Category: Food

The Weekly Dish 22/07/14

News from the local food scene

• World of wines: Five New Hampshire eateries were named among the more than 3,000 establishments worldwide in Wine Spectator’s annual Restaurant Awards, which honor the world’s best restaurants for wine, according to a press release. A total of 3,169 dining destinations from all 50 U.S. states and more than 70 countries internationally were selected for this year’s list — in New Hampshire, Hanover Street Chophouse in Manchester, Copper Door Restaurant in Bedford, CR’s The Restaurant in Hampton, The Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness, and Granita Enoteca in Keene were all among the honorees. “These awards not only guide our readers to dining establishments with impressive wine lists and outstanding service, but also serve to honor restaurants for their achievements and commitment to maintaining pristine cellars,” Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Wine Spectator, said in a statement. The publication’s Restaurants Awards issue became available to readers on July 12, the release said.

• Cured cravings: Local chef Keith Sarasin of The Farmers Dinner as well as a new Indian-themed pop-up dinner series called Aatma is about to release his fourth cookbook since 2018. Jerky: The Essential Cookbook is due out July 26, according to Amazon — the book features more than 70 recipes and easy-to-follow instructions for making all kinds of flavors of jerky from various types of animal protein. Sarasin also covers jerky’s origins and history as well as its place in the modern artisanal food movement. The new cookbook comes just over a year after Sarasin’s previous release, Meat: The Ultimate Cookbook, in May 2021 — that book is a whopping 800 pages filled with recipes using all kinds of meats, from beef, pork and poultry to lamb, goat and several species of wild game. Pre-order a copy now at keithsarasin.com.

• Whiskey business: The New Hampshire Liquor Commission will award a prize package of some of the world’s most hard-to-find whiskeys in a raffle to raise money for Best Buddies NH. According to a press release, a total of 2,500 tickets are being sold in the “Buddy Up!” raffle, which is running now through Sept. 15. Tickets are $100 each — the package includes more than $40,000 worth of rare spirits, including a collection of Pappy Van Winkle and E.H. Taylor bourbons, as well as the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. According to the release, the winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to experience New Hampshire Distiller’s Week, including two tickets to a Buffalo Trace tasting dinner at the Crown Tavern in Manchester on Nov. 1, and two VIP tickets to the Distiller’s Showcase of Premium Spirits on Nov. 3. Visit liquorandwineoutlets.com.

• Nashua company gets national certification: Nashua artisan food company Mola Foods recently received certification from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, according to a press release. “I am so excited to now be able to access a vast network of support with new growth opportunities and increased visibility in corporate and government supply chains, education and development programs,” LaFortune Jeannette Djabea, who founded Mola Foods in 2016, said in a statement. According to the release, the WBENC standard of certification is a meticulous process that includes an in-depth review of the business and site inspection. A native of Cameroon, Djabea expanded her brand of globally inspired spice blends and chili relishes in the form of a retail store front, tasting room and commercial kitchen, which opened in Nashua in February 2021. Visit molafoods.com.

Chocolate and peanut butter Rice Krispie treats

Summer brings about a nostalgia for the simplicity of this time of year. Simple meals that consist of fresh produce, cheese and a baguette. It also brings to mind simple desserts: a bowl of ice cream, a couple s’mores by a campfire and, of course, Rice Krispie treats.

Plain Rice Krispie treats are one of the simplest, yet usually most crowd-pleasing, desserts that exist. What’s not to like about a sweet, chewy, crunchy treat that can be eaten with your hands? While I like the basic recipe, it also can be fun to add a new element or two. As such, I would like to introduce you to this amped up version.

Personally, I enjoy the addition of peanut butter in a dessert, as it adds a bit of saltiness to contrast with the sweetness. It turns out that marshmallows and peanut butter balance each other quite well. The chocolate is a way to add another dimension of flavor, with each chef deciding what flavor that is. Go with milk chocolate chips if you want these treats to be a little sweeter, and opt for semisweet chocolate chips if you are looking for a deeper chocolate flavor.

No matter which chocolate option you choose, you now have a dessert that is perfect for almost any summer gathering. Take a batch to the beach, bring them to your next family cookout, or just enjoy them in the comfort of your own home. They are sure to disappear quickly once you set them out!

