Category: Food

Plant-based perfection

The Sleazy Vegan launches in Manchester

Directly behind Manchester’s SNHU Arena, a new ghost kitchen is serving up whole food plant-based breakfast and lunch items, with plans to soon expand into a food truck later this year.

It’s called The Sleazy Vegan, and while there’s no retail storefront, online orders are now being accepted every Wednesday through Saturday, with local deliveries within a 5-mile radius of the venue. Owner Kelley-Sue “KSL” LeBlanc hopes to offer catering on the weekends, and she’s also set to participate in some upcoming events, like a private menu tasting at To Share Brewing Co. on April 19, as well as at the Manchester Taco Tour on May 5.

LeBlanc, who grew up in Nashua and now lives on the Queen City’s West Side, officially launched public online ordering on April 1. The Sleazy Vegan’s name origin is twofold — as she dreams of sailing, she wanted a business that could enable her to travel more. She came up with the phrase when playing around with other names that would share the “S.V.,” or sailing vessel, prefix. But the name, she added, is also reflective of her mission — bringing approachable whole food plant-based meal options to everyone regardless of their diet identity.

“People get really, really heated about the word ‘vegan,’ and I mean, it doesn’t have to mean anything bad,” LeBlanc said. “I’m not all the way vegan, but I do choose to eat whole food plant-based [meals] more often than not. … So much gets lost in the labels because they are loaded terms, with different meanings for people. I want to feed everybody great-tasting, fill-your-belly food that is good in your mouth and even better for your body and the planet.”

LeBlanc found her current kitchen space through a connection with Manchester Housing Authority and will also be feeding lunch twice a week to the residents of the building.

Grilled cheese and roasted tomato soup. Courtesy of The Sleazy Vegan.

The online ordering menu is designed to be approachable and enticing to people of all diets — not just vegans or vegetarians. Popular breakfast options out of the gate have included scrambles and burritos made with Just Egg, a plant-based egg substitute made from mung beans; as well as steel-cut oatmeal with cinnamon and nutmeg, and chia pudding made with oat milk and vanilla.

As for lunch items, LeBlanc’s biggest winners thus far have been the “sleazeballs,” or her take on a meatball sub featuring handmade plant-based meatballs on a hoagie roll; the spicy Thai chickpea wrap, which features a combination of chickpeas and navy beans chilled in a crunchy peanut sauce and dressed with various veggies; and the Buffalo “kitchen” nugget wrap. The play on words with the latter’s name comes from her daughter, Cheyenne, who confused the word ‘chicken’ with ‘kitchen’ as a toddler.

“The product we use for the plant-based ‘chicken nugget’ has a small amount of egg powder in it, so it’s not truly vegan. The taste and flavor are such a great alternative to chicken [that] we still wanted to offer it to folks,” LeBlanc said. “The fact that it’s a ‘kitchen’ nugget is a shy version of a chicken nugget … without me calling it that and offending a bunch of people.”

While certain menu items will be available every week, LeBlanc said she hopes to offer different specials in line with the seasonality of ingredients.

During the Taco Tour she’ll be set up at To Share Brewing Co., offering jackfruit tacos with a mango-jalapeño salsa. The April 19 event, also at the brewery, will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person and will include a pint of beer and a selection of menu samples of Sleazy Vegan favorites.

Even once the food truck is ready, LeBlanc plans to continue operating out of the ghost kitchen — the goal, she said, is to make The Sleazy Vegan a reputable option for business catering.

“There are tons of businesses that have breakfast and lunch meetings and other events … that get catered all the time,” she said. “As an IT person, I used to be part of these events all the time, and there was nothing I could ever eat except for a salad. … So I really hope to be able to target businesses and I want them to understand that they can offer food [that is for] everyone.”

The Sleazy Vegan
Visit thesleazyvegan.com and click on the “online menu” tab

Where: Local deliveries are available within a 5-mile radius of the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester). A food truck is also expected to launch later this year.
When: Wednesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., for breakfast and lunch. Special event catering is also available.

Featured photo: Spicy Thai chickpea wrap. Courtesy of The Sleazy Vegan.

Sweet deal

Greek pastries and custom cakes at new Raymond bakery

Reni Mylonas found success in 2020 as a homestead baker, dabbling in custom-order cakes and tapping into her Greek roots with pastries and cookies. Two years later, the Danville native has expanded into a new storefront in nearby Raymond, offering Greek favorites using recipes passed down in her family, along with other grab-and-go treats.

