Category: Food

The Weekly Dish 20/12/10

News from the local food scene

• Easy as pie: Join chef and cooking instructor Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis for Demystify the Pie, a hands-on virtual class she’ll be holding via Zoom on Monday, Dec. 14, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. During the class, Barbour will walk participants through how to prepare your own pie dough and apple pie filling. While that’s baking in the oven, Barbour will demonstrate how to prepare a fruit galette you can make on your own. The cost to pre-register is $25; after registering, participants will receive equipment and ingredient lists needed for the class. Visit thecreativefeast.com.

• Go fish: Get your tickets now for a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner at the Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford) on Thursday, Dec. 17, from 6 to 10 p.m. In addition to a chef-attended pasta station and an Italian dessert station, the dinner will feature several house fish dishes, like haddock puttanesca with roasted Yukon potatoes; oysters on the half shell with cocktail sauce, citrus mignonette, horseradish and lemon; grilled calamari salad with pickled vegetables, radicchio and arugula; and lobster- and crab-stuffed sole with shaved fennel salad and blood orange butter. Tickets are $85 per person and reservations are required (dinner is 21+ only and tables are limited to a maximum of six guests each). Visit bedfordvillageinn.com.

• Tea and a show: LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst) will host a Nutcracker ballet family tea event on Sunday, Dec. 13, with two sessions available, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Each will feature hot tea and a menu of sandwiches and sweet treats, as well as choreographed reenactments from Southern New Hampshire Dance Theater performers. Tickets are sold by tables of six only, priced at $25 per person. Also available for purchase will be Nutcracker-inspired cocktails for adults and themed non-alcoholic beverages for kids. Visit labellewineryevents.com.

• Procrasti(baking): Now through Christmas, Barrington baker and author Erin Gardner is running the “Procrastibakers Super Snuggly Socially Isolated Holiday Baking Club,” a community gathered around her Instagram account @erin.bakes, according to a press release. Gardner is the author of Procrastibaking: 100 Recipes for Getting Nothing Done in the Most Delicious Way Possible, which was released in March and features creative low-stress ways to approach a variety of recipes. Every Wednesday, Gardner posts reduced-size recipes from her book and other pandemic isolation-friendly baking ideas. Users who post pictures of their baked goods with the hashtag #procrastibakersclub will be automatically entered to win weekly book giveaways and other prizes, according to the release. Visit erinbakes.com.

In the kitchen with Carrie Williams

Carrie Williams of Contoocook is the owner and chef of the Flannel Tavern (345 Suncook Valley Road, Chichester, 406-1196, flanneltavern.com), a casual eatery on Route 28 that opened in April and offers scratch-made comfort foods. The menu features everything from burgers and sandwiches to appetizers, fresh salads, and plated entrees, like fish and chips, baked haddock, chicken fingers, lasagna rolls and macaroni and cheese. Beer and wine selections include both domestic and local options, with craft cocktails also available. Williams, who worked as a caterer for more than a decade, said the restaurant’s concept is based on many different types of comfort foods she grew up eating.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I would be lost withoaut aluminum foil, and then obviously a chef’s knife. I have one that I use all the time, with an orange handle.

What would you have for your last meal?

Prime rib and mashed potatoes.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

I would have to say the Lakehouse Tavern in Hopkinton. They are really good. A lot of times, I’ll get The Bird Man, which is a huge sandwich.

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

Someone I’ve always wanted to meet is Van Morrison. We listen to him in the kitchen all the time.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

The chicken bacon ranch sandwich. It [has] chicken tenders with mozzarella sticks, bacon and our homemade buttermilk ranch on a kaiser roll. It’s our No. 1 sandwich.

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

What I’m seeing across the board, especially with so many restaurants that have been closing, is that people are more going back to home-cooked meals and things that are just really comforting during such a stressful time.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Thanksgiving dinner is one of my favorite things to put on. It’s always been a big deal in my family. We do turkey, boiled onions, sweet potatoes, my grandma’s cranberry relish and an apple sausage stuffing.

Carrie’s coconut cream pie
From the kitchen of Carrie Williams of the Flannel Tavern in Chichester
9-inch pie shell, baked and set aside
1 cup shredded coconut, toasted to golden brown (1 to 2 minutes at 450 degrees)
3 cups heavy whipping cream
½ cup flour
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add heavy whipping cream, flour, sugar and eggs to a saucepan, turning on to medium heat and stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat and add ¾ cup of the toasted coconut and vanilla. Add mixture from cream, flour, sugar and eggs to the pie shell and cool for two hours. Top with whipped cream and the last ¼ cup of coconut.

Featured Photo: Carrie Williams

New York eats

Sunny Side Up Deli now open in Nashua

A New York-style sandwich shop with a unique New England twist, Sunny Side Up Deli, now open in Nashua, features local and regional breads, vegetables, coffees and other items to complement a full line of Boar’s Head brand premium cold cuts, cheeses, soups and salads. The eatery opened its doors last month in the former space of the Beadles Bead Shop & Boutique on Amherst Street, according to manager Tristan Hoffler.