Chocolate and peanut butter Rice Krispie treats
Makes 24

1 10-ounce bag marshmallows
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups chocolate chips

Spray a 13″x9″ pan, sides and bottom, with nonstick cooking spray.
Combine marshmallows and butter in a large pot over medium heat.
Stir frequently until both are melted and combined.
Remove from heat and add peanut butter, mixing well
Add Rice Krispies, stirring until fully incorporated.
Add chocolate chips, mixing until evenly distributed.*
Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan, spreading evenly.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

*The chocolate chips will melt, so you will end with more of a marble wave of chocolate.

Featured Photo: Chocolate and peanut butter Rice Krispie treats. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.

In the kitchen with Megan Gordon

Megan Gordon is the chef and co-owner of Copper Kettle To Go (39 Main St., Wilton, 654-2631, copperkettletogo.com), an eatery and catering company directly across the street from the Wilton Town Hall Theatre that offers an always-changing menu of scratch-cooked meals, from sandwiches and flatbreads to plated entrees, burgers, tacos and more. Copper Kettle To Go’s unique setup features an upstairs grocery shop offering various take-and-bake meals and an in-house dining area, along with a downstairs taphouse with a rotating lineup of local brews. Gordon, who opened the restaurant with her husband Chris in September 2020, previously ran the Copper Kettle Bakery in Brookline with her mother, from 2009 to 2011.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

My whisk.

What would you have for your last meal?

Probably my husband’s chicken piccata.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

The Riverhouse Cafe in Milford. We are obsessed. … I usually get the CB Stack. It’s corned beef with eggs, hollandaise sauce and shredded cheesy potatoes. It’s so good.

What celebrity would you like to see eating in your restaurant?

Al Horford. I am a huge Celtics fan, and we’re birthday buddies.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

I would have to say our haddock sandwich. … It actually comes on an 8-inch sub roll, and then we top it with American cheese, lettuce, fried pickles and homemade tartar sauce. … We actually had a customer in here who was at Hampton Beach and told another customer of ours that if she wanted a good haddock sandwich to go an hour inland to Wilton and get one at Copper Kettle. … So I thought that was pretty cool.

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

Smash burgers. They are everywhere and we started doing them as well. They are very popular.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Tacos. I like to do beef or chicken tacos, and then we have all the sides that you have to have.

Homemade pico de gallo
From the kitchen of Megan Gordon of Copper Kettle To Go in Wilton

½ small onion
3 roma tomatoes
1 jalapeno
¼ cup cilantro
1 lime

Cut up the onion, tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro into small pieces and place into a bowl. Cut the lime in half and juice it over the ingredients in the bowl. Let it sit for 15 minutes to let all of the flavors marry, then serve with tacos or dig in with tortilla chips.

Featured photo: Megan Gordon. Courtesy photo.

Pumpernickel Manhattan

Because I am a humble man, I don’t often bring this up, but it has bearing on today’s topic, so I’ll say it now and get it out of the way, so we can move on.

I make the World’s Best Breakfast Sandwich.

I know; it seems unlikely. You’d expect the inventor of such an important — dare I say, landmark? — development to be a tall, handsome, strapping man of great intelligence and taste. You’d be disappointed.

And, of course, you’ve got the lunch-counter lawyers who will want to get into the whole, “How can you quantify matters of personal preference?” Some people might even argue, “How do you even define the word ‘sandwich’, anyway?” — you know, the same people who like to start the argument about whether a hot dog is a sandwich or whether breakfast cereal is soup. Those jerks. [Editor’s note: Hippo totally and with troublemaker intent stirred this pot in our Best of 2022. Hippo readers pretty definitively said 76 to 24 percent that a hot dog is not a sandwich.]

But the fact remains that there is one clear best breakfast sandwich, and I’m the guy who invented it. I am so confident of this that I have it on my resumé, which has provoked several extended discussions during job interviews. I haven’t always gotten those jobs, but by the time I left, the various hiring committees knew what to make for breakfast the next morning.

Here is how you make it:

Toast one slice of plain, ordinary, white sandwich bread. If you try to use a snobbier, artisanal bread, this whole dish will collapse philosophically.

Spread the bread with a confident layer of peanut butter — natural, processed, it doesn’t matter. It has to be actual peanut butter, though. Almond butter, sunflower butter, tahini, these are all fine, admirable ingredients but this is not the job for them.

On top of the peanut butter, arrange a layer of pickled jalapeños — not fresh ones, not a splash of hot sauce. Pickled. Jalapeños.

Top the jalapeños with a fluffy scrambled egg. Not egg whites. Not whipped tofu.

Scrambled. Egg.

“Yeah, but I like a fried egg, and I don’t really see why—”

Shhhh.

