary. His product line also includes traditional French butter croissants and pain au chocolat pastries, as well as soft blueberry scones and lightly salted German-style pretzels.

A Manchester native, Woodman attended Springfield College in Massachusetts before transferring to Southern New Hampshire University to study culinary arts. From there, he would hold multiple kitchen jobs over the years, and it was while as a cook at the RiverMead, a retirement home in Peterborough, that he got the opportunity to attend bread baking intensive courses at King Arthur Flour in Vermont, thanks to an educational reimbursement program.

“I had always had an interest in breads, but no one ever knew much to teach me about them,” he said. “I did the program at King Arthur, came back to the retirement home and then was doing fresh bread for them every day. … People were going crazy about it to the point where we ended up setting up a sale with three or four different types of bread. So that went over very, very well.”

In May 2018, Woodman applied to become a vendor at the Salem Farmers Market. Dave Hippert, a longtime friend of his who owns Sal’s Pizza in Hooksett, agreed to let him use his oven after hours, where he currently bakes his breads and pastries.

“He closes down at the end of his day, so 9 or 10 o’clock at night, and then I go in, mix up my doughs and bake throughout the night into the mornings. Then from the morning to the afternoon I go out to the markets and sell my bread off,” he said. “So without him, none of this would’ve been possible, especially just with the volume that I’m able to pull out of there.”

As a result, nearly all of his items at the market have only just been out of the oven hours earlier.

“That’s one of those things that makes a big, big difference is that quality and freshness,” he said.

croissants laid out on a cooling rack
Photo courtesy of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery.

Once his Nashua storefront opens, Woodman will leave the kitchen at Sal’s, but he still plans to attend a few farmers markets per week. Currently he’s in Concord on Saturdays and Salem on Sundays, and he’ll pick up a third market in Bedford on Tuesdays when it resumes in June.

In addition to Great Harvest’s oven, Woodman has an electric Bongard deck oven from Germany he purchased a few years ago through a mutual connection with a Portsmouth chef.

“It’s kind of like your Lamborghini of ovens, so to speak,” he said. “Anything that’s got a real nice crust and a chewy crumb is going to come out of there, because you get that steam injection. … You get a little bit of water, which keeps the dough pliable enough so that it grows and expands properly, but then when it starts evaporating off, you start basically caramelizing the sugars on the surface of that dough, and it gives you that color and crispiness that you want.”

Woodman plans to get into baking ciabattas and baguettes, breads he said he hasn’t regularly done in a few years. He’ll also be able to produce all of his other artisan breads on an even larger scale than before, thanks to his newfound 24/7 access. One of his flagship products is called the “Yukon Dave” sourdough — it’s named after a farmers market customer who gifted him a sourdough starter that originated in Alaska sometime in the 1960s.

On the retail side, Woodman will have a display case featuring grab-and-go pastries as well as drip coffee sourced from A&E, a USDA-certified organic roaster. Eventually, he said, he’d like to add cappuccinos and lattes and plans to offer pizzas, sandwiches and other lunch items.

Woodman’s Artisan Bakery
An opening date is expected in the coming weeks for the bakery’s storefront. In the meantime, find owner and bread maker Bill Woodman at the Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market (7 Eagle Square, Concord) on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, and at the Salem Farmers Market (LaBelle Winery Derry, 14 Route 111, Derry) on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: 4 Sunapee St., Nashua
Hours: TBA
More info: Visit woodmansartisanbakery.com, or find them on Facebook @woodmansartisanbakery and Instagram @woodmans.artisan.bakery

Featured photo: Photos courtesy of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery.

The Weekly Dish 22/03/24

News from the local food scene

• Maple madness: There’s still time to go tour a local sugarhouse for New Hampshire Maple Month, which will hold its final weekend on Saturday, March 26, and Sunday, March 27. Visit the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association’s online directory at nhmapleproducers.com for a list of participating farms and sugarhouses. Even though Maple Weekend was last weekend, several maple producers across the state are continuing to welcome visitors for sugaring tours, samples and gift shop product sales. You can also check out our coverage of Maple Weekend in the Hippo’s March 17 issue, which begins on page 10 and includes recipes and details about this season’s syrup production. Visit issuu.com/hippopress to read the e-edition for free.

• Heirloom feasts: Join the Concord Garden Club in welcoming Ellen Ecker Ogden, author of The New Heirloom Garden, for a virtual event on Saturday, March 26, at 1 p.m., in partnership with Gibson’s Bookstore. Ogden will talk about her book and discuss the essentials of how to prepare, plant and maintain an heirloom food garden. Released in early 2021, The New Heirloom Garden is filled with tips on how to grow various heirloom vegetables, herbs and flowers, and includes 55 recipes for everything from entrees and sides to desserts, drinks and more. Registration is free but required to receive a link to the Zoom webinar. Donations are accepted through Eventbrite, with proceeds split between Gibson’s Bookstore and the Concord Garden Club, and copies of Ogden’s book are also available for sale. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com.