The Boar’s Head line, founded in New York City more than a century ago, was a must for Sunny Side Up Deli to carry, Hoffler said, due to its quality and connection to The Big Apple. All breakfast and lunch sandwiches are made to order with freshly sliced meats, nothing precut, and served on breads from Tripoli Bakery of Lawrence, Mass. Gluten-free breads, buns and wraps from other purveyors, like LaMarca Bakery of Malden, Mass., are currently being tested.

“Our sandwiches are all perfectly layered … with meat, cheese and veggies,” Hoffler said. “You go to Subway or any other place like that around and you won’t find sandwiches like ours.”

Most of Sunny Side Up Deli’s offerings are named after Nashua area streets or points of interest — the Central Street, for example, is a traditional panini-pressed Reuben with freshly sliced corned beef, melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing on rye bread, while the Mine Falls sandwich features turkey, roast beef, capocollo, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onions, sundried tomatoes and a basil mayonnaise.

All of the sandwiches come with a bag of chips, a pickle spear and a small serving of Boar’s Head salad, like coleslaw or tortellini salad. The menu also includes grab-and-go salads, as well as a few breakfast sandwich options that are available all day, like a traditional over-easy egg and cheese sandwich with either bacon, sausage, ham or turkey, and A Better Morning, which features egg, cheese, bacon, peppers and onions on a kaiser roll.

Hot coffee from Wicked Joe of Topsham, Maine, is made fresh daily, and the plan is for Sunny Side Up to eventually expand to iced coffees and espresso drinks.

“[Wicked Joe has] 100 percent organic fair-trade coffee beans,” Hoffler said. “We picked them because we wanted to make sure that our coffee came from a good source.”

The deli has made fresh desserts in house, like cookies and parfaits, and will soon be offering knishes, or Jewish deep-fried potato-filled snack foods that are popular in New York.

Sunny Side Up Deli
Where: 427 Amherst St., Unit 9, Nashua
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
More info: Visit sunnysideupnh.com, find them on Facebook @sunnysideupdelinh or call 417-7145

Featured photo:The Central Street: corned beef, melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing on rye. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

Coffee and community

McLaughlin’s Country Market opens in Concord

Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

While looking for a commercial property to start his own coffee roastery, David McLaughlin came across a vacant storefront in East Concord — the old Quality Cash Market, which closed more than two years ago. In July, he and partner Tiffani McIntosh decided to check out the space and see what they could do with it.

“One of our biggest visions … was that it needed to be a place for the locals, in a comfortable, neighborhood setting,” McIntosh said.

McLaughlin’s Country Market, which opened on Nov. 17, features fresh coffees roasted onsite, in addition to groceries, beer and wine, and a diverse selection of locally made products — and coming soon, a Nadeau’s sub shop. McLaughlin is a longtime friend of franchise owner Jeremy Nadeau, who has five other locations in the state.

McIntosh said the market has already had a tremendous amount of support.

“Even before we opened, people had been coming to the door and asking us when we are opening and what’s going to be here, so we’ve been developing relationships for two months,” she said.

Freshly roasted in house under the name Second Love Coffee, the coffees at the market are part of a passion project for McLaughlin. With varying flavors and degrees of sweetness and acidity, each blend is available for self-serve pouring, or you can get any of them as small batches of bean or ground coffee for home use, prepared fresh on the Java Master roaster in real time.

“You can generate all kinds of flavors out of one bean, just by roasting it differently,” said McLaughlin, who has been home-roasting on and off for several years and gets his green coffee beans from Colombia and Costa Rica. “The Java Master is nice because you can roast one to six pounds at a time, so you could come in and say, ‘Can I get three pounds of this bean,’ and then have it roasted while you’re waiting, or [you could] pick it up the next day.”

While McLaughlin’s doesn’t have a butcher shop like its predecessor, a variety of pre-packaged sliced meats are for sale out of the market’s grocery area, as well as basic items like milk, eggs, bread, cheeses, produce, snacks, sodas and pastries. There is also a special section dedicated to products made in New Hampshire — McIntosh has worked with local purveyors of barbecue sauces, doughnuts, maple syrups, goat milk soaps and other items to stock the shelves with.

You’ll find the new Nadeau’s order counter near the back of the building. While that is expected to be fully operational very soon, according to McIntosh, Nadeau’s in the meantime has provided the market with cold sandwiches for sale and is currently training employees at other shop locations to come work in Concord. She said plans will likely be in the works soon to arrange a joint takeout service of items between Nadeau’s and McLaughlin’s.

“Let’s say you’re out of milk, and you want to pick up a sub for dinner while you’re here. We can collaborate and you can get whatever grocery items you need,” she said.