One. Scrambled. Egg.

Season with a pinch of coarse salt and fresh ground pepper.

You and I both know how this is going to go down:

You’re going to try to prove how open-minded you are and you’ll make this — well, a version of it, anyway. You’ll substitute a self-respecting slice of sourdough for the sandwich bread, or you’ll use some fresh chiles you’ve got growing in your garden. You’ll make it, and eat it, and shrug your shoulders and say, “It’s OK, but I’m not sure what he’s making such a big deal about.” And you’ll move on with your life, burdened with just a little less respect for me than you had before.

And then, one day, when you need it most — when it is freezing rain outside, and the character you love the most on that show you like has gotten herself killed by a radioactive wombat, and work is terrible, and you just had a big fight, and you hate the world — on that day, you will make this sandwich the way it was meant to be eaten and you will feel the fragments of your broken heart start to slip back into place.

“OK,” I hear you say. “This is all certainly very … colorful and all, but what — if anything — does this have to do with cocktails?”

Oh, right.

I’m sure you already know this, but this Friday is the 94th anniversary of the first commercially sliced bread, which is, of course, one of the key developments that make this sandwich possible. And as long as we’re talking, in a roundabout sort of way, about bread that doesn’t get enough respect, let’s make a cocktail that honors another forgotten hero of the bread world: pumpernickel.

Pumpernickel Manhattan

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon caraway seeds
  • 1 Tablespoon cocoa nibs
  • 1½ ounces rye whiskey – I like Maker’s Mark
  • 1½ ounces red vermouth
  • 10 drops cardamom bitters
  • 10 drops orange bitters

Thoroughly muddle the caraway seeds and cocoa nibs in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. (You could also use a mortar and pestle for this.) Add the rye, and swirl to combine.

Leave the whiskey, caraway and cocoa nibs for at least an hour, to get to know each other better.

Using a fine-meshed strainer, strain the rye over ice, in a mixing glass. Add the vermouth and bitters, then stir gently.

Pour into a rocks glass, and sip slowly.

Pumpernickel — the bread — is a close cousin of rye bread; that’s why we’re using rye for this Manhattan, rather than the more traditional bourbon. Its dark color comes from cocoa powder, and like all self-respecting ryes, it has caraway seeds to give it some [vague, punching motion]. As with any self-respecting Manhattan, the predominant flavor here comes from the whiskey — this is why we’ve used a fairly upscale rye — but the caraway and cocoa linger and remind you who you are dealing with. They are subtle about it — it doesn’t shout, “CARAWAY! WE’VE GOT CARAWAY, HERE!” but they leave you thinking about the finer points of pumpernickel bread.

As you should.

Featured photo. Pumpernickel Manhattan. Photo by John Fladd.

Takes the cake

Eatxactly Sweet Cafe opens in Concord

Concord native Laura Fucella found success in 2017 with Eatxactly Cakes, a homestead business specializing in custom designed cakes, cupcakes and cake pops for weddings, birthday parties and all kinds of other occasions. But she could only pull so much out of her home kitchen each week — so when her business grew to the point when she was regularly having to turn cake orders away during peak season, that was when she began looking for opportunities to expand.

cinnamon raisin bun on plate beside plastic takeout drink cup
Photos courtesy of Eatxactly Sweet Cafe in Concord.

Eatxactly Sweet Cafe, which opened June 18 in the former Eagle Square Deli space downtown, is more than just a larger production space for Fucella’s custom cakes. It’s also a full-service bakery and cafe, featuring a lineup of grab-and-go pastries, coffees, teas, toasts and more.

“I always wanted to have a little cake bakery, just something small … and when I saw that this was available, it felt right,” said Fucella, who took over the vacant storefront last October. “Then it was like, well this is a lot of space for just cakes, so I said, ‘What else can we do in here?’ That’s kind of how it got to be what it is, more just because of the space available.”

Fucella is no stranger to smaller baked goodies, either — she completed a nine-month intensive program in pastry arts at Le Cordon Bleu College in Cambridge, Mass., in 2011, and also held various baking and restaurant management positions, including at D Squared Java in Exeter just prior to the start of the pandemic.

The new cafe’s offerings include a regularly stocked display of scratch-baked items like croissants, scones and sticky buns, in addition to a refrigerated case of fruit tarts, chocolate cream puffs, banana breads, and cakes and cupcakes, all in a variety of rotating flavors.

Photos courtesy of Eatxactly Sweet Cafe in Concord.