Agape Cakes & Confections, named after the Greek word meaning “love,” celebrated its grand opening April 9 with a menu of cupcakes, bars, macarons, cake popsicles and more. The new shop is in the Cozy Corner plaza on Route 27, giving Mylonas a permanent spot to sell out of for the first time. She’ll also be making authentic Greek pastries part of her regular lineup of sweets.

“My grandparents were born in Greece … and my dad was as well, so I grew up in a very Greek household,” she said. “I’ve grown up eating all these pastries, so it’s fun to share with everyone and to introduce them to those who haven’t had a chance to try some of them.”

A self-taught cake decorator, Mylonas started baking around the age of 9. She gained experience working in a few local shops along the way, most recently at Love + Flour Bakery in Salem.

When she started Agape not long after the pandemic shutdown, it was friends and family that mostly made up her customer base. Word of her talents quickly spread through social media.

Nearly every day out of the shop’s case, available treats include six-inch and eight-inch cakes; rotating flavors of cupcakes, macarons, bars, and Mylonas’s own homemade Greek baklava.

“I actually individually roll all of the pieces, so they are just like little logs, essentially, as opposed to one full tray that you cut into triangles,” she said. “It’s a bit harder to make, but I find that it’s a better product. … You also don’t want too much syrup, but you want enough where it’s coated on the inside and outside, where it’s almost moist and chewy but in a good way.”

With the help of her grandmother, Mylonas offers galaktoboureko, a custard-filled dessert wrapped in phyllo dough, as well as various types of Greek cookies, like kourabiedes (rose shortbread cookies coated in powdered sugar), koulourakia (butter cookies with a hint of vanilla) and melomakarona (spiced cookies soaked in syrup and topped with walnuts and sugar).

A wholesale area of the shop features ground and bean coffee from Coco’s Coffee, a small-batch single-origin roaster out of East Kingston. Other items for sale include Chocofreta, a brand of imported Greek chocolate bars, as well as honey sesame sticks and Greek evil eye pendants.

“It’s like a protection eye that you can hang up. We have them in our house, or you can put them on a keychain,” Mylonas said of the pendants. “It’s part of our culture [and] it’s meant to deflect negative energy. … I also have some mugs that I sell as a pack with Greek tea cookies.”

Mylonas plans to continue accepting custom cake and cupcake orders while also operating the storefront. Her next business venture for Agape will be in the form of a mobile cupcake trailer, which she hopes to have on the road to rent for private parties, weddings and public events like fairs by this summer.

Agape Cakes & Confections

Where: 59 Route 27, Unit 5, Raymond
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
More info: Visit agapecandc.com, email [email protected], or follow them on Facebook @agapecakesandconfections and Instagram @agape_cakesandconfections

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Agape Cakes & Confections.

The Weekly Dish 22/04/14

News from the local food scene

• Easter sweets: Join Assumption Greek Orthodox Church (111 Island Pond Road, Manchester) for a walk-in Easter bake sale organized by the Ladies Philoptochos Society that’s scheduled for Saturday, April 16, from 9 a.m. to noon inside its church hall. Spinach and cheese petas, Easter bread and Greek cookies and pastries like baklava, kourabiedes, finikia and koulourakia will all be available. For more ideas on how to celebrate Easter Sunday this weekend, check out our annual listings that ran in the April 7 issue; they begin on page 24. You’ll find dozens of special brunch menus and specialty treat offerings at local restaurants and bakeries, as well as candy and chocolate shops that have you covered for those Easter baskets. Go to issuu.com/hippopress and click on the April 7 issue to read the e-edition for free. Contact each establishment directly for the most up-to-date availability on reservations and takeout items.

• Cheers to beers: New Hampshire Craft Beer Week wraps up its final days now through Saturday, April 16 — go to nhbrewers.org or follow the Facebook page @nhcraftbeerweek for the most up-to-date happenings, as new events are posted daily. Presented by the New Hampshire Brewers Association, which represents the more than 80 licensed craft breweries statewide, Craft Beer Week celebrates local beer culture with a 10-day stretch of special releases, brewery anniversary parties and other special events, as well as various collaborative social media efforts to keep the community connected and engaged. Tickets are also now available for the Association’s highly anticipated Keep NH Brewing Festival, returning for the first time in three years on Saturday, July 9, at the Everett Arena Waterfront Park in Concord. General admission is from 1 to 4 p.m., with VIP admission an hour earlier, at noon.