McLaughlin said he and McIntosh have already seen their fair share of repeat customers in just a short period of time being open.

“It’s definitely more of a little shopping market for the neighborhood versus a lot of transient business coming and going and you might not see them again,” he said.

McLaughlin’s Country Market
Where: 11 Eastman St., Concord
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
More info: Find them on Facebook @mclaughlinscountrymarket or email [email protected]

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 20/12/03

News from the local food scene

• More Greek eats to go: Join St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (1160 Bridge St., Manchester) for Lamb on the Run, a drive-thru pickup luncheon happening on Sunday, Dec. 6, from noon to 2 p.m. Meals are $20 and include baked leg of lamb au jus, served with rice pilaf, green beans in red sauce and a Greek salad. Pre-order by calling 925-2692 or emailing [email protected]. In Concord, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (68 N. State St.) will host its next drive-up Greek dinner to go on Sunday, Dec. 13, from noon to 1 p.m. (pre-ordering by Dec. 9 is required). That meal will feature lenten- or meat-stuffed grape leaves, Greek-style roasted vegetables and a dessert and is $15 per person. Call 953-3051 or email [email protected].

• Takeout every Tuesday: As a new initiative to support city restaurants throughout this upcoming winter season, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, in partnership with Intown Manchester and the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, recently announced a social media campaign called Manchester Takeout Tuesdays, according to a press release. “With Manchester Takeout Tuesdays, our city can come together to safely support our restaurant community while also containing the spread of Covid-19,” Craig said in a statement.

• Bakery will challenge fine: A Bedford bakery is challenging a $500 fine it received last week from the state Attorney General’s office for an alleged coronavirus emergency order violation, according to a press release. Simply Delicious Baking Co. will receive financial support from the Mont Vernon-based Liberty Defense Fund of New Hampshire to fight the fine, which was issued following an alleged violation of Emergency Order No. 52, by not requiring customer service staff to wear masks or face-coverings when directly interacting with customers. The bakery, according to the violation letter, had until Nov. 30 to pay the $500 penalty. “We have taken a number of precautions to keep our space safe, including the recommended social distancing,” bakery owner Alexa Firman said in a statement. “The mask mandate goes against my inspiration for starting this business: to build a face-to-face community space … and I believe people who make the choice to come in and enjoy that environment should have the right to do so.”

• New local shrub release: Djinn Spirits (2 Townsend West, Suite 9, Nashua) recently announced the release of a new product, Winter Sun, a mango rosemary shrub, according to a press release. The third product in Djinn’s Codename series, Winter Sun became available at the distillery on Nov. 10. According to the release, shrubs are drinks that date back hundreds of years and typically pair a fruit with vinegar and other flavors. Winter Sun’s flavor profile features vinegar that is offset by the sweetness of the mango, and rosemary to build complexity with an aromatic savory note. Visit djinnspirits.com.

In the kitchen with Melinda Sergi

Melinda Sergi of Concord is the owner of The Cannoli Stop Cafe & Bakery (239 Loudon Road, Concord, 224-9706, find them on Facebook), which opened in its current location in January after being in business for nearly two years a mile down the road. In addition to featuring a full pastry case of cheesecakes, cupcakes, chocolate-dipped Oreos and more than 30 types of homemade cannoli fillings, the shop has expanded its offerings since reopening to include subs, calzone turnovers, soups, pastas and other homemade dinners to go. All cannolis are made fresh to order — you can simply choose a small or large-sized shell, then pick your fillings and toppings. Fillings run the gamut from traditional and chocolate chip to caramel, blueberry, pumpkin and cotton candy.

What is your must-have kitchen item?
I use rubber spatulas for everything. We have piles of them.

What would you have for your last meal?
I’d probably say just a slice of pizza. I love pizza with sausage and onions.

What is your favorite local restaurant?
Vinnie’s Pizza in Concord.

What celebrity would you like to see ordering from your shop?
Sandra Bullock.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?
The cannolis top everything. I love the orange zest flavor and the chocolate-dipped shell. We’ve had orange zest from the beginning.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Takeout is the big thing right now, [like] subs, sandwiches, pizza, that kind of stuff.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I love to make a full meal for the family, like a shepherd’s pie or a turkey dinner.

Photo courtesy of the Cannoli Stop Cafe & Bakery.

Chocolate-dipped Oreos
From the kitchen of Melinda Sergi of The Cannoli Stop Cafe & Bakery
1½ pounds chocolate of choice (milk, dark or white)
1 bag of Oreos (any flavor)
Toppings like sprinkles, coconut shavings or chopped candies (optional)
Melt chocolate using a double boiler and dip in Oreo flavor of choice. While chocolate is still wet, add any optional toppings. One and a half pounds of chocolate yields about 30 Oreos, which make great dessert trays for events.

Featured Photo: Melinda Sergi

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