• PoutineFest is back: After a successful event in 2021, the New Hampshire PoutineFest is returning to Anheuser-Busch Tour Center & Biergarten (221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack) on Saturday, Oct. 15, according to a recent announcement on its website and social media channels. Since 2016, the annual festival has brought together local and regional restaurants, food trucks and other vendors to compete for the best poutine dish as voted by attendees. It had traditionally been held in the summer, but the response to last year’s festival from both vendors and poutine lovers alike has prompted organizers with the Franco-American Centre to make a permanent shift to October. Details on ticket sales are expected soon. Visit nhpoutinefest.com.

• Mile Away to return: After previously announcing late last year that it would close its kitchen space in January, Milford’s Mile Away Restaurant will now be reopening on April 6, according to a message recently posted on its website. Reservations will be required going forward, due to limited staffing, the message reads in part. Additionally, public events with set menus are being planned for every Saturday and Sunday in April, during which Mile Away’s regular dinner menu will not be available. The eatery will also be open for Easter — reservations are being accepted now for special meals that will include an appetizer, a salad, an entree and a dessert. According to its website, Mile Away is in a historic spot in town — the site of one of the earliest settlements in New England in the 18th century. Visit mileawayrestaurantnh.com.

A trip to Burgundy

A look at the wines of Louis Jadot

Louis Jadot is one of Bourgogne’s (Burgundy) most important wine producers and négociants (merchants who buy grapes, juice, and wine to blend and produce under their label). Most Burgundian estates are small and premier and grand cru holdings can be tiny, so négociants play an important role in the distribution of their wine. Louis Jadot has a portfolio that covers everything from inexpensive Bourgogne and Beaujolais to several grand cru wines. The grapes grown in Burgundy are principally chardonnay and pinot noir.

Louis Jadot has become a force within the wine industry in the Burgundian region and beyond. So wide is the array of wines produced by Louis Jadot that there is a standout vineyard or site in every vintage. New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets alone carry 12 distinctively different pinot noirs, eight different chardonnays and three different gamays.

Our first wine, a 2019 Maison Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fuissé (originally priced at $25.99, and on sale at $22.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets), is produced in the Mâconnais region of Burgundy. It has a light straw color and aromas of apples and honey. To the mouth there are nuts, along with some citrus. This win is partially barrel-fermented with six months of aging in French oak, which imparts complexity. This wine is ideal for pairing with roasted salmon, shellfish, or creamy cheeses. For those who shy away from chardonnay, this is a wine to try, as it comes from vines planted in clay-limestone soils. It is incredibly different from a typical chardonnay.

Our second wine, a 2019 Maison Louis Jadot Marsannay Blanc (originally priced at $33.99, and on sale at $31.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets), is produced in the Côte de Nuits region of Burgundy, the farthest northern extent of Burgundy. Created in 1987, Marsannay la Côte is the most recent AOC to the Côte de Nuits. It is straw in color, with just a touch of orange that comes from a slightly pigmented chardonnay grape. To the nose there are aromas of pears and almond; to the mouth there is a slight minerality with orange pith and a citrus bouquet that opens in the glass, akin to a good Chablis, another wine derived from the chardonnay grape. This wine can be paired to foods beyond shellfish and soft cheeses to include pasta dishes with a fresh, light tomato sauce, or a charcuterie platter.

Our third wine, a 2019 Maison Louis Jadot Bourgogne Pinot Noir (originally priced at $20.99, and on sale at $14.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets), is a blend of pinot noir coming from Jadot’s relationships with wine growers from vineyards across the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise, surrounding Beaune, the wine capital of the Burgundy wine region. This is an exceptionally elegant pinot with complex aromas of plums. Raspberries and cherries carry through to the tongue, joined by a slight earthiness of mushrooms, along with mineral notes and a balanced acidity. Paired with chicken, pork, or grilled fish, this wine is an excellent bargain, not to be missed!

Try a bottle of Louis Jadot. There is so much to choose from! You will welcome the new experience.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Maple Daiquiri

We’ve reached the point where the nights are still cold but the days are warm — not Las Vegas warm, but warm enough for people like us, who have been looking at our own breath since Thanksgiving. In other words: maple sugaring season.

So let’s make something mapley. A quick internet search will turn up any number of cocktails that use maple syrup, but we’re smart.

Most of the time.

OK, some of the time.

Anyway, we can almost certainly come up with something delicious on our own, last week’s pasta experiment notwithstanding.

My first step in working up a recipe around a particular ingredient is The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.