There are also “cafe bites,” or loaded toasts using rustic sourdough bread from the Derry-based Nomad Bakery — those options include a tomato crostini with goat cheese and microgreens; a caprese-style toast with basil pesto, mozzarella and spinach; and the “Queen Bee,” which features peanut butter, banana, bacon, house-made granola and a bourbon honey glaze. Oatmeals, quiches, yogurt parfaits and focaccia served by the slice on Fridays round out the food menu.

For her coffees, Fucella is partnering with Tandem Coffee Roasters of Portland, Maine. Drip coffee and cold brew are available, in addition to a full line of espresso drinks, along with a variety of house-made syrups with flavors like mocha, vanilla, caramel and maple. Fucella also offers herbal, black and oolong loose-leaf teas from Aera Tea Co., with a few milk options.

But even with all the new menu additions, you’ll still be able to order any of the signature cakes Fucella has become known for. Most require at least a seven-day advance notice, although it’s longer for weddings and for larger orders. Fucella has even worked to streamline the ordering process with new forms recently uploaded to the website that you can fill out yourself.

Eatxactly Sweet Cafe
Where: 5 Eagle Square, Concord
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (hours may be subject to change)
More info: Visit eatxactlysweetcafe.com, or find them on Facebook and Instagram @eatxactlysweetcafe or call 715-1145

Featured photo: Photos courtesy of Eatxactly Sweet Cafe in Concord.

The Weekly Dish 22/07/07

News from the local food scene

• Granite brews: Depending on when you’re reading this, there may still be time to get your ticket to this year’s Keep NH Brewing Festival, happening at the Kiwanis Riverfront Park behind the Douglas N. Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road, Concord) on Saturday, July 9, with general admittance from 1 to 4 p.m. and VIP admittance beginning at noon. The festival is known for featuring the largest collection of craft breweries in the state for one event, and it’s the first time since 2019 that it’s being held in person. Beer styles will run the gamut from IPAs and lagers to sours, ales and stouts, with an overall collection of more than 130 available options to sample. Admission grants you access to 4-ounce pours of each beer, as well as a souvenir tasting glass — other participants of the festival will include several food trucks, a local hop grower, outdoor vendors and more. General admission is $50 in advance and $55 on the day of the festival, while designated drivers get in for $20 (event is 21+ only). Visit nhbrewers.org.

• Abenaki flavors: Join the Hopkinton Historical Society and New Hampshire Humanities for a virtual cooking program on traditional Abenaki squash soup, scheduled for Monday, July 11, at 7 p.m., via Zoom. Liz Charlebois, Abenaki educator, artist and seed expert, will lead this demonstration — participants can watch or cook alongside her at their own home. A list of ingredients will be made available in advance. The program is one of several taking place during the Hopkinton Historical Society’s ongoing exhibit, “Gather ’Round: Telling Our History Through Food,” which opened on June 25. Other upcoming programs include a virtual cooking demonstration on Native American frybread in August, and an Abenaki harvest food tasting event at the Slusser Senior Center in Contoocook in October. Visit hopkintonhistory.org for a full list of events and to register.

• South of France: The Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford) continues its regional summer dinner series with a South of France four-course al fresco dinner scheduled for Thursday, July 14, from 6 to 10 p.m. The event will feature passed hors d’oeuvres, followed by a four-course plated dinner out on the Grand Terrace. Each of the food options and wine pairings is inspired by southern French cuisine — they’ll include tomato tarte with black olive, pickled chili, fennel aioli and herbs; black sea bass with summer vegetables, shell beans and saffron; Vernon Family Farm coq au vin (red wine-braised chicken) with heirloom carrots and chervil; and peach financiers with candied almond, chantilly, brown butter and roquefort for dessert. Tickets are $125 per person (dinner is 21+ only) and reservations are required, as space is limited. The Bedford Village Inn will then continue its series with a South Carolina dinner on Aug. 4. Visit bedfordvillageinn.com.

• Ribs!: Save the date for the Great American Ribfest & Food Truck Festival, returning for the first time in three years to Anheuser-Busch Brewery (221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack) from Friday, July 15, through Sunday, July 17. A fundraiser for the Merrimack Rotary Club, Ribfest features all kinds of barbecue options from more than 30 vendors, in addition to live music and craft beer. Tickets are available at the door and will be $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and veterans, $6 for kids ages 6 to 12 and free for kids ages 5 and under. Visit greatamericanribfest.com.

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