• Newick’s closes Concord restaurant: Local seafood staple Newick’s Lobster House has permanently closed its Concord location, according to a message recently posted to its Facebook page. “The building did not fit with the direction we are moving, and our lease is coming to an end,” the post reads in part. “We have been looking for a new location but have yet to find one.” The eatery’s original location at Dover Point will remain open, the post said. Visit newicks.com or follow them on Facebook for updates.

Have a kolsch

It just tastes like beer

“I thought it was time to shake things up,” my friend said as he walked back onto the patio somehow hanging on and balancing several hefty, frozen steins full of borderline overflowing suds.

“I just asked for something light and crisp — and really good,” he said.

This instance occurred during a gloriously sunny afternoon this past September, just a perfect day for relaxing with a few beers and some friends. We’d had a couple big IPAs and frankly, he was right, it was time to shake things up.

Lifting the stein with some trouble, I took my first sip. It was certainly light and crisp, but it was also quite flavorful. A light golden pour, the brew had a dry, extremely refreshing finish with minimal bitterness. This beer was begging for mouthfuls, not just little sips. It was incredibly drinkable.

Sure, some of it was the bracing, welcome change from a super-hoppy IPA to something much, much lighter, but it was also just a tremendous reminder that sometimes there’s nothing more pleasing than drinking a beer that tastes like a beer.

On the way out, we asked the bartender about the beer style and determined it was a local, craft-brewed kolsch.

I’ve written about Pilsners before and have always kind of pretended Pilsners and kolsches are the same thing, and while they’re similar they’re not the same. Pilsners tend to be a little more hoppy, a little more bitter. Kolsches tend to be even lower in ABV but they still feature plenty of flavor.

Craftbeer.com tells me the kolsch is technically a hybrid style of beer that marries elements of ale and lager production. Craftbeer.com also tells me the style “pairs best with bratwurst, nutty cheeses, and even lighter desserts like apricot cake,” and while I’m sure that’s on point, I think it pairs best with sitting outside on a warm, sunny day and a giant, frozen stein.

This is a style you can drink any time of the year but I think it’s best to get it onto your radar now, because I suspect you’ll be drinking it at cookouts and at the beach all summer long.

The reality is the kolsch is particularly versatile: it goes well with just about any food and any circumstance.

New Hampshire craft brewers haven’t ignored the style, which is great news for beer enthusiasts.

I loved the Herkules by Schilling Beer Co. and the Henniker Kolsch Style Ale by Henniker Brewing Co. is another wonderful rendition of the style. Perpetual Grüven by Great Rhythm Brewing in Portsmouth is terrific as well, as is Paradise Valley by Granite Roots Brewing in Troy.

The kolsch is the quintessential “better grab a frozen glass” beer, so get some glasses in the freezer, preferably steins, and get ready for some mouthfuls of bright, crisp, refreshing beer.

What’s in My Fridge
Grolsch Premium Lager by Grolsch Brewery (Netherlands)
OK, not a kolsch, but a couple weeks back I had one of these for the first time in I have no idea how many years. Honestly, as I think about it, my dad used to have Grolsch in the house when I was a kid but I have no recollection of ever having a Grolsch myself. I’m sure it happened at some point. I remember my dad letting my brother and me try a sip of Grolsch when we were little and I distinctly remember not liking it at all. My brother, on the other hand, had a more positive reaction and there’s photographic proof of him tilting the bottle way up to get that last sip. This features a zip of bitterness in an overall light, refreshing package. Here’s another beer that tastes like a beer.

Featured photo. Get the frosty mug ready. Photo courtesy of Jeff Mucciarone.

A hint of bourbon meatballs

Meatballs are my favorite meat-centric appetizer. The reason for this is simple: You can deliver so much flavor in a bite-sized snack.

These meatballs have a nice blend of sweet and savory with a teeny, tiny kick. Yes, there is a half cup of bourbon in the sauce, but a good amount of that alcohol evaporates. However, there probably is some remaining, so I would consider this to be an adults-only appetizer.