This isn’t a cookbook as such. It’s a reference work that discusses which ingredients go well together. Karen Page has interviewed a large number of chefs and picked their brains for which flavors go well with which other ones, and annotated their suggestions so that the reader can tell which flavor combinations are classics, and which ones are outliers with one or two passionate chef-advocates.

In our particular case, let’s look up “maple syrup.”

OK, this is interesting — Jerusalem artichokes. That’s worth remembering for another time, but I don’t think any of us have the patience right now to figure out a Jerusalem artichoke cocktail.

Moving on.

Oh. Bananas. This seems to be a popular combination with chefs. And, as it turns out, I just made a bottle of banana-infused rum. Let’s make a little checkmark in pencil next to that. What else? **mumbling** “Buttermilk, figs, mascarpone, winter squash ….” Oh, hey — chiles. And, as it turns out, I’ve got a bottle of Fresno pepper-infused rum downstairs, too.

So it looks like we’re going with a rum drink.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’d like to go with something fairly simple and straightforward this time, something that will let the maple shine through but give it another flavor to play off.

Something like a daiquiri.

Daiquiris, margaritas, gimlets — these all use a similar set of recipes — a base alcohol (in this case rum), something sweet (the maple syrup) and lime juice. The Flavor Bible doesn’t list limes in maple’s complementary flavors, but at least one chef suggests lemons, which would give us the same acidity as the lime juice. I say we go for it.

So, let’s make two different versions of our Maple Daiquiri, one with the Fresno rum and one with banana rum.

Verdict: The Maple/Chili Daiquiri is sweet and spicy. The lemon juice was a good call; it adds the acidity we were looking for, without elbowing its way to the front of your palate and distracting from the maple. It might be just a little too spicy, though. The maple syrup definitely adds sweetness, but its specific flavor gets a little lost.

The Maple/Banana Daiquiri comes across as a bit sweeter, but the maple definitely shines through. The banana is the first flavor that hits you, but you are left with a mapley feeling that makes you 8 percent less likely to scream in traffic.

Wait a second. I wonder …

** Pours about ¼ of the chili daiquiri into the banana daiquiri glass, then swirls it around pretentiously.**

Yup. This:

March Maple Daiquiri

Ingredients

  • 1½ ounces banana rum – see below
  • ½ ounce Fresno rum – see also below
  • ¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ ounce amber maple syrup

Combine ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake.

Strain into a martini glass.

Infused rums

Banana rum – Muddle one very ripe banana (the type you might use for banana bread) in the bottom of a large jar. Add two cups of white rum. Put the top on the jar, then shake well. Store in a cool, dark place for seven days, shaking once or twice per day. Strain, filter, and bottle.

Fresno rum – Roughly chop four fresh Fresno chilies and add them to the same type of large jar. Top the jar off with the same type of white rum. Store and shake, as above. Taste after four days, then every day thereafter, until it is spicy and flavorful enough for your taste. Strain and bottle.

Featured photo: Maple Daiquiri. Photo by John Fladd.

Blueberry and white chocolate scones

Last week might have been the end of my three-part biscotti series, but it was not the end of my baking theme. As we head toward spring, we know there is still some winter weather in our plans. Why not ward off the chilly feel with a homemade baked good to start a weekend morning? That is where these blueberry and white chocolate scones come into play.

What makes these treats a wonderful start to the day is the small amount of time and effort required. From gathering ingredients to taking your first bite is about 45 minutes. Better than driving to your local bakery, you can make these in your pjs and enjoy the amazing aromas as they bake!

A few cooking tips for this recipe: If you use frozen blueberries, expect your dough to have a blue hue. It’s just aesthetic, not a big deal. You don’t have to buy buttermilk to make these scones. It can be hard to find a container that small. Check the bottom of the recipe for my shortcut. Finally, if you have salted butter, it will work. Just reduce the salt from 1/2 to 1/4 teaspoon.

Let the baking continue!

Blueberry and white chocolate scones
Makes 8

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, diced
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
3/4 cup buttermilk*
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Add butter.
Combine dry ingredients and butter using a pastry blender (or two forks) until the butter is reduced to the size of grains of rice.
Add white chocolate chips and berries to flour mixture, tossing gently.
Whisk buttermilk, egg yolk and vanilla in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or small bowl.
Add liquids to dry ingredients, stirring until the dough forms a ball.
Place dough on a lightly floured surface and press into an 8-inch round, using well-floured hands.
Cut into 8 wedges. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar.
Transfer wedges to a rimmed baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the scones are crusty on top and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Serve warm.

*In lieu of buttermilk, you can combine 1 tablespoon lemon juice and enough milk (I’ve used both cow and almond milks with success) to equal 3/4 cup. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe.

Featured Photo: Blueberry and white chocolate scones. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!