Let’s talk about the ingredients in this recipe. For the beef, 85-percent lean offers enough fat to keep the meatballs moist without becoming greasy. In the sauce, I used maple syrup to add a little more sweetness. If you don’t have maple syrup, you can use brown sugar. You should use the same amount. In both parts of the recipe there is bourbon. You don’t have to go top shelf here. You can use any bourbon that you’d be willing to use in a mixed drink.

These meatballs are incredibly versatile. Make them part of a cocktail party menu, or serve them as a snack for a lazy Sunday at home. They’ll be the perfect choice for either, or for anything in between.

A hint of bourbon meatballs
Makes 36

Meatballs
1½ pounds 85% lean ground beef
2 Tablespoons bourbon
1 egg
½ cup dry bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon salt

Sauce
½ cup bourbon
½ to ¾ cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 clove garlic minced
½ teaspoon chili powder

To make the meatballs
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl.
Using your hands, mix until ingredients are well-blended.
Form the mixture into walnut-sized balls, and place on a rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes.

To make the sauce
Place all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, whisking to combine fully.
Bring sauce to a boil, then turn heat down to low.
Allow sauce to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finishing the meatballs
Combine cooked meatballs and sauce in a small crockpot or medium-sized saucepan over low heat.
Simmer for 2 hours before serving.
If using the saucepan, be sure to stir every 20 minutes or so.

Featured Photo: A hint of bourbon meatballs. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.

In the kitchen with Christian Davolio

Christian Davolio of Hudson runs The Rollin’ Grille (therollingrille.com, and on Facebook @therollingrille), a mobile food trailer specializing in scratch-cooked comfort items like double smash cheeseburgers, loaded pulled pork fries and smoked chicken wings. Originally from Tewksbury, Mass., Davolio has lived in Hudson for about four years. He previously worked in the IT field before deciding to pursue his passion of cooking. The Rollin’ Grille held its first public event in February at White Birch Brewing (460 Amherst St., Nashua), where Davolio has set up over the past several weekends. Find him there next on Sunday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

[I have] a super-nimble light spatula that is great for getting those smash burgers off the griddle and keeping that crust on there. I’d say that’s in my hand 90 percent of the time I’m on that trailer.

What would you have for your last meal?

A three-way super roast beef sandwich, so [with] cheese, mayo and sauce. Growing up, that was something my father and I would always do together — we’d go out and get super beefs. … If it was my last meal, I’d want to have something with some really good memories behind it.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

It’s tough because there are a lot of great options out there, but two places I find myself at a lot when I’m eating out … are usually either T-Bones or California Burrito.

What celebrity would you like to see ordering from your trailer?

I think I’m going to go with Roy Choi. He started off with a food truck, and he’s just a great chef with a great personality. I think I’d really like to have him come and try my food and just see what I have going on.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

I’m going to go with the signature smash burger. In my opinion, it’s just a perfect blend of flavors and of what I like on a burger. … It’s two patties, usually with cheese on both, and then grilled onions, bacon and barbecue sauce. … When the day’s over and I’m cooking something by myself, that’s what I’m making.

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

Over the past few years we’ve seen an explosion in outdoor dining … and that was a big thing that I was thinking about when I was trying to get into this industry, because the food trailer is perfect for that. … The smash burger is also something that I’ve seen popping up at more and more places.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

The thing that I could cook every single day, if it was a healthier option, is a nice bone-in rib-eye steak.

Bacon burnt ends
From the kitchen of Christian Davolio of The Rollin’ Grille (recipe calls for a smoker, but can also be done in an oven if a smoker is not available)

1 full slab pork belly (with the rind removed)
¾ stick butter
Yellow mustard
Salt
Pepper
Brown sugar
Barbecue sauce

Cut pork belly into 1-inch cubes. Coat with yellow mustard as a binder. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Put on smoker at 250 degrees. Remove from smoker after about two hours or an internal temperature of 190 degrees. Put them in a foil baking pan and put slices of butter over them, then lightly coat in brown sugar. Wrap tightly in foil and put back on the smoker for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, remove from the smoker and increase the heat to 325 degrees. Drain juice, then sauce the cubes with your choice of barbecue sauce. Place back on the smoker, uncovered, for 25 minutes at 325 degrees. Remove from the smoker and enjoy.

Featured photo: Christian Davolio. Courtesy photo